In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Voyage news
- 2025 programme – bookings open for group and individual voyages
- Winter refit core team needed – including a driver
- 2024 AGM – 9th November – please join / renew your membership!
- * 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 £2,200 through Easyfundraising!
- OYT South social media – please share as well as liking!
- Branded clothing
- New readers’ welcome and introduction
- Receiving this newsletter by email
* Voyage news
Feedback from the previous voyage which was put together after last week’s newsletter went out:
“I had an amazing trip where I got to do lots of new and exciting things such as night sailing, star gazing, swimming in the sea and sailing with five sails.”
“I had the best time learning new skills after never been sailing. I loved every minute and can’t wait to come back.”
“This trip has been amazing, I have learnt so much about the boat through this experience. The dolphins and stargazing was definitely the best. Thank you so much :)”
“I loved this trip and enjoyed sailing and meeting all the people. It helped me to get a lot more confident in sailing.”
“I really loved this trip – it was so much fun! I felt so much more confident on a boat now. Thank you so much OYT South, hopefully I’ll see you again!!!”
“My favourite bit was probably the 26-hour sail, and how peaceful it was at night time … The most memorable bit for me was probably the helicopter [coastguard training exercise landing a winchman on Prolific’s deck]. I love sailing already but it’s even better on Prolific!!!”
“I thought I’d hate it at first, but overall it was fun. Staff and skipper were nice.”
We also had some feedback from families after this voyage:
“I just wanted to pass on my huge thanks to the skipper and all his crew for giving her such an incredible week aboard Prolific … She had a fantastic time and it sounds like they couldn’t have fitted more in … we really enjoyed tracking them and following the Facebook page! I’m sure she’ll be back next year.”
“I just wanted to thank everyone involved in the voyage last week. [My son] had a fantastic time! He found everyone so kind and loved spending time with new people and learning new things. Your voyages mean so much to him. He thinks it might have been the best one yet! Thank you so much to everyone at the Trust for the positive impact that your work brings to his life.”
“Just wanted to email to say a huge thank you to you and everyone involved in last week’s trip … They had the most amazing experience and were raving about it when they got home. They have commented on how lovely and helpful everyone was.”
“I want to thank your crew for giving [my son] such a great experience – and also the land-based staff and volunteers without whom the charity couldn’t operate … He loved the sunset and sunrise watches he was put on. Seeing dolphins up close, also seeing all the tankers and ships passing by. He liked the food and the chats and enjoyed the games and swimming. He’s been inspired by getting to know the crew, I think it’s so beneficial for children to spend time with a varied group of people – different ages, personalities and life experiences. Please thank the crew and staff for the work they do, they really make a difference to young people’s lives, I hope they always know that.”
This week’s voyage brought the summer holiday period in the West Country to an end.
The voyage started on Friday in Brixham, and the crew on the voyage were a group of individuals, varying in age from 12 to 21, and varying in experience from those already with RYA Competent Crew, to others who hadn’t sailed before at all. Despite all of this, the group formed a close bond over the voyage, and became good friends.
The first day started with the usual safety briefings and preparations, and then they did some winch drills, set sail, and motor-sailed from Brixham to Burgh Island, and most of the crew had their first opportunity at the helm.
The sun set while they were underway – “it looked like the sky was just painted on”, and the crew got to see some dolphins. They arrived in Burgh Island in the dark, and there they anchored for the night, and wrote an incredible anchor watch story between them.
The next day dawned with the best wind for sailing all week. It was also the first time that the crew got a chance to look out into the bay they had been anchored in all night. They left Burgh Island, heading towards Salcombe, and set the main, mizzen and staysail.
Underway they did a lot of tacking practice, and then the crew practised a man-overboard recovery drill, in quite windy conditions. Tom was acting as First Mate and got Prolific back to the buoy in the water, while trainee bosun Aaron Thomas-Epstein was lowered over the side to assist in the recovery.
That evening the crew took part in ‘Pass the Squeeze’, and this game with the banana was believed to be “the messiest ever seen”. The crew had a brilliant time, although the result was banana having to be cleaned off the walls!
Sunday dawned and the crew took part in their biggest passage of the week – sailing from Salcombe to Portland. It was quite windy and the team got the sails up and enjoyed sailing for a couple of hours. As the wind gradually died, Prolific continued to motor-sail towards Portland, with lots of music on deck. The crew also took part in a fire drill, that then progressed into an abandon ship drill, and everyone was able to learn about the safety equipment that Prolific carries on board.
Prolific arrived in Portland, where the crew were relieved to find a Lidl (they were running dangerously low on bananas), and appreciated the showers ashore. Before going to sleep, they enjoyed listening to the bedtime story Myrtle the Turtle, by Dr Seuss.
Monday morning was a slow start for the crew and sea staff, and everyone enjoyed a trip to the beach and some shore leave. After lunch, they set sail from Portland, heading to a mooring buoy outside Yarmouth. The crew were joined by guest of honour “Reginald the Pigeon”, who enjoyed looking around the boat, and spent time posing for a photoshoot.
Although the day was a bit overcast and rainy, there was plenty of fun on board. Passing our safeguarding team Steve and Cathy Lacey on Wild Rival, the crew and sea staff lined up for a Mexican wave, which soon became a full dance party featuring the Macarena, Cha Cha Slide, and Cotton Eye Joe.
Prolific sailed past the Needles at sunset, and once they had picked up the buoy at Yarmouth, the crew decided on Poe’s The Raven as a bedtime story, before starting their anchor watch for the night.
Tom sailed Prolific off the buoy the following morning, and the day was spent with all hands on deck – with some serious sailing and plenty of gybes, followed by an impromptu ceilidh on the foredeck. After enjoying a lunch of pasta pesto, the crew anchored in Osborne Bay for an afternoon of knots practice, and planning pilotage back to Southampton in their watches.
They all enjoyed “the most amazing fajitas, made excellently”, before their sunset navigation into Ocean Village, Southampton, and skipper Lee Mosscrop read the final bedtime story of the voyage. Back on our home berth after 71 days away!
The final day dawned to Prolific’s massive end of voyage happy hour, and all the crew did a brilliant job cleaning, particularly with their deck wash (although some did get a bit wet)! The crew were sad to go (and some even stayed to help with some boat maintenance the next day), but they had enjoyed their 200 nautical mile voyage, and 12 people earned their RYA Start Yachting certificates (three had this already).
Feedback included:
“The best bit for me was probably just, any chance to work with my watch specifically but also the crew at large, it was great to learn with all these lovely people. My least favourite was probably being seasick – mainly just because I wasn’t in a fit state to help, and it’s just time wasted being sick when I could have been learning how to sail. The most memorable bit for me was any time that I was on the helm, ‘cos I got to live out my boyhood fantasies of just being on the helm of a beautiful big sailing ship. Prolific was a joy to sail on, all the crew and sea staff making every day wonderful. Already looking forward to next time I can take the helm!”
“I think my best bit was … probably being able to navigate on the last day, ‘cos it felt like we actually knew what we were doing! And as I didn’t know how to sail at the start of the week, I think that that made a big difference! And also being on the bowsprit as well. I had the most fabulous time on Prolific, after knowing effectively nothing about sailing I would be thrilled to come back and sail again. It was the most fun I’ve had all year! Thank you so much to the amazing sea staff who made the trip so great!”
“I had a really amazing time working as a team and building confidence on a boat. Thank you!”
“Really enjoyed being trusted to be put in charge of the boat.”
“The most memorable bit was probably yeah just everyone learning how to sail and then just doing it without any instructions. This particular voyage has just been a blast! From the staff down to the crew, thank you all so much!!!”
“The best bit was just learning to sail in general as I came here with no sailing knowledge at all! Great fun and patient sea staff, tragic lack of sea shanties.”
“The most memorable part was the sunset on the first night, where it looked like the sky was just painted on, and it was absolutely beautiful”.
Aaron Thomas-Epstein got nearly all of his bosun assessment signed off – well done to him and big thanks to the qualified sea staff Lee Mosscrop, Josh, Martyn Powe, Patrick Kelly, Jack Thompson, Rebecca Brooks (who earned her RYA Watch Leader certificate!), and extra special congratulations to Tom Knight who was signed off as a First Mate. 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.
The thing about a new first mate who has risen through the ranks after first sailing as youth crew is that sometimes we can find old photos and even an original crew report in the archives … Can you recognise a younger Tom in these pictures?
This was back in 2016 on board our previous boat John Laing, when staff skipper Andy Viney gave Tom his initial sea staff recommendation and reported back to the office: “Wow, how keen. A really enthusiastic young man. He took the lead where he could and encouraged and praised the others. Reliable doing all asked of him and more, a proactive young man. He also took pride and responsibility in the boat. He was thorough during clean up. He was keen to learn reading the almanac when he had a spare moment. He conned the boat into Portsmouth and he relished the opportunity and did very well. Earned a sea staff recommendation and would be enthusiastic to rise through the ranks.” Couldn’t have been more accurate!
That voyage was followed by a planned maintenance day yesterday – big thanks to Lauren, Josh, Tom Knight, Martyn Powe, Mustafa Mohammed, Jack Thompson, Sam Murray, Phil Loutsis, Jake Mitchener, Jas Long, Hannah Potter, Chris Pryke, Val Hague, Glyn Collins and Lynne Robbins for all their help! The lifejackets had been inflation-tested and needed repacking; there were chart corrections to do; and lots of sorting and tidying including the workshop and wet locker. Josh fitted new bow thruster batteries and serviced the generator, and we had someone to look at the hydraulics.
2025 programme – bookings open for group and individual voyages
We’ve now had lots of bookings from our regular clients and we are delighted to publish the 2025 programme 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 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.
2024 AGM – 9th November – please join / renew your membership!
OYT South’s 2024 AGM date has been set for 9th November, but all the paperwork needs to go out in advance to members. 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.
* Financial appeal
Big thanks this week to Peter Binning for another very generous donation; and to MDL Marinas for a wonderful charity fun day in Ocean Village last week, with over £4,800 raised to be shared between Prostate Cancer UK, Breast Cancer UK and Ocean Youth Trust South. Extra-special thanks to Ocean Village marina manager Lauren McCann who shaved her head for charity!
The day had a pirate theme and some of the pirates bore a suspicious resemblance to members of our office team:
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 £2,200 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 £2,200 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.