In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- Vessel tracking – see where Prolific is sailing as we go on our adventures!
- * Voyage news
- * 2025 individual voyages available – individual bookings for young people
- 2025 group voyages – and plans for 2026
- 2025 adult voyage available
- * Office team – Susanna
- * Volunteer sea staff – new vacancies – can you help?
- Planning a gap year, or not working over the winter? Join our refit core team!
- AGM and curry night 2025 – a date for your diary
- Fundraising event in Goodwood House – with Libby Purves – volunteers needed
- Prolific maintenance days – 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 £2,800 through Easyfundraising! Are you aware of the size of donations available?
- 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
Vessel tracking – see where Prolific is sailing as we go on our adventures!
Prolific has left the Solent and is off for the summer – starting with the Tall Ships festival in Le Havre!
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 is only doing Race 1 of this year’s Tall Ships series, Le Havre to Dunkirk, and we will then head west for our own summer activities while some other vessels sail to Aberdeen; but you can find out more about our race here.
Voyage news
The last newsletter ended as our crew from The Petersfield School were leaving the boat after planning and executing their own passage back to Ocean Village:
Their feedback included:
“This is my second time on the boat and it was as good as the first time. I learnt lots of new knots. I have also learnt how to be a good at steering close to the wind on the way back from France. I also enjoyed having a beach day with everyone on the boat.”
“First time on Prolific, met and spoke to people I didn’t know before, the food was so good considering I’m gluten free. I learnt to be independent and all sorts of new skills. I would love to do again.”
“I’ve had the best time. 100% in top 10 best experiences! And the BEST watch leader I could ever ask for! I will definitely be coming back. You can count on that. Thank you so much!”
“This was my first time on Prolific. I learnt many new skills and met many new friends – would I do it again -? Yes for sure, everyone was lovely xx.”
“It was really fun! I loved night sailing.”
“This week was my first time on Prolific and I learnt new skills and had a great time with my friends. I would definitely come again.”
“This is my second trip on Prolific and I learnt so much on this trip about sailing. I will definitely come next year.”
“It is still as amazing if not more than my other voyages. The skills and the people I have met on this boat have taught me life skills I continue to use.”
And from the staff member who sailed with them:
“Living 24/7 with fourteen teenagers, hosting a dinner party every night, having gone to bed at 0100 hrs & up at 0500 hrs: would I do it again? Definitely, every time. The Prolific Team were so quick to understand the needs of their crew & develop them throughout the voyage.”
On Sunday we had another day sail for sponsors, donors and friends and family of the charity. A good sail on a windy day and lots of time spent chatting about OYT South’s work and what we can achieve!
Feedback included:
“Wonderful day out, learning the basics and escaping the pressure of life. Great team, compassionate, kind and great at explaining everything.”
“Thank you to everyone for a great day. Fantastic experience and great to see what you do in action.”
“Fantastic opportunities on board the magnificent Prolific! Thank you for the chance to meet the team, esteemed guests and experience sailing. Delicious lunch to boot. Amazing, memorable day.”
“Thank you to all crew members. It really was an amazing day and exclusive experience. Wish to come again!”
Big thanks to sea staff Mark Todd, Sara, Andy Viney, Miranda Camping, Patrick Kelly, Unity Bowns, Katie Hamlet, Iori Kent, Niamh Lamin, Linnéa Johansson, Graeme Cole and Caz.
That was followed by a voyage with the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust. The crew arrived on Monday night, often after long journeys and some of them anxious about an unfamiliar space and meeting new people. The skipper decided to stay in Ocean Village on the first night while people settled in, and also because some were very tired. This worked well as they really began to gell as a group, and were ready for the next day when the forecast was for very windy conditions.
They helped to rig the ORC (our smallest headsail) and had a bumpy passage under engine to Osborne Bay where the sea state improved in the lee of the land, allowing them to sail up and down the bay and wave at other Ellen MacArthur vessels which were all in the bay too.
Every young person got the chance to sail upwind and downwind and to get involved in tacks and gybes. Then they headed to Shepards marina in Cowes for the evening, and the young people went ashore to enjoy Cowes before returning for dinner on board and bed.
On Wednesday morning, by contrast, there was no wind whatsoever. They set off early and had breakfast underway, before hoisting the sails while heading west. Sadly there was not enough wind to sail and the engine stayed on all the way to Portland.
They passed another sail training vessel, Queen Galadriel:
Once docked, the whole team went for a barbecue next to Portland Castle – everyone enjoyed chatting, eating on the beach and roasting marshmallows on the fire. Here’s trainee bosun Tyler enjoying the barbecue:
Thursday was very windy again so they planned a shorter, more relaxed day and simply went to the next-door port of Weymouth under the ORC. The young people had time ashore, plus showers and then dinner on board before an early night ahead of an early start next day.
They were up at 6am to catch the tide – motoring out and hoisting the main and mizzen with a reef in each, and then the staysail, making good progress at 6 knots under hazy sunshine:
But the weather was ready to set us a new challenge as thick fog soon descended, though the breeze remained. Time for radar navigation and sound signals!
Eventually the wind dropped and, in order not to miss the tide at the Needles, the engine came on. The fog cleared and they had good visibility and 15- 20 knots of wind, though they could still see the low cloud over the cliffs:
The engine was turned off again and everyone got some practice in quick gybing by sweating the sails in. Then they had a great time gybing up the Needles Channel. Once in the Solent the wind started building and the Morgan Cup race fleet (a Fastnet qualifying race) came flying at us from the opposite direction. We avoided them safely and the wind kept increasing to 30 knots – everyone showed great teamwork as we dropped the sails! It was a real sign of how far the young people had come in just a few days that this all happened confidently and competently with everyone having fun.
They were back in Ocean Village by 5pm and had dinner before working on some of the theory for their RYA certificates.
The final day consisted of a clean down and debriefs, with RYA Start yachting certificates issued round the table and a chat from the EMCT trip lead Al on ways in which the young people can receive more support via the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and other avenues.
The skipper said “I was impressed by this group as they for the most part showed an interest and enthusiasm and they were a lot of fun.”
They had sailed 142 miles and you can see their complete voyage track here.
Feedback included:
“I really enjoyed sailing through the boat race, I thought that was quite cool, and all the ships were racing. I think I’d like to say as well that for the crew, I’ve noticed the adjustments you guys made to make us feel more comfortable, and I’m like, really thankful for it, it doesn’t go unnoticed, so, thank you guys. The most memorable bit is definitely just the people that I’ve met here and the friendships that I’ve made, they’re always very genuine ones and I really enjoy it.”
“The best part is just meeting everyone, talking to people, bonding, walking around when we’re on shore, the freedom as well especially the views off the boat, looking out, having chats just staring at the horizon … The team was very welcoming, everyone was doing their best.”
“Everyone was so welcoming and patient with me as I had forgotten a lot of the basics. Thank you to everyone on board for a memorable time. The volunteers were amazing. The most memorable bit was every time I got a high five when I got something right!”
“I think my best moment was seeing dolphins because I don’t think I’ve seen dolphins in the wild before. The team were super welcoming and really good at sharing their knowledge to help me become a more confident person and competent sailor.”
“The best bit was sailing itself. Being out at sea (no land around)! Conversations and making new friends. Enjoyed playing cards, walking to the beach, activities.”
“Thank you for an educational and very enjoyable time. It was an honour to be part of green team! The volunteers were amazing!”
And from the EMCT trip lead:
“The best bit is just seeing everybody going beyond what they thought they were capable of and everyone coming together as a team … for me, this is why I do this job. Last night when you guys were hanging out on the coachroof, that was awesome.”
Big thanks to sea staff Gotch, Sara, Michelle van den Bergh, Linnea Johansson, Ed Gordon-Thomson, Tyler Grant and Hope Haynes-Coote.
That was followed by a maintenance day – big thanks to all the people who came along to help get Prolific in the best condition for our summer away from our home base: Gotch, Sara, Linnea Johansson, Tyler Grant, Lauren Mackenzie, Jack Thompson, Caitlin Neall-Johnston, Matthias Kruger, Lucy Ellis, Susanna Paynter and Rose MacInnes.
This week has been the first summer voyage for individual bookings rather than an organised group. They began by sailing to Cowes and next day had a good day’s sailing very hot weather, with lots of tacking practice and other skills learned, in the eastern Solent and south east Isle of Wight.
They were relieved to anchor in Sandown Bay where they eventually got a much-needed swim.
They had a look at their route across the Channel and set off with a perfect 15-20 knots downwind:
They sailed right through the night in conditions that became a little more challenge as the passage went on:
They arrived in Le Havre yesterday as the fleet gathered for the Tall Ships festival, and got a wonderful cheer from TS Royalist as they went in.
We will include tales of their adventures at the festival in the next issue, but here is the vessel track that got them there. Big thanks to sea staff Gotch, Sara, Josh, Nige Bush, Jack Thompson, Caitlin Neall-Johnston, Rose MacInnes and Matthias Kruger.
* 2025 individual voyages available – individual bookings for young people
Our 2025 programme still has some 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:
18-23 July, Poole to Brixham, 5 nights, age 11-25, £630 per person. 1 or 2 places left tbc.
24-29 July, Brixham to Brixham, 5 nights, age 11-25, £630 per person. 1 or 2 places left tbc.
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 2 places left
30 Aug – 3 Sept, Poole to Southampton, 4 nights, age 11-25, £525 per person – 8 places available.
4-9 Sept, Southampton to Southampton, 5 nights, age 15-25, £630 per person. Only 2 places left
29 Oct – 2 Nov, Southampton, 4 nights, age 11-25, £545 per person – half term -– places available.
Email voyageadmin@oytsouth.org to ask about individual bookings.
2025 group voyages – and plans for 2026
Unexpectedly, due to a cancellation, we now have a group voyage (12-15 places) available in September:
15-19 September, Southampton to Southampton, £525 per person. Bursary funding available!
Do you know a school or youth club or another organisation which might like an exclusive booking for 12-15 people?
We have sent a draft 2026 programme to regular clients for comments – please ask if you are a new potential group client and would like to be added to the mailing list for group bookings next year.
2025 adult voyage 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)
All welcome – but the weekend is particularly useful for anyone who is thinking of joining our sailing volunteers for 2026, and wants to find out more! Email for details or to make a booking.
Susanna Paynter has decided to take some time out from working. She hopes to be involved with OYT South again in future, and we hope so too. Susanna is happy for staff and volunteers to get in touch and would love a visit if anyone is near Andover, feel free to give her a call. Susanna will pop down to see us when she can. We wish her all the best and have loved having her as part of our team.
There is an e-card here which anyone can sign (or use to make a donation to a leaving present).
We will be recruiting shortly to bring the bookings team in our office back up to strength – keep an eye out for details in a future issue of this newsletter. If you are keen to join the OYT South office team in Southampton and want to know more, or to register to see a copy of a job ad and job description as soon as it is available, please email LynneRobbins@oytsouth.org.
* Volunteer sea staff – new vacancies – 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.
16-21 Aug, Brixham – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun, ideally able to stay for the maintenance day 22 Aug and a sail that evening
1-5 Oct, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
6-10 Oct, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
14-19 Oct, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
And we have a first mate sailing on three voyages (1-5 Oct, 20-24 Oct and 24-28 Oct) who can still do them if needed but would be happy to step aside if another 1M could take on one of them?
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.
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 2025 – a date for your diary
Our AGM and social evening will be 8th November – save the date! You can see the details and book your curry here.
Fundraising event in Goodwood House- with Libby Purves – volunteers needed
If you enjoyed the recent article in the Times about us by Libby Purves, come and hear her speak!
Thanks to our friends at Ned’s Fund there will be a fundraising event for OYT South on Thursday 6th November in historic Goodwood House – save the date and we will let you know when tickets go on sale. We will also need two or three volunteers to help on the night – handing out drinks and leaflets – is anyone interested? Email caroline.white@oytsouth.org.
Prolific maintenance days – 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, 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.
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
Huge thanks this week to the Whirlwind Charitable Trust for a very generous contribution towards a new mizzen; to the J S F Pollitzer Trust and to ASTO Hammond Innes bursaries for major donations; and to Philip Ingram, Matthew Bowns, Catharine Sillett, Andrew Turner, Jacqueline Frampton, Matthew Brushwood, John Hunt and David Wakeford for very kind contributions.
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. 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 £2,800 through Easyfundraising – huge thanks to everyone who has used it!
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.