In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Job advertisement – Staff First Mate
- * Winter refit core team needed – including a driver
- * Voyage news
- Safeguarding – new team member needed
- * 2024 voyages available for people aged 11-25 – PLEASE SHARE – max 8 places left
- Sea staff vacancies – for new and trainee volunteers as well as well as experienced and qualified people
- * MDL fundraising event in Ocean Village – help needed
- 2025 DRAFT programme
- Maintenance days – PLEASE help
- 2024 AGM – a date for your diary
- * Financial appeal
- Prolific earrings inspired by a crew member – and now NEW necklaces as well!
- Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £2,100 through Easyfundraising!
- OYT South social media – please share as well as liking!
- Branded clothing
- New readers’ welcome and introduction
- Receiving this newsletter by email
* Job advertisement – Staff First Mate
Everyone knows what a brilliant addition to the team it has been to have Lauren Mackenzie as our Staff First Mate. But she’s now well into her second full-time season with us and she’s too good to stay as a Mate for ever. So she’s going to be leaving us at the end of the season and we will look forward to seeing her developing her experience as a skipper – including, we hope, coming back from time to time as a relief mate or relief skipper for Prolific: we definitely don’t expect to lose touch with someone who has been part of OYT South since she was 16! In the meantime, she will leave a big gap and we are looking for an amazing new Staff First Mate to follow in her footsteps. Please see here for a job description, including deadlines and how to apply.
* Winter refit core team needed – including a driver
If you are planning a gap year, or you are between jobs or for any other reason potentially available for several weeks or months this winter, might you be interested in joining our full-time refit team? We will need a couple of full-time volunteers between November and March. More details here. Plenty of our previous refit volunteers have gone on to great jobs in the marine industry – it really helps to have maintenance experience as well as good sailing skills when applying for sailing jobs! And any refit volunteers who want to sail in Prolific can be offered berths as watchleaders, bosuns, or relief engineers. So it’s a great way of developing useful experience, contributing to a good cause, securing free food and accommodation for a few months, and having a positive experience with a fun group of people! If you’re interested, please read the web page and email us with the details requested at the bottom of the page.
We’re looking for at least one of the core team volunteers to have a driving licence and be able to drive the refit car, to help get people between the accommodation and the boat, or for fetching kit and taking parts for servicing.
We’ll also need lots of casual volunteers helping for a day, a few days or a weekend, but we can get people booked in for that much nearer the time – at this stage we are really just thinking about the core team.
* Voyage news
The last newsletter ended as the crew from Dartmouth Academy were leaving the boat. Their feedback included:
“My most memorable moment was definitely sitting up and watching the sun set out on the bowsprit … It was lovely. I also enjoyed seeing the stars and the shooting stars when we did the night sail.”
“My most favourite part was probably like getting along with everybody and putting the sails up, and working as a team.”
“My favourite was learning how to winch and do the knots. My most memorable part was going on the bowsprit to lower the jib.”
“My favourite part would probably be the night sail, just watching all the stars go past, brilliant. Most memorable part probably be dinner time, just spending time with everyone, it was like a sort of family.”
“My favourite part was probably watching the sun set on top of the boat, with hot chocolates for everybody. My most memorable part was probably the night sail, and looking out for the lobster pots which were very hard to spot.”
“Had lots of jokes and the crew were welcoming and kind to us.”
“I really enjoyed the trip! I didn’t think that it would be that good, but it was a nice surprise. The crew were really welcoming and made me feel at home.”
“This trip was visually stunning and my friendships and connections got much stronger.”
“The voyage was very tiring but I had a lot of fun and learn many new things, love the crew!”
“This voyage has taught me that if you want something, take initiative and get it done.”
“The voyage is a great experience definitely for someone who can’t get rid of their fears.”
Last week was our first individuals’ voyage of the summer and it was a big week: 275 miles, lots of night hours, a demanding trip but loads of fun with a great crew. They joined on Sunday and after the initial briefings, they agreed on an ambitious plan:
They set off, got the sails up and headed out, enjoying the sunset:
They continued across the Channel overnight towards St Peter Port, Guernsey – a cracking sail, all the sails up, quite challenging conditions for some of the crew but a great chance to get involved in all the responsibilities of a night sail:
In harbour, they caught up on some sleep and had some shore leave, though it appeared to be the monsoon season in Guernsey.
On Tuesday they did some theory training towards their RYA qualifications:
They had to head out a little earlier than planned because a race fleet was coming in and they needed to avoid Prolific getting boxed in on her berth. It was a bouncy sail back across the Channel, at the top end of a moderate sea, all canvas up – which turned out to be slightly too much so they sailed for a while with the scuppers in the water until they were out of the shipping lanes and could safely reduce canvas. The crew loved it: jumping up and down as Prolific fell off the waves.
After a 90-mile passage they anchored in Portmellon at around 0600 on Wednesday, and got some rest. That afternoon they sailed under staysail and mizzen to Charlestown – sailing in sunshine for the first time on the voyage. They passed another sail training vessel, Johanna Lucretia, with both crews waving at each other.
Anchored off Charlestown, the crew went ashore to explore the town and beach, and were back on board to watch the football.
On Thursday, one watch organised a passage plan to Cawsand:
They had a superb sail with everything up including the mizzen staysail. The weather was glorious and there were dolphins which stayed with Prolific for an hour.
That evening they had a beach BBQ and a swim.
On Friday, the other watch took charge of navigation, aiming to make the most of the sunshine and keep ahead of the forecast heavy rain.
They kept trying to sail so the headsails were up and down like yo-yos. Various young people did an excellent job in leading the hoists and running the watches. When the rain caught up with them they had a dance party on deck but didn’t stop keeping a good lookout – there was just a specific dance move to show when a lobster pot was spotted. They got to Brixham and filled up with fuel and water before a tired crew departed next morning.
You can see the complete voyage track here. Nine people earned RYA Start Yachting certificates and four got the more advanced Competent Crew – the other two had this already.
Feedback included:
“Absolutely adored this trip! From walking around in Guernsey to feeling seasick in the galley, to dolphin watching and swimming in the sea, I loved every second. It was such a valuable experience – THANK YOU!”
“Most memorable bit was just sitting down and staring at the sunset, while the waves like slowly rocked me up and down – it was just beautiful and gorgeous to look at. Definitely appreciated everything on this voyage, from start to end, amazing people and food. Understandably amazingly super!”
“All of the bits were so amazing, but my favourite bit was probably on the way back from Guernsey when the boat was tipping, and we were at the top and just standing there jumping over the waves and dancing … I absolutely loved the voyage and all the new experiences I had. Playing cards on breaks, cooking, singing up on deck. Thank you for the amazing opportunity!”
“My most memorable bit was yesterday when we were, when we were on the deck in the pouring rain, but dancing our hearts out with music, which was quite fun. Thank you so much for a brilliant trip. From rain to sunshine you have all made this an amazing experience.”
“This was an awesome experience! I had a great time sailing with a big group of people on an extraordinary boat. Thank you! :)”
Big thanks to sea staff Mark, Josh, Laura McLachlan, Sara Abdur, Harry Lack, Hannah Brown and Hannah Staal who joined us from OYT Scotland for the week.
The current voyage involves another group of individuals, many of whom have sailed before – on board Prolific or elsewhere. The crew joined on Sunday, and were able to get through the safety briefings quite quickly, and then get out sailing. They left Brixham and hoisted some sails in Torbay, where they did a man overboard recovery drill.
That evening they headed back into Brixham, where they watched the Euros 2024 final, while eating pasta bake. Emotions were high, and the result was hard to take.
On Monday the crew put their disappointment aside with an early start, sailing west to Cawsand. Lots of dolphins accompanied them, including a particularly big pod – but were too elusive to be photographed! But the crew gathered to watch:
After arriving in Cawsand Bay, many of the crew went ashore for a swim and some time exploring the town.
Tuesday brought some more wind and the crew were able to get Prolific sailing along nicely – all four sails up, and reefs shaken out. Everyone got involved with tacking the boat upwind as they continued heading west.
They anchored in Portmellon for the night, and took part in anchor watches. Wednesday was a busy day with lots of the crew working towards their Competent Crew certificates, followed by a trip to a very seaweedy beach and a picnic lunch.
In the afternoon they motored to Fowey, while practicing reefing and shaking reefs out of the mizzen, and another MOB drill. The crew spent some time out on the bowsprit.
In Fowey the crew all spent some time ashore, while the sea staff enjoyed watching the starts of local races from Prolific’s deck.
Thursday brought the start of the 60-ish mile trip back towards Brixham. Some crew members had a go at hoisting and dropping the sails, and others went out on the bowsprit.
With two birthdays on Thursday, plenty of fun was had on board, including cake on deck in the sunshine.
Prolific arrived back in Brixham yesterday night, ready for the final clean up and voyage finish this morning.
They did 128 nautical miles this week – sadly the winds were mainly very light which limited their options. You can see the complete voyage track here. Nine people earned RYA Start Yachting certificates and one got Competent Crew – the others already had these qualifications.
We’ll include their feedback in the next issue.
Huge thanks to sea staff Nic Crawford, Lauren, Glyn Collins, Clara Theil, Harry Lack, Hannah Blyton and special congratulations to Tom Hounsham who was signed off as a Prolific watchleader and clearly has the potential to move upwards very quickly.
Safeguarding – new team member needed
OYT South’s Safeguarding Officer is Steve Lacey, ably assisted by Cathy Lacey and until recently by Anjelica Finnegan. However, thanks to the arrival of baby Hraefn (big congratulations!), Anjelica has decided it is time to stand aside. We could really do with someone else in the safeguarding team, if only so that we don’t have to disturb Steve and Cathy when they are on holiday! Is there anyone with safeguarding experience who would like a chat with us about what the role involves, or can anyone suggest someone we might approach, or a good way of finding someone who would be ideal for the role? Safeguarding lies at the heart of everything we do so it is really important to find the right person. Email caroline.white@oytsouth.org. Meanwhile thanks to Anjelica for all her support in recent years and the very best of luck for the future!
* 2024 voyages available for people aged 11-25 – PLEASE SHARE – max 8 places left
If all our members, volunteers, Trustees and other supporters shared our voyage availability with young people, parents, friends and colleagues, we could easily fill the last few spaces on this year’s voyages. Don’t forget we can often find bursary funding for genuinely disadvantaged young people who couldn’t otherwise afford to sail; but we also welcome those who can afford an amazing adventure holiday!
Please share this with anyone you can think of who might be interested:
10-17 Aug, Guernsey to Poole, 7 nights, £815 per person (not including travel) – race against other sail training vessels – ideal for age 14+ – see here for more details about this exciting event (3 places left)
30 Aug – 4 Sept, Brixham to Southampton, 5 nights, £605 per person (up to 5 places left depending on whether enquiries are confirmed)
There’s a PDF flyer here – please share it!
There’s also a YouTube playlist with a number of very short videos about standard youth voyages or DofE Gold residentials, originally made for TikTok – there might be something there you can share!
Owing to the additional costs of travel to and from Guernsey, we are looking at offering discounts to anyone who books on a Guernsey voyage and persuades a friend to book too. Contact the office for more information on “bring a friend discounts”. We would also discuss discounts for anyone who booked on two back-to-back voyages, out to Guernsey and back again.
Passports will be needed for the voyages starting or ending in Guernsey, which may also visit a French port; and other voyages MAY go to France if we are lucky with the weather, so passports will be needed there too.
No previous sailing experience needed – all we ask is that you come prepared to join in and make friends!
RYA sailing qualifications and DofE Gold Residential voyages available.
More information here on sailing with us.
For individual bookings on youth voyages, please contact VoyageAdmin@oytsouth.org.
Sea staff vacancies – for new and trainee volunteers as well as well as experienced and qualified people – including URGENT July vacancy
Please email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you can help with any of the remaining vacancies.
People who have been newly-recommended to join the volunteers’ team: please do contact us if you are interested in suitable voyages from this list – we can advise you if a particular vacancy needs someone with more Prolific experience, but where possible this list is for you as much as it is for established volunteers. We will need to make sure your DBS, references and other paperwork is in place before you can sail. And do keep checking the list in each edition of the newsletter as people do occasionally drop out and leave other vacancies!
Dates given are when crew are on board so volunteers are generally needed the day before:
16-20 Sept, Southampton – qualified watchleader. School group (new client)
25-29 Oct, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader. Swindon Scouts group.
Please email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you would like to sail!
* MDL fundraising event in Ocean Village – help needed
MDL are once again showing their support for us and other charities with their family fun day on Friday 30th August. We would like to support them with this event and help raise funds and awareness for OYT South, Prostate Cancer UK and Breast Cancer UK. We would love your help on the day – if you are available, please email Susanna: susannapaynter@oytsouth.org. (NB it’s MDL’s Lauren not OYT South’s Lauren having her head shaved!)
2025 DRAFT programme
Thanks to all our clients who have been sending requests for group bookings next year. We need to make some small adjustments to the programme to meet clients’ needs and then we’ll be able to publish it and you will be able to see which group voyages are still available, and we will earmark some voyages for individual bookings. But let’s fill the last few individual places for this summer’s voyage before thinking about next summer!
Maintenance days – please help
We have several planned maintenance days during the season – these are essential to keep Prolific in working order and avoid losing voyage time to maintenance issues. We need all the help we can get, both skilled and unskilled – there are easy jobs for people not used to boat maintenance, or maybe we can teach you a useful new skill!
Please put these dates in your diary:
Thursday 5th September – Southampton
Sunday 20th October – Southampton
If you call the boat on 07990 518915, or email refit@oytsouth.org, we can get you booked in for maintenance days. We can feed you on board and probably offer accommodation the night before or after if needed. Generally we need over-18s, or 16 and 17-year olds who are sailing as bosuns or trainee bosuns.
Sea staff on the voyages immediately before and after these days should plan to include the maintenance day as part of your booking unless specifically agreed. If we don’t have enough people at a maintenance day and there are significant jobs to do, it might even affect the start of the next voyage, so please do make sure you are available to help!
2024 AGM – a date for your diary
Advance notice that OYT South’s 2024 AGM date has been set for 9th November.
Big thanks this week to the DCR Allen Trust for another exceptionally generous contribution towards bursaries. Thanks also to all those who provide donations in kind rather than cash – this week Wescom Signal and Rescue UK Ltd has once again confirmed that they will be donating the flares that Prolific needs!
We need a regular flow of funds to cover at least three major areas: bursaries for young people who could not otherwise afford to sail; vessel maintenance and equipment; and staff salaries – please help, or pass on our details to anyone you come across who might make a grant, large or small.
See here for how to make a donation – you can contribute by cheque, phone or PayPal, but please do something if you possibly can. Don’t forget that if you complete and return a Gift Aid form we can claim back tax on your donation.
Prolific earrings inspired by a crew member – and now NEW necklaces as well!
Exciting news – sales of the earrings based on a drawing by a young crew member have been strong enough that our friends at Vurchoo have been inspired to add necklaces to the range!
£68 in silver or £85 in gold – click the pictures to go to the website and see how to buy them:
You can read the full story here of how the design was based on an idea from a Prolific crew member, with part of the proceeds coming to us to support our charitable work! The original earrings are still available for £40 in either gold or silver – click the pictures to see how to buy them:
Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £2,100 through Easyfundraising!
“What a fool I was!” says Mark Todd.
“For ages I’ve seen in the bulletin that Easyfundraising is a good way to raise money for charity, but I never got round to doing anything about it, and when Caz told me how easy it was, I didn’t listen.
I thought it might be a hassle, or that I’d have to remember to do something when I bought stuff online, or that it probably wasn’t really worthwhile.
This week I finally got round to it and it turns out it’s a REALLY EASY way to raise money for the charity I care about … and I definitely should have done it sooner.
It takes a minute or two to sign up; you can do it on a desktop, tablet and/or phone, and you can install a widget that flags up when a donation is available. Once that’s done, imagine you’re looking to buy – say – a rainbow unicorn: just put “rainbow unicorn” in your usual search box, and the list of results shows you which sites come with donations, and how much. It’s up to you what to pick and whether to accept the donation from the site, but a huge choice of sites will offer a donation – and it doesn’t cost you a penny.
I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner … but if there’s anyone else who has been like me and just not got round to it, PLEASE click the link now and sign up!”
We have already raised over £2,100 through Easyfundraising – huge thanks to everyone who has used it!
OYT South social media – please share as well as liking!
If you look at the top left of any page on our website, you can click on icons for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. We are also on TikTok. Please share our social media posts as widely as you can – with the help of all our supporters, this charity is doing some amazing work and we need more people to hear about it. You don’t need to do anything more than share a post, or perhaps add a comment which could be as simple as “I’ve sailed with this charity!” or “I volunteer for this charity!”.
Please note that OYT South has a policy that our adult staff and volunteers should not make or accept personal online connections with crew members aged under 18, or vulnerable adults. Crew members can use the sites to stay in touch with the boat and with each other, but not with individual staff and volunteers.
Branded clothing
OYT South branded clothing available – please see here. You can buy hoodies (in a wide range of colours), fleeces, short- and long-sleeved t-shirts, baseball caps, beanie hats, polo shirts and more, all with OYT South’s logo!
New readers’ welcome and introduction
If you have recently registered your interest in OYT South, welcome to our newsletter, which is sent out almost every week, normally on a Friday, and is also copied onto the website.
If you have just started receiving this newsletter by email, it is because we believe you have signed up and consented to receive it – perhaps by emailing us to ask for it, completing a form on our website, or adding your email address to the book on board where people can sign up to receive news, as well as leaving comments. If this was a mistake or you simply decide you want to stop receiving the newsletter, just press “reply” to the email and write UNSUBSCRIBE at the top, or email webmaster1@oytsouth.org asking to unsubscribe.
Each week the newsletter includes a wide range of news from the boat and from the charity, including details of voyages available for young people; adult voyages; opportunities for adult volunteers both ashore and afloat, and much more. We find that while some people read the bulletin almost every week, many others dip in and out, and read it when it’s convenient – which is why some items are repeated. New items are marked with an asterisk * so that if you did read it last week, you can see which sections you can safely skip.
Please feel free to join in any OYT South activities – nothing here is restricted to long-standing members or people who already know one another. New people are always very welcome!
If you need an introduction to the work of OYT South, you should find a lot of useful information on our website. But essentially, we are a registered charity (no. 1079959) which exists to offer adventure under sail as a personal development opportunity for young people aged 11-25, from the widest possible range of backgrounds. A high proportion of our young crew members are disadvantaged or deserving in some way: many of these sail in groups organised by other charities, youth clubs, special schools and so on, and will fill the bulk of our term-time voyages. But those from more fortunate backgrounds are also welcome to sail, either in groups or by coming as individuals on a mixed voyage. Every year we run a variety of shorter local voyages plus longer adventure trips – sometimes including Tall Ships races during the summer holidays. If you are aged 11-25 and hoping to sail as a crew member, take a look here – and this section is also useful for adults who are thinking of organising a voyage for a young person. Adults planning to organise a full group voyage should also see here. Adults who want to sail themselves should see here.
We have a professional staff skipper, mate and engineer, but our watch leaders are normally all volunteers, who combine sailing skills with an interest in working with young people. You can find more information here – how the system works, how to join, and profiles of existing staff and volunteers.
To volunteer for OYT South ashore, please see here. To help with the vessel’s annual refit, see here.
It is a very expensive business maintaining a boat, running an office and employing staff. If you want to help us, please become a member of OYT South. Or see here for information on making a donation.
If you have any questions, please do email – or contact the office.
Receiving this newsletter by email
Many thanks to all those who have given consent to receiving this newsletter by email. If you are not currently getting it by email and would like to, please just click here Newsletter Subscribe and press “send”, or email webmaster1@oytsouth.org.