In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Events needing volunteers – in Gosport (tomorrow!) and in Devon
- * Prolific maintenance days – dates for your diary – help needed – including THIS Sunday!
- * Voyage news
- * Volunteer sea staff – spaces that MUST be filled – can you help?
- 2025 individual voyages available – individual bookings for young people
- 2025 group voyages available – group bookings for young people or adults
- 2025 adult voyages available
- Chris Ellis Award – win £££s of the price of your next voyage
- Keeping our website up to date – can you help?
- 360° Prolific tour
- Advice on careers in the marine sector for young people
- * Financial appeal
- Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £2,500 through Easyfundraising! Are you aware of the size of donations available?
- Vessel tracking – see where Prolific is sailing
- 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
* Events needing volunteers – in Gosport (tomorrow!) and in Devon
Prolific will be open to visitors at the Gosport marine festival TOMORROW 17th May. We need lots of people to show visitors around the boat and talk about our work – please call the boat phone 07990 518915 if you are interested in helping! Or if you are in Gosport, just come and say hello.
We are also hosting an event on board at the end of the maintenance day on Friday 22nd August in Brixham, Devon – let us know at webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you can help with that.
Either of these events could be suitable for under-18s who have sailed with us: it is always good to have a few enthusiastic young people to talk about what they did on board, and encourage others to try it!
* Prolific maintenance days – dates for your diary – help needed!
We have planned maintenance days this season on the following dates – please put them 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.
Sunday 18th May – Gosport (call the boat phone 07990 518915 if you can help with this one)
Saturday 7th June – Southampton
Sunday 29th June – Southampton
Friday 22nd August – Brixham
Monday 13th October– Southampton
* Voyage news
The last newsletter ended just as our Dartmouth Academy crew were leaving the boat. Their feedback included:
“I had such an amazing time, it was such a lovely experience. I was so lucky to have been a part of it and the crew members were so welcoming and fun and I’m sad to go.”
“One of the best experiences in my life and that I could make more friends with everyone on the boat. Loved the weather and what we learned.”
“It was a really good mixture of fun activities, learning how to sail and spending time with friends. It was a really good experience and I would definitely recommend it to others. The crew were really nice and made it really good for us.”
“It was simply amazing.”
“Amazing time! It was a mixture of learning new skills, very fun activities and spending time with my friends. Such a memorable experience!”
“It was a really good experience, it was also good to learn new skills like knots and stuff. Hoisting the sails with everyone was quite fun. The sea staff were very friendly.”
“It was a really fun experience and I would recommend it to everyone. Friendships are made and kept – it is amazing.”
“It’s a really good time learning new things and hanging out with friends. The sea staff were kind and they help out a lot.”
“I had a really good time. It was amazing going to a bunch of new places.”
“It was great fun and I enjoyed playing games and working together.”
“I had a really good time, the staff are so lovely and the weather was amazing. I would definitely do this again!”
“Definitely do it again if I had a chance.”
They sailed 118 miles and 14 people completed RYA Start Yachting qualifications. Big thanks to sea staff Gotch, Cathy Lacey, Steve Lacey, Andy Kitching, Aaron Arnold and special congratulations to Linnéa Johansson and Roisin Smith who both completed third mate assessments!
That was followed by an adult weekend including lots of people interested in joining our volunteer sea staff. Over two days they sailed to Cowes and back with plenty of sail training in the eastern Solent. You can see their complete voyage track here. It was a lovely group of people and several have already been in touch about sailing as volunteers on future voyages.
Feedback included:
“Class A weekend! Thank you all for making not just the sailing, but the social 10/10. I look forward to sailing with you all again!”
“Great weekend. I learnt a lot and have a lot of fun. All Sea Staff were fantastic.”
“Fantastic to reconnect with OYT after 25 years. Looking forward to doing more :)”
“Having not sailed properly in almost a decade, the crew reignited my love of it and made it a thoroughly good experience all round. Could not recommend this more to anyone who is interested and the work they do is inspirational. Thanks again.”
“I’ve never done anything like this before and really enjoyed it, I have learned a lot about sailing.”
Big thanks to sea staff Gotch, Miranda Camping, Andy Kitching, Rois Smith, Glyn Collins, Si Brammer and Linnéa Johansson.
Next came another voyage with Costello School, this year sharing their voyage with the Bohunt School Wokingham, a new client for us. After initial briefings they had a pleasant passage under motor to Lymington with the crew enjoying the Solent views and keeping a keen lookout for shipping and lobster pots – rewarded in Lymington by a fine sunset.
On Tuesday everyone was up and ready for an 0700 departure for Portland with a fine downwind sail under mizzen, main, staysail and jib.
They did a man overboard recovery exercise before berthing in Portland Marina:
They headed ashore for showers and then Chesil Beach, discovering an expired octopus and watching the sun set over Lyme Bay.
On Wednesday they fuelled up and had a short passage in light winds with spectacular Jurassic Coast scenery under full sail including mizzen staysail.
Watchleader Willoughby took some drone images:
They spent the night in Poole and went ashore to explore next morning. They also had a look at the engine and practised knots for their RYA qualifications:
Thursday brough a passage to Yarmouth in mainly light airs, giving an opportunity to practise sail trimming and reefing. People also got out on the bowsprit.
On the buoy outside Yarmouth, they made burritos for supper and planned the pilotage back to Ocean Village, with the young people successfully and enthusiastically taking charge of navigation back to Ocean Village, arriving at 2300. They left the boat next day having completed 159 nautical miles – you can see their complete voyage track here.
Feedback included:
“Gave me a mega confidence boost, and was so fun that even though I was nervous, within ten minutes of being on the boat that nervousness flew away with the wind. The night watch was really fun too, and I was a bit annoyed that I had to hand navigating to someone else, because it was so interesting.”
“I was nervous when I first came on but after a while you start to feel completely fine. The best bet for sea sickness is to let it out! If you know no-one on the boat, don’t worry – you make friends easily. It’s really fun.”
“It was one of the most memorable trips of my life. You make friends fast and you learn new ways to tie a rope & you get on night watch – don’t worry, it’s not all night! But trust me you will enjoy it very much! Most memorable bit was making a friend.”
“I walked on this boat thinking it was going to be easy but it was a challenge and if you like challenges this voyage is for you. Good fun.”
“One of the best trips I have been on. I have learned many new skills and boosted my self-confidence. Many people learned to work in a team.”
“I was unsure about the people that surrounded me but as the days flew by I got used to these people and I have learned to enjoy the present and to look after myself … My favourite part was taking the sail down on the bowsprit … I didn’t like trying to chop onions while the boat was wobbling!”
“Great week – I learnt many knots and learnt how to trim, flake the sails, put them up and down and use a winch. Liked it a lot. My best most favourite bit was probably the night sailing and seeing the big ship going past.”
“Great time and week, getting to re-teach myself some skills from past voyages and new skills. Making me feel confident more than I was before. My least favourite bit was everyone else being seasick because I wasn’t, and that means I had to do most of the work!”
One of the staff who sailed with them said: “It was amazing to see how much this trip impacted not only myself but also all the young people on board. An unforgettable experience. The best bit was people developing, from day one to today, and I think everyone has gained something from it – so that was really good.”
Big thanks to sea staff Constantinos, Cathy Lacey, Steve Lacey, Willoughby Matthews, Mark Dent, Andrew Page and Linnéa Johansson.
After that came MDL’s South Coat Boat Show. Once again Prolific was open to the public at the heart of the show, making bacon rolls in exchange for donations, showing people round and talking about our work. We met huge numbers of people – old friends and new, as well as some potentially very useful contacts – raised a good sum of money and had a great time. Massive thanks to MDL – this event is always fantastic and it’s great to be part of something like this with our major sponsors. Big thanks also to the team on board: Constantinos, Sara, Mark Todd, Lynne Robbins, Bella Jones, Leo Ascensao, Rob Jelley, William Robinson, Harry Lack, Harvey Henderson, Linnéa Johansson, Eleanor Fowles, Will Durham, Graeme Findlay, Laura McLachlan, Unity Bowns, Patrick Kelly, Willoughby Matthews, Adeana Rowan, Kira Makarenko, Andrew Wilkes and Alex Piekarczyk. It was particularly good to have lots of young people helping during the weekend – people who had sailed on recent voyages and could talk with enthusiasm about why others should consider giving it a go too!
On Monday we were joined by another crew from The Petersfield School. They had some very swift introductions and briefings so the boat could get underway quickly because of the tide, and continued with briefings as they headed down to Johnny Caulcutt’s buoy outside Yarmouth, where they enjoyed a lovely sunset.
On Tuesday they got the water taxi ashore for a quick look around, and then set off for Weymouth in very light winds – an ideal chance to practise putting the sails up and recovering a man overboard! Watchleader Graeme did a great park in a tight space in Weymouth and the crew went ashore for showers.
Next morning they had some shore leave and went to the beach before setting off late in the morning – Laura had to recover a lost fender on departure – and the sails went up and they had a lovely sail to Chapman’s Pool, a very pretty anchorage. They went ashore in the new dinghy for fossil hunting, a bit of swimming / paddling and a chance to get covered in mud.
Yesterday they had an early start, sailing very close to St Alban’s Head and enjoying pain au chocolate for breakfast under way. There was a local notice to mariners suggesting that parachutes might start dropping out of the sky as part of a military exercise, but though they kept a close lookout there was nothing to be seen! They re-entered the Solent via Hurst and Laura had to do another “man overboard” recovery when someone’s hat blew off – immediately followed by a fire drill! They sailed up the Solent, saw lots of other vessels, and anchored in Stokes Bay before finally heading in to Gosport where the voyage ended this morning with 13 people earning RYA Start Yachting certificates and 138 miles completed. You can see the complete vessel track here.
We will include their feedback in the next issue. Big thanks to sea staff Andrew Wilkes, Sara, Josh, Laura McLachlan, Graeme Findlay, Aoife Harrington and Harry Lack.
* Volunteer sea staff – spaces that MUST be filled – can you help?
Whether or not you already have voyages booked as a volunteer this season, these are the spaces still available – please let us know if you can help with anything. Berths listed for “trainee mates” or “trainee bosuns” MAY be suitable for people who earned new recommendations last year or this year to join our volunteer team, even if you have never sailed in a staff berth before – please ask whether any particular vacancy might be appropriate for you. Dates on this list are when young people are on board – please note that we normally need volunteers the afternoon before, to help get everything ready.
2-6 June, Southampton – watchleader needed, ideally able to stay for the maintenance day on 7th June
22 June, Southampton (day sail) – one or two more volunteers needed
23-28 June, Southampton – qualified watchleader. Ideally able to stay for the maintenance day on 29th June.
18-23 July, Poole to Brixham – female volunteer needed
27-30 Sept, Southampton – watchleader or bosun
1-5 Oct, Southampton – watchleader or bosun
6-10 Oct, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
If you are a NEW volunteer who has earned your recommendation on the recent training weekend or on another voyage this year, there may be other options in addition to the list above – please send in details of your availability and we’ll see when we might be able to get you booked to sail.
Contact caroline.white@oytsouth.org if you would be interested in sailing on any of these voyages.
For those who are new to the process, do please remember that if you commit to a voyage booking then we do really need you! Sometimes people assume that with several staff and volunteers on each voyage, it won’t be a problem to drop out; or you may think that if you’re not a qualified volunteer, you are not essential to the voyage. But in practice, we need a certain number of adults on every voyage in order to be able to sail – and you may, for example, be the only female member of sea staff on a voyage which has girls in the crew. It’s quite possible that a voyage can’t go ahead without you, which is why we need to avoid people dropping out and if it is absolutely unavoidable, we need as much notice as possible. It is also why we appreciate you all and the time you give to the charity very much indeed!
Young people aged 16-25 who have sailed with us and earned a recommendation to train as volunteers but who need more experience before taking on the full responsibilities of watchleader or bosun can also apply for funding to join an individual voyage as a crew member, to gain extra time on board and develop their skills.
2025 individual voyages available – individual bookings for young people
Our 2025 programme has plenty of exciting opportunities to join us this year!
Please spread the word!
These are voyages for young people who want to join a voyage as individuals or smaller groups, and mix with others:
30 June – 6 July, Southampton to Le Havre, £735 per person, 6 nights, age 15-25,. Ends with time at a Tall Ships festival – an amazing experience with the fleet!
18-23 July, Poole to Brixham, 5 nights, age 11-25, £630 per person
24-29 July, Brixham to Brixham, 5 nights, age 11-25, £630 per person
11-15 August, Brixham to Brixham, 4 nights, age 11-16, £525 per person. Aimed at younger crew members and anyone without a passport. 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 this voyage has been designated as a shorter coastal voyage and a gentler opportunity, ideal for the younger end of our age range (11-16-year-olds) and passports not required. Ideal for anyone who is unsure about coping with a more ambitious voyage and wants an easier introduction.
30 Aug – 3 Sept, Poole to Southampton, 4 nights, age 11-25, £525 per person
4-9 Sept, Southampton to Southampton, 5 nights, age 15-25, £630 per person
29 Oct – 2 Nov, Southampton, 4 nights, age 11-25, £545 per person – half term
Email voyageadmin@oytsouth.org to ask about individual bookings.
2025 group voyages available – group bookings for young people or adults
Do you know a school or youth club or another organisation which might like an exclusive booking for 12-15 people?
We can also consider the occasional adult voyage if anyone has an idea for an adult group.
Dates currently available:
15-19 Sept, Southampton, 4 nights, age 11-25 (plus adult leaders if required), 15 places available, £525 per person
22-26 Sept, Southampton, 4 nights, age 11-25 (plus adult leaders if required), 15 places available, £525 per person
Email caroline.white@oytsouth.org to ask about group bookings and funding help if needed.
2025 adult voyages available
We have one remaining voyage for adult individual bookings:
10-12 Oct, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £265 per person, weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
Either of the remaining group voyages listed above could be made available for an adult group of 12-15 people (15-19 Sept or 22-26 Sept).
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.
Keeping our website up to date – can you help?
OYT South’s website is quite big and has a lot of pages – it’s possible that someone may be looking at a page which none of our staff has re-read for quite a while, or clicking a link we haven’t tried recently. So if you spot any broken links, errors or anything out of date, PLEASE tell us. We can only put things right if we know about them. This is a great way for someone to help us, especially if you can’t easily volunteer on voyages or help with events or maintenance. The odd hour or so in the comfort of your own home, looking through the website (and trying to imagine how it would work for someone new to us) is always very much appreciated! This is an ongoing task, not something that needs to be done on or by a specific date.
360° Prolific tour
Our website now includes a fabulous 360° tour all round Prolific – you can explore the boat above and below deck from all angles. Do have a look! There’s also a link on all the pages of the “Sail with us” section of this website. Big thanks to James Packer from Bridge Command for creating it.
Advice on careers in the marine sector for young people
We have created a page on the website for links to a huge variety of careers in the marine sector – at the end of every voyage, there will be a link to this on the back of the voyage certificates given to the young people, to give them ideas about opportunities both afloat and ashore, with options for people with different interests, skills and levels of education, and hopefully including ideas that many will never have considered, alongside the more obvious maritime roles. The page is a work in progress and we are keen to add more links, so if you have any suggestions, please send them in.
* Financial appeal
Big thanks this week to the Whirlwind Trust for very significant help with the purchase of a new mizzen for Prolific; to Trinity House for a fantastic contribution to the Staff Mate’s salary and to #WillDoes for a generous donation to bursaries for young people who couldn’t otherwise afford to sail. We also had a very kind donation from James Mead whose late father, Brian Mead, played a huge part in the Isle of Wight support group for many years. James said: “Like my father I’m a keen sailor and enthusiastic to support your work with young people. I work at Go Free Range, a small worker co-operative, and we take it in turns to nominate a charity to donate to each month. This month I chose OYT South!”
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 £2,500 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. This week we heard from a volunteer who 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 £2,500 through Easyfundraising – huge thanks to everyone who has used it!
Vessel tracking – see where Prolific is sailing
Vessel tracking has been switched on again for the season – 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.
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.