In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Sea staff vacancies 6-11 October and 30 October – 4 November
- * Voyage news
- * RYS IW Foundation Marine Careers Fair
- 2024 AGM and Curry Night – 9th November – book now! Plus refit volunteers’ weekend
- Lauren’s leaving present
- Official Supporter of Pip Hare in the Vendée Globe race!
- 2025 programme – bookings open for group and individual voyages
- Winter refit core team needed – including a driver
- * Financial appeal
- Maintenance days – PLEASE help
- 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 £2,300 through Easyfundraising!
- OYT South social media – please share as well as liking!
- Branded clothing
- New readers’ welcome and introduction
- Receiving this newsletter by email
* Sea staff vacancies 6-11 October and 30 October – 3 November
Owing to a cancellation we need one more member of sea staff to sail on the voyage 7-11 October, with sea staff joining the afternoon before. This could be a qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun, with the only provision that due to other staff training, this is not an ideal vacancy for someone who would need training themselves
We may also need one more person for 30 October to 3 November.
Please email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you can help!
* Voyage news
The last newsletter left our crew of boys from Bruern Abbey School in Poole, having all got involved in the navigation as well as enjoying looking out for buoys and speaking on the radio – Poole has call-in points monitoring vessels in the harbour to make sure we don’t arrive at a narrow point at exactly the same time as a big ferry!
After a lunch of fish finger wraps and cleaning the boat, the crew had some shore leave – replenishing their sweets supply, ice cream, and running around in a field in the hope of burning off a bit of energy! They spent the evening baking – chocolate chip cupcakes and some flapjacks:
Then it was fajitas for dinner. This was a messy affair with lots of bowls sliding back and forth across the table, but everyone enjoyed themselves! Then they watched a film on board: “True Spirit” – a girl with ADHD who sets off to sail solo around the world.
The next morning started with showers, breakfast and clean-up, and then they set off for the Solent. The weather was perfect for sailing: the winds were light, and they sailed along with the main, mizzen and jib up, right across Christchurch Bay in lovely sunshine (lunch of jacket potatoes on the way).
They reached the Needles and sailed up into the Solent, which was a downwind sail with the preventers rigged.
Helped by the tide, they passed Yarmouth at around 6pm and kept sailing – curry for dinner! The sun set as they sailed on:
As they approached Bramble Bank there was quite a lot of shipping to look out for. They lowered the mizzen, then the main and the jib, and motored the rest of the way up Southampton Water to arrive in Ocean Village around 9.30pm. The crew were very involved with climbing off the boat or onto the roof to help with the gangway. They settled down for the night watching the last bit of the Minions film, before a final bedtime story and lights out.
The final morning was a busy one, with lots of packing, breakfast and cleaning. There was a final voyage round-up, looking at where they had been on the charts, collecting feedback and then a group photo before leaving.
They did 110 miles at sea and you can see their complete voyage track here.
Their comments included:
“It was a really fun time and it taught me how not to be homesick. Everyone was really nice.”
“My favourite bit was going on deck and looking at the beautiful views.”
“The funnest thing was when we went on the bowsprit. Food was amazing. I like the big table.”
“My most memorable bit is probably at night and going sailing on the first night and yeah I really liked everything. I learnt a lot and had fun,”
“I have had a great experience and had lots of fun but I think we should be allowed more sweets!”
“I liked when the boat tipped over because it was fun and exciting.”
“The most fun favourite thing was going on the bowsprit. The trip was really fun and I really liked it because I’ve never done sailing before.”
A parent wrote afterwards: “A massive thank you to all of the team. [My son] had the best time on his voyage with you and the Bruern boys. He now has made it his mission as soon as he is old enough to get his Yachtmaster. Hopefully next year we can arrange another trip on Prolific with you all to log some more hours.”
Big thanks to sea staff Andy Viney, Lauren, Mark Dent, Nige Bush, Susanna Paynter, Niamh Lamin, Lucy Mitchell and Chris Threapleton. Lucy and Chris both started third mate assessments and are making great progress; and Susanna – an experienced second mate for several years – added a completed bosun assessment to her list of achievements and skills.
Last week’s voyage was with Crisp Vocational Provision, a great project working with young people not in mainstream education. After welcoming everyone on board on Monday, they motored to Cowes with a briefing on the way about how to use the winches:
People had a first turn at steering and they were lucky enough to see a beautiful sunset over the water.
They had dinner on board after reaching Cowes and the young people were allowed shore leave to go to the shops with their teachers accompanying them.
On Tuesday, they sailed towards Stokes Bay from Cowes, with almost all the sails up.
They then did a man overboard recovery drill:
Following this they anchored in Stokes Bay for twenty minutes and started preparing dinner. While watches were having dinner in turn, they motored into Portsmouth and then the crew were able to go to the shops.
On Wednesday, they planned their route and sailed to Lymington with the staysail. There was bright sunshine and the Solent was busy with many sailing boats.
They did end up having to put the engine on to arrive in Lymington at the right time for the tide. They reached Lymington by evening and had a chance to try the dinghy:
This was only a short voyage and the group left next morning, with the sea staff taking Prolific back to Ocean Village. Big thanks to Constantinos, Lauren, Cathy Ayres, Iori Kent, Callum Doyle, Rose MacInnes, Pavan Kumar Kamaraju and extra special congratulations to Michelle van den Bergh who passed her First Mate assessment. As we always say when someone passes this challenging assessment, this is a great achievement as the first mate is the person who would have to take over if the skipper was ill or injured, so the criteria are demanding and we’re proud of all our qualified first mates!
That was followed by two day sails for sponsors, donors, supporters and other friends of the charity, old and new. Saturday saw a lovely day with sunny sailing. Sunday was almost exactly the same – apart from the short but apocalyptic downpour as we were trying to do a winch demonstration in Southampton Water! Luckily the weather improved after that and people started to dry out – and spirits didn’t appear to be dampened in the least. It was fantastic to be able to thank some people who do a huge amount for the charity, and to show other people what we offer and talk about how we might work together in future.
Big thanks to sea staff Mark Todd, Glyn Collins, Tom Knight, Patrick Kelly, Cathy Ayres, Unity Bowns, Rose MacInnes and Iori Kent. They sailed 30 miles on Saturday and 22 on Sunday, and you can see the track for the weekend here.
Comments included:
“Loved the experience, you do great work and MDL love be able to sponsor / help you do it!”
“Great day sailing. Lovely crew who involved us in all the boat procedures and activities – great patience. Lovely hospitality and great company. Thoroughly enjoyed it!”
“Wonderful day – thank you to all the team. Great to learn all about the fantastic work you do.”
“Prolific is perfect for the job she does. A lovely sunny sail with great people.”
“Can I come again please? I like smiling.”
“A wonderful adventure – thank you for looking after us so well.”
“An amazing day with lovely people and thank you to the skipper and staff for being so attentive.”
“An interesting start with biblical weather – then the rain stopped and we were kept busy pulling all the sails up – then the sun came out. Fabulous day.”
That was followed by a very welcome return for a crew from Shooting Star CHASE Children’s Hospices – a lovely group of individuals who are all siblings of young people with a life limiting condition, plus a couple of accompanying staff. It was fantastic to give these young people a fun break and a chance to make friends with others who share key experiences.
The crew joined on a very wet afternoon, and sheltered inside to go through some initial briefings, such as fitting their lifejackets:
After doing winch drills on deck and checking out the bowsprit, the crew decided to retreat back into the dry that evening, eating dinner and playing card games .
One of the young people wrote: “The first day was quite nerve-wracking, as it was one of my first times on a boat like Prolific! But despite my complete lack of sailing skills or knowledge, I got on quite well! … It was a great first day and very reassuring for the rest of the journey!”
Tuesday was the biggest day of sailing. The crew sailed the boat from Ocean Village to Haslar Marina, doing 14 gybes along the way! They completed a man overboard recovery drill, rescuing Bob the fender from the water, with the crew getting involved by pointing and shouting.
Once alongside in Gosport, the crew all had some shore leave and an opportunity to have a shower.
Colin Baxter very kindly shared these photos of Prolific and Waverley – the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer:
After breakfast and happy hour on Wednesday, the crew sailed Prolific across towards Cowes. Underway, they took part in two more man overboard recovery drills – Lauren led one under sail, and then Sandy led one under motor, which was great practice for all of the sea staff, and the young people were able to get involved too, as well as spending some time out on the bowsprit with watchleader Lima:
After a brief stop on the fuel pontoon to refuel, Prolific came alongside in Cowes. The young people were able to get some shore leave, but unfortunately by the time they had arrived, the ice cream shop had shut! Undeterred, the crew found their own fun, coming back to the boat and baking delicious gluten free brownies and vegan flapjacks! After dinner, the crew settled down to watch a film, and then went to bed.
Thursday morning brought the crew some more time ashore – this time with a successful expedition to acquire ice creams! They then motored out of Cowes, and those who hadn’t helmed or been out on the bowsprit yet had a chance to do that. They anchored in Osbourne Bay for the afternoon, and the crew took part in planning a navigation exercise back up Southampton Water, in their watches taking on the roles of navigator, helm, and lookouts. Prolific arrived back in Ocean Village in the early evening, and Lauren expertly parked the boat in rather gusty conditions!
Today brought the end of the voyage, with a big clean up from the young people, followed by a summary session and reflection on their time on board. Many of the young people had got really involved in the sailing, and all had appreciated the sociable aspect of the voyage, being able to make good friends, relax, and enjoy themselves.
Comments included:
“The best thing was probably … everything!”
“I think the best thing yesterday was helming while Poseidon has a personal beef with me.”
“I really enjoyed laughing with my friend and I had a really good time, thank you so much!”
“I’d say the most memorable bit was having fun with everybody on the rocky waters.”
“The staff were very helpful on learning how to sail and it was very fun.”
“I had a lot of fun and learnt lots of new things. It was amazing to get to learn how to sail. Playing the games was really fun!”
“The trip was so much fun and the crew was amazing.”
“The trip was phenomenal and absolutely fun all the way. Made some new friends and memories, but only wish it was a little longer.”
The adult leaders who came with the group said:
“I just enjoyed all of it and getting to know you all and seeing how you all came together playing Mafia which was a whole new experience for me … The trip was amazing. I have been before and this time was even better! Thank you so much to the totally awesome crew – our young people have gained so much.”
“The most memorable bit was seeing everyone having a really lovely time laughing together, messing around, playing games and just generally really having a good time … Thank you for an amazing week! We have all learnt so much, had fun being thrown around by the waves, and played lots of fun games”.
Big thanks to sea staff Constantinos, Lauren, Cathy Lacey, Sandy Garrity, Glyn Collins, Halima Mehmood and Rose MacInnes. They sailed 56 nautical miles and 10 people earned RYA Start Yachting certificates. You can see their complete voyage track here.
* RYS IW Foundation Marine Careers Fair
Big thanks to Annette Potter, Harry Lack and Isabel Shiel who ran a stand for us at the marine careers fair in the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes yesterday. This event brings schools and other organisations from all over the Isle of Wight to look at a few of the vast range of options for getting into the marine industry. Annette says the event saw a steady stream of students and the atmosphere was buzzing. One of our priorities was to speak to the teachers who were coming round with their school groups, looking at whether anyone might like to book a group voyage next year, and spreading the word about our Isle of Wight bursaries fund which exists to help young people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to sail with us. Annette was full of praise for our two young volunteers, Harry and Isabel, who did a superb job:
2024 AGM and Curry Night – 9th November – book now! Plus refit volunteers’ weekend
You can BOOK NOW for our Curry Night following the AGM on Saturday 9th November. As last year it will be the excellent buffet at the Coriander Lounge in Southampton.
Details for the AGM and Curry, with locations, timings and menu as well as a payment link are all on the website now.
The official AGM paperwork will be sent out to members in advance of the meeting. Anyone can attend the AGM but only members are eligible to vote. You can be a member of OYT South for just £36 (£18 for people aged 25 and under) – pay here now to ensure you are on the mailing list for the AGM. Contact the office if you are unsure about whether you are a member already.
The AGM and Curry Night will also be part of a refit volunteers’ weekend when lots of gear needs to be cleared off the boat for the start of refit, so we massively appreciate anyone who can help on Saturday 9th November, Sunday 10th November or both. If you are helping with this as well as attending the Curry Night and would like to stay on board over the weekend, please ask!
Lauren’s leaving present
Now that the news is out about Sara Abdur becoming our next Staff Mate, we have to face up to losing Lauren from the job! Lauren is outgrowing the role of Staff Mate and is ready to move on so she can start skippering.
You can find some background on Lauren’s achievements since first getting involved with OYT South, her plans for the future, and how to contribute to her leaving present, on the website – all the details here.
Official Supporter of Pip Hare in the Vendée Globe race!
Thanks to our mutual links with the Pointer Family Trust, OYT South has been chosen as an Official Supporter for Pip Hare in the Vendée Globe singlehanded race around the world, which starts on 10th November. We’ll be sharing updates as the race goes on, and our logo will be going round the world with her, on the wall in the cabin. As Pip says: “More men have walked on the moon than women have completed the Vendée Globe, which is all the inspiration I need to succeed”.
We are very proud to be supporting her and we hope that when she sees the logo, it will remind her of what an incredible inspiration she is to young people – both those who are already keen sailors and those who might be encouraged to try sailing. Pip’s website https://www.piphare.com/ has some fantastic and exciting videos – very well worth a look!
2025 programme – bookings open for group and individual voyages
Our 2025 programme is open for bookings, with plenty more exciting opportunities for young people to join us next year.
A lot of OYT South’s voyages are taken by organised groups such as a school, charity or youth club, who book the whole boat; but we always designate a number of voyages in school holidays for individuals who want to join a mixed group and make new friends. We have provisionally identified the first few individual voyages for next year (we will add more later) including some in the summer holidays 2025.
6-12 July, Le Havre to Dunkirk, £735 per person, 6 nights, minimum age 15 – this is a Tall Ships Race with a fantastic festival at either end – a truly exciting adventure and a chance to create memories for a lifetime!
30 July – 4 Aug, Brixham to Brixham, £630 per person, 5 nights – standard youth voyage for individual bookings.
11-15 August, Brixham to Brixham, £525 per person, 4 nights, age 11-16. A lot of our individual voyages attract keen young sailors, over-18s, people doing the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and people wanting to test themselves with a challenging adventure; and, weather permitting, longer passages such as Channel crossings. But this doesn’t suit everyone! So for next year, we have designated this one shorter coastal voyage as a gentler opportunity, ideal for the younger end of our age range (11-16-year-olds) and passports not required. If you know anyone who is unsure about coping with a more ambitious voyage and wants an easier introduction, this is the voyage for them!
See the 2025 programme or the availability list for other individual and group voyages (and contact us to be added to the mailing list as we designate additional dates for individual voyages).
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.
* Financial appeal
Huge thanks this week to the Pointer family Trust for a very generous donation for work over the winter, and the Michael Peck Trust; Solent Shrimpers; Dee Orme and Fareham Sailing and Motor Boat Club; and Steve Trew, for very kind donations.
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.
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!
Just one more left this season:
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!
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 £2,300 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 £2,300 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.