In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Farewell and thanks to Lucy Grodie
- * Voyage news
- * Shorebased training weekend February 2026 – bookings open
- * Any more sea staff for a November day sail?
- 2025 individual voyage available – LAST FEW places for young people this year!
- 2026 voyages
- 2025 and 2026 adult voyages
- Fundraising event in Goodwood House on 6th November with Libby Purves – NOW ON SALE! Details (and volunteers needed)
- Planning a gap year, or not working over the winter? Join our refit core team!
- AGM and curry night 8th November – book now
- Vessel tracking – see where Prolific is sailing!
- Prolific maintenance days – help needed – just one date left this season
- Chris Ellis Award – win £££s of the price of your next voyage
- * Financial appeal
- Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £2,800 through Easyfundraising! Are you aware of the size of donations available?
- Kit Power Thanksgiving Service 16th October
- OYT South social media – please share as well as liking! NB we are now on Bluesky instead of Twitter/X
- New readers’ welcome and introduction
- Receiving this newsletter by email
* Farewell and thanks to Lucy Grodie
Over the last few months while we have been sorting out our longer-term staffing structure, we have been very lucky to have Lucy Grodie in the office team to help see us through a busy and challenging period.
She may well continue with occasional project work for us but today is her last official day so we need to say a big thank you! Lucy has been an immense help with regular voyage admin and easing the burden on the rest of the team; but in addition, she brings a huge amount of experience at a senior level in the sail training world and has been able to support us with things like developing, updating and refining important policies and procedures. Her expertise has been invaluable and she has been immensely efficient and produced some really solid work– much appreciated by the CEO and all the rest of the team.
If you missed last week’s newsletter, next week we will have Jo Martino joining the office as Bookings Administrator!
* Voyage news
This week began with a mixture of older individuals and a small group who know each other, some of whom have sailed with us before. Prolific is now based out of Ocean Village for the remainder of the season.
After initial introductions and safety briefs it was off to Bembridge, on the far eastern tip of the Isle of Wight, using the time for some winch drills before having dinner as light faded producing a stunning sunset.
After taking time to choose the anchorage due to other boats in the area, the sea staff delivered a chart chat. The crew were given a choice of heading to Alderney on a big adventure or hug the south coast for something less demanding. It was a unanimous decision to head for Alderney!
The crew headed to bed already bonding well and making friendships, excited for the following day. It was a 6am start, made all the better by a spectacular sunrise, hauling the anchor and heading across the Channel. It was an initial motor in flat seas to the sounds of Bob Marley while the young people had breakfast and then came on deck.
They did a man overboard recovery drill in Sandown Bay:
Then the staysail was hoisted. Next stop Alderney. The sea state built over St Catherine’s Deep accompanied by a blue sky and cumulus cloud. An hour later the engine went off as the wind built creating a good angle to cross the shipping lanes.
First mate Tom even had a chance to get the sextant out:
Unfortunately, the sailing was short lived as the tide changed along with the wind angle, so the engine went back on to try and clear the incoming weather and make some time to enjoy Alderney.
They arrived as the sun was setting and anchored in Braye harbour. After dinner it was time for bed, everyone excited for the following day.
The following morning was full of activity getting ready for a BBQ ashore. All the young people were ferried across in the dinghy and lots of them went for a swim off the stunning beach. After the BBQ the crew headed into the town of Braye to explore. It was then time to get everyone back on board aided by the local water taxi as the swell started to develop. By 6pm the anchor had been lifted and the main raised in the harbour with three reefs, as the forecast was a Force 6 gusting 7.
The crew enjoyed another sunset and magical night sail under a clear sky and full moon. It was a downwind sail back across the Channel where the crew coped much better and enjoyed the sail and were greeted by another spectacular sunrise as they approached the Needles, off the Isle of Wight.
After making their way up the western Solent it was into Shepherds Marina, Cowes. After breakfast and showers, it was time to rest after the night sail. The crew then headed into Cowes for some shore time and ice creams. Back on board that evening, dinner was cooked followed by playing the ‘mafia game’ which everyone enjoyed and then time for bed.
The following day, after breakfast, it was off to anchor in Osborne Bay with a great view of Osborne House. While at anchor some RYA Start Yachting theory was covered, including knots, boat parts and points of sail.
The anchor was then lifted for an evening sail in the Solent with some tacking and gybing before the sails were dropped.
The engine went back on along with some classical music that prompted some waltzing all over the deck! Sadly, by the time the boat phone was located to take some photos the dancing was over.
It was then deck wash time motoring up Southampton Water before mooring back in Ocean Village as the light faded. There was lots of conversation, laughter and silliness over dinner reminiscing over a fabulous trip. The crew had had a great voyage and lots of friendships made.
After their last night on board, it was time for Happy Hour and chart chat around the table before the crew departed.
They had sailed 246 miles and you can see their complete voyage track here.
Feedback included:
“It has been so much fun getting to know people and becoming such fast friends. Prolific makes sailing so accessible even with a group of mixed ability.”
“It was something I never thought I’d do and I am more than glad I did. New skills and experiences.”
“Don’t know when I’ll next be back but I’m looking forward to it already. Most lasting memory: Everything to do with Alderney. Coming in the night before and spending the whole day on the beach and that wonderful sea swim and the delicious picnic. The worst bit is right now, the wrap up because it’s over and I feel like I’m about to cry. Again.”
“Most lasting memory: down here having conversations and not being able to breathe from laughter.”
“Everyone is just amazing and kind, will definitely come back and encourage others to come aboard.”
“I had a brilliant time on this trip! It was so exciting sailing across the Channel and exploring Alderney. The night sail was super too.”
“Worst bit is now, this is probably the last time we will get all of us in one room – very upsetting.”
“Most lasting memory: singing whilst navigating by the North Star. Sailing by moonlight, that was so good.”
“Worst bit was waking up for night watch. But at the end of the day the night watch was memorable so it kinda cancelled it out.”
“Best bit: there were a bunch of moments that could qualify as the best one. The washing up, somehow it was fun. An incredible job. The music sessions, the mafia sessions were very fun. The dolphins, not just the dolphins themselves but also immediately everyone went ‘ah dolphins’ and the mood going up. Most lasting memory: being on the helm right as the sun set on the early night watch. Perfect sailing conditions and going very smoothly, like 7 knots something like that.”
“This trip was a brand new experience for me. I enjoyed meeting new people and I don’t want to be on watch from 4-7am ever again but it was at least interesting.”
“It has been an absolute pleasure to experience sailing for the first time with such a fantastic crew & bunch of people. I am extremely grateful and thank you from the bottom of my heart! :) Best bit: the feeling of euphoria when we got to Alderney.”
“Amazing experience. Lovely people & atmosphere. Would definitely recommend.”
“I had an amazing time, I loved sailing to Alderney and meeting everyone on the boat and it was really interesting learning how the ship works. Most lasting memory: the dolphins cos I didn’t think you’d actually be able to see them and didn’t know they were in the Channel.”
“I had the most AMAZING time sailing on Prolific! Quickly getting to know everyone and bonding so quickly. Getting to cross the Channel and see dolphins jumping out of the water. Swimming in Alderney Bay. Just spending time on deck talking and even just sitting next to people not talking. Had the best time – coming back next year!”
Big thanks to sea staff Gotch, Tom Knight, Sara, Orla Cronin, Lizzie Miller, Chris Threapleton and Sasha Taylor.
A new voyage started on Wednesday with a mix of young adults from Fairthorne YMCA and the Amber Foundation. We’ll tell you all about their voyage in the next issue!
* Shorebased training weekend February 2026 – programme and prices
Next year’s OYT South training weekend for staff and volunteers will run from 7pm on Friday 6th February to 4.30pm on Sunday 8th February at a new venue, Foxlease Park, Clay Hill, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, SO43 7DE. As last year, all accommodation and meals will be available on site. Accommodation will be in bunk rooms.
This weekend is open to current staff and volunteers as well as new volunteers who have started the process of getting involved with us and are hoping to sail on our voyages next year.
See here for details and booking form.
Saturday 7th February
0900 – Welcome / housekeeping
0930 – Youth Mental Health First Aid Awareness
1230 – Lunch
1330 – Behaviour Buddy – strategies for managing behaviour
1430 – Office update (Booking system/ membership consultation)
1530 – Tea/coffee Break
1600 – Safeguarding
1700 – Free time
Sunday 8th February
0900 – First Aid OR Sail Repair (these are both full-day courses)
1230 – Lunch
1330 – First Aid OR Sail Repair continued
1630 – Finish
Time TBC – GMDSS
GMDSS involves an online course which MUST be completed in advance, followed by a short practical session and exam on the day, to get your radio licence.
Price list
This year we have simplified things – instead of a separate price for every course, meal and overnight stay, we can offer all-inclusive prices as well as some separate options. The booking form is available here, but prices are shown below for information.
Whole weekend including sail repairs – £120
Whole weekend including first aid – £150
Day rate (including lunch) – £50
Day rate plus dinner and evening – £65
Just First Aid (including lunch) – £80
GMDSS – £40 course fee plus separate exam fee (cost tbc – currently £76 but it may increase in January) payable to the RYA
Optional add-ons
Bedding and towels – £7
Friday evening meal – £5
* Any more sea staff for a November day sail?
We have our usual end-season day sail for MDL staff on Monday 3rd November and there is room for a couple more sea staff – let us know if you are interested.
2025 individual voyage available – LAST FEW places for young people this year!
Our 2025 programme still has a few exciting opportunities to join us this year on the ONE remaining voyage with spaces – please spread the word!
29 Oct – 2 Nov, Southampton, 4 nights, age 11-25, £545 per person – half term -– up to 7 places available tbc.
Other voyages are all fully-booked but there is always the possibility of a cancellation, perhaps even at the last minute if someone is ill, for example. So do please let us know if you would like to go on a mailing list to be contacted about short-notice vacancies.
Email voyageadmin@oytsouth.org to ask about individual bookings.
2026 voyages
Do you know a school or youth club or another organisation which might like an exclusive booking for 12-15 people?
The 2026 programme is now available on the website but at this early stage it is still subject to changes. If you are interested in a 2026 booking, please ask.
2025 and 2026 adult voyages
This year’s October adult weekend (10-12 Oct, Southampton) now has a waiting list – email for details or to be added to the list.
2026 adult weekends are open for bookings:
24-26 April 2026, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £270 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
9-11 Oct 2026, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £270 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
These weekends are ideal for people who want to find out more about the possibility of volunteering with us – but you are also welcome if you simply want to come along and enjoy a sail on board Prolific!
Fundraising event in Goodwood House on 6th November with Libby Purves – NOW ON SALE!
Come and join us on 6th November at 7pm for this amazing event – BOOK NOW and please spread the word. We want to sell lots of tickets!
Goodwood is the seat of the Dukes of Richmond whose family art collection is one of the greatest in any English country house. You will be able to enjoy drinks and canapes, and visit the State Apartments as well as enjoying a talk by renowned journalist, broadcaster and author Libby Purves. If you saw Libby’s recent article in the Times about us, you will know that she is passionate about sail training. But there is a special reason why Libby is speaking at this event.
The entire evening has been set up by our great friends at Ned’s Fund, who have made many generous contributions towards the cost of voyages for young people who couldn’t otherwise afford to sail. They support a number of different charities but this year’s Goodwood event is all for OYT South. Ned’s Fund was set up in memory of a brilliant young man who took his own life in 2017. Libby also lost her son, Nicholas, to suicide in 2006, when he was 23. Nick was a lovely and talented person and a great sailor who had done a voyage with OYT South in our previous boat, John Laing.
So the combination of Ned’s Fund, Libby Purves and OYT South will make for a very special and unmissable evening. Tickets now available for £45 per person!
Thanks to those who have volunteered to help at this event – at the moment we have enough volunteers but if you really want to come and can’t afford a ticket, email caroline.white@oytsouth.org and we can see what might be possible.
Planning a gap year, or not working over the winter? Join our refit core team!
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’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.
AGM and curry night 8th November – book now
Our AGM and social evening will be 8th November – you can see the details and book your curry here.
Vessel tracking – see where Prolific is sailing !
You can always have a look and see what we’re up to. This site updates every six hours so don’t worry if the vessel doesn’t appear to be moving! There are other sites (like Marine Traffic) which update more often; but especially for families of a young person on board, the tracking on our site allows you to have a look two or three times a day and see what’s going on.
Prolific maintenance days – help needed – just one date left this season!
We have one more planned maintenance day this season: Monday 13th October– Southampton.
Please put the date in your diary and email us if you can help. Skilled and unskilled tasks available – or maybe a chance to learn a new skill. Over-18s only, please, except for 16- and 17-year-olds who have sailed with us already and been recommended to return as volunteers – you MAY be able to attend maintenance days with the skipper’s permission depending on what jobs we are doing.
Chris Ellis Award – win £££s of the price of your next voyage
Open for 2025 entries.
If you have enjoyed a voyage with OYT South and want to come again (and are aged 11-25), please think about entering for this award. You can win up to £500 off the price of another voyage, by sending in an account of a voyage you have already done with us. It can be a logbook, diary, story, pictures, video – anything which gives the judges an idea of why you had a good time and would like to come again. The prize is judged at the end of each season and the award can be spent on a voyage the following year. Entries should be emailed to webmaster1@oytsouth.org or posted to the office. See here for more details of this award, which was set up in memory of one of the charity’s founders. You can also see some previous winning entries.
* Financial appeal
Big thanks this week to the Estate of Valerie Tehel. Rob Hill and Fiona Pankhurst 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, bank transfer 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.
Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £2,800 through Easyfundraising! Are you aware of the size of donations available?
We mention Easyfundraising in the newsletter each week and we’re really grateful to those people who are using it regularly, but there must be people who haven’t looked at it, or often don’t remember to do it.
Here’s what it DOESN’T do:
- Require you to buy from sources you wouldn’t normally use
- Take lots of time
- Ask you to do anything complicated at all!
- Produce donations so small you would barely notice
- Cost you a penny!
You simply have to buy whatever you already planned to buy online, from whoever you choose to shop with – but having signed up with Easyfundraising, just click to accept a donation if it’s offered when you shop. It’s often a percentage, which means the donations can be really significant for bigger items – a holiday, a flight, an expensive train ticket etc. For example, one volunteer got a £17 donation when renewing their home insurance. Someone else earned nearly £10 from a VistaPrint order. A few donations like that from a hundred supporters and it starts looking like a really significant total each year.
Do tell us if you’ve got a really good donation from something you bought – these stories help to inspire others. Maybe you even order things online for business purposes and your employer would agree to donate to us like this – at no cost to them but a way to feel good every time they need new boxes of business cards or train tickets to get staff to a conference!
It takes a minute or two to sign up to Easyfundraising: 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, often including the site you would normally choose to use for all your rainbow unicorn requirements – and it doesn’t cost you anything, you pay the same price you would pay anyway.
PLEASE click the link now and sign up!
We have already raised over £2,800 through Easyfundraising – huge thanks to everyone who has used it!
Kit Power Thanksgiving Service 16th October
Recently we were sad to announce the death at the age of 91 of Kit Power, the last of the group who established the Ocean Youth Club in the 1960s and still a great supporter of OYT South right up to the last few months.
A Thanksgiving Service for Kit will be held at St John’s Church, West Meon, Hampshire, at 2:30pm on Thursday 16th October 2025. All welcome and it would be lovely to see lots of OYC / OYT people there. You can find more details here and a link to click to tell the family you are coming.
You will also see that the family is very kindly raising funds in memory of Kit to create The Kit Power OYT South Bursary so that we can offer more places on board Prolific for young people who could not otherwise afford to sail.
OYT South social media – please share as well as liking! NB we are now on Bluesky instead of Twitter/X
If you look at the top left of any page on our website, you can click on icons for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. We are also on TikTok.
We have now updated the social media links on our website, replacing Twitter/X with Bluesky – please come and join us there!
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.
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.