In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Voyage news
- * Volunteer sea staff – spaces that MUST be filled – can you help?
- * Do you need a Powerboat level 2 qualification (required for driving Prolific’s dinghy)
- * Pip Hare book signing
- * 2025 individual voyages available – individual bookings for young people
- 2025 group voyages available – group bookings for young people or adults
- 2025 adult voyages available
- Prolific maintenance days – dates for your diary – help needed
- Chris Ellis Award – win £££s of the price of your next voyage
- Keeping our website up to date – can you help?
- 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 £2,600 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
* Voyage news
The last newsletter ended just as our Petersfield School crew were leaving the boat. Their feedback included:
“This was a really fun experience. I learnt and listened while enjoying myself.”
“I loved this trip as it exposed new opportunity for when I’m older.”
“I really loved the community it brought together and how much I learnt not just about sailing but also about tides, weather and cooking.”
“Really fun and enjoyable, would definitely do it again if asked.”
“Very enjoyable and went all the way to Weymouth. The weather was great but windy on the third day.”
“Most lasting memory: when we were at the front of the boat singing and dancing.”
“It was fun learning new things.”
“I loved this trip it was so fun and I learnt so many new skills – so much better than school!”
The staff member who sailed with them said: “Really positive experience for our students. They learnt so much and there were many happy faces! What a fantastic opportunity. Thank you to all the staff/volunteers for all your love & support and hope to see you all again!”
Extra special congratulations to Graeme Findlay who completed his second mate assessment on this voyage.
After that came the Gosport Marine Festival, where Prolific was once again open to the public. Big thanks to everyone who came and helped: Andrew Wilkes, Laura McLachlan, Sara, Glyn Collins, Annette, Colin Potter, Will Durham, Tyler Grant, Graeme Findlay, Josh, Richard, and Lynne. We met lots of lovely people – hopefully including some future crew members:
Big thanks to Haslar marina and the Gosport event organisers – especially Lucy Grodie who is joining us for another stint in our office team – we’re looking forward to having her around for a while helping with all the admin work!
Next came a maintenance day – big thanks to Lauren Mackenzie, Josh, Sara, Glyn Collins., Matts Kruger, Sam Frowde and Hilary Croft. They did a main rig check and loads of chart corrections:
On Monday we were joined by a crew form the Amber Foundation, a charity which does great work with young adults who have been homeless. They began with a welcome and lots of safety drills, and got underway that evening. They went to Stokes Bay and flew the jib on the way up the Solent. Sausage and mash, and some time on deck, before their first night at anchor!
On Tuesday they did a points of sail brief and fire / abandon ship drill, then picked up the anchor and headed into the western Solent. They hoisted sails but unfortunately there was not enough wind to do proper points of sail practice. They took turns steering and did a man overboard recovery drill before picking up Johnny Caulcutt’s buoy off Yarmouth.
After some RYA training and some down time, they slipped the buoy and motored out by Hurst and across Poole Bay to Swanage.
There was a lot of excitement enjoying the views and getting to helm in the open ocean! In Swanage they had a BBQ-style dinner on deck. They discussed tides and why that would mean an early start the next day – there was excitement and people were generally keen to do it.
So Wednesday saw an 0600 wake-up followed swiftly by departure – getting sails up and motoring (still no wind!!) towards Portland. They did a steering failure drill, then used the emergency tiller for a while – getting people on the tiller and by the compass to work together to steer the boat. They also steered back to Bob (the man overboard recovery demo fender) using the emergency tiller. They are claiming this as a first and say “please don’t prove us wrong!”
They then did another drill for other sea staff to practice helming a man overboard recovery (with the wheel working this time).
They arrived in Portland escorted by dolphins and in time for lunch – the group had time to go ashore for a walk / swim / showers. We had four swimmers and the sun even came out for a bit!
Most of the group then did some navigation planning for the next day – which they got into well and enjoyed. After fajitas and some extreme washing up they set off for a “sunset walk” to Chesil beach. Unfortunately due to a lapse in planning they arrived after the sun had set ……. But the sky was still pink and they saw part of a very cool sunset while walking (/running) there. Late night ice creams from Lidl were followed by their first night in a marina.
Yesterday they had a slower morning, with a navigation briefing, and set off, getting young people to lead the sail hoists. Unexpectedly, there was wind so they put preventers on the sails and turned the engine off!!!!! …..for 20 minutes until the wind died again. But THEY DID ACTUALLY SAIL! After that they continued motoring to Hurst with people taking turns on the bowsprit.
They had a stop in Cowes where they were lucky to get a tour of Spanish school boat Nao Santa Maria, which endeavours to keep traditional sailing techniques alive:
Everyone was keen for a sunset and night sail so they set off late and the young people did the pilotage back to get into Ocean Village around midnight.
They had done 137 nautical miles and you can see the complete voyage track here. We’ll include their feedback in the next issue.
Big thanks to sea staff Lauren (returning to us for the first time as skipper!), Sara, Josh, Glyn Collins, Hilary Croft and Matthias Kruger.
* 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.
28 May – 1 June, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
2-6 June, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader needed, ideally able to stay for the maintenance day on 7th June
16-21 June, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
23-28 June, Southampton – qualified watchleader. Ideally able to stay for the maintenance day on 29th June.
12-17 July, Dunkirk to Poole – – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
18-23 July, Poole to Brixham – female volunteer needed
23-29 August, Brixham to Poole – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
27-30 Sept, Southampton – one or two watchleaders or a bosun (qualified or trainee)
1-5 Oct, Southampton – two watchleaders or a bosun – one must be qualified, the other could be a trainee
6-10 Oct, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
14-19 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.
* Do you need a Powerboat level 2 qualification (required for driving Prolific’s dinghy)
One of pour volunteers, Patrick Kelly, is looking to do a Powerboat Level 2 course, and Dom Coleman (ace instructor and OYT South volunteer) from Dorset Marine Training has offered discounted rates if Patrick can get two more OYT South people for either 5th/6th July or 19th / 20th July. Email webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you are interested, and we’ll put you in touch with Patrick.
* Pip Hare book signing
Big thanks to our vice patron Pip Hare and her team who are donating money to us from ticket sales at a book signing event in London this week.
It was a great event with some lovely people, and Pip’s speech really crystallised why she is the perfect person to be involved with a youth sail training charity. Her book is subtitled “Life lessons from the world’s toughest solo ocean race” and as she says “I do not think this book is about sailing. For me, it’s about the human journey that many of us make over and over throughout our lifetimes, in both big and small ways … Seldom, if ever, does anyone ask, ‘How do you hoist a sail?’ or ‘How do you navigate?’ … Instead, I am asked over and over about the human challenges: ‘Don’t you get lonely?’, ‘Aren’t you scared?’, ‘How do you stay motivated?’, ‘How do you prioritise what to do?’, ‘How do you manage with so little sleep?’ Those questions really pique interest because they relate to problems we will all face at some point, often many points, in your own lives, whatever path we choose. … The hardest challenges were more in my head than in the water around me.”
As we often say, sail training is about helping young people develop the skills they need to succeed in life – the skills that schools, families, employers and communities need. Pip’s whole attitude and approach is a real inspiration, and we recommend her book to anyone but especially those of you working with young people on board Prolific!
* 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! Only 3 places left
NEW 6-12 July, Le Havre to Dunkirk, 6 nights, age 15-25, £735 per person plus travel. Tall Ships Race with a festival at either end – the experience of a lifetime. 1 last place left due to a cancellation
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. Only 3 places left
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).
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.
Saturday 7th June – Southampton
Sunday 29th June – Southampton
Friday 22nd August – Brixham
Monday 13th October– Southampton
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.
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
Extra big thanks this week to the Graham High Charity for a final donation as they wind up after years of fabulous support for us. They first started working with us in 2013, and they have provided bursary funding for many young people who could not otherwise have taken part in our voyages. They have sponsored oilskins, lifejackets, crew handbooks and logbooks and our vessel tracking system, all of which carry their logo – as does the deck tenting we use for events. When we came back to work after Covid they helped us buy enough extra oilskins to quarantine one set between voyages and minimise the risk of infection by passing kit directly from one crew to the next. And for many years we did wonderful day sails with the Graham High team. Thank you so much., Graham, for all you have done!
Huge thanks also this week to the TK Foundation whose grant to seagoing staff salaries has reached us.
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 £2,600 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 £2,600 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.