In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Refit news and help needed – including volunteers’ weekend 15-16 March
- * Volunteer sea staff – voyages available
- * Chris Ellis Award – the winners
- 2025 individual voyages available – individual bookings for young people
- 2025 group voyages available – group bookings for young people or adults
- Adult weekend voyages – including opportunities to look at joining our volunteers’ team
- Funding help if you want to take part in a voyage
- Events needing volunteers
- * Financial appeal
- Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £2,400 through Easyfundraising!
- OYT South social media – please share as well as liking! NB OYT South is leaving Twitter/X – find us on Bluesky instead
- New readers’ welcome and introduction
- Receiving this newsletter by email
* Refit news and help needed – including volunteers’ weekend 15-16 March
Can you come and help us during the weekend of 15-16 March? There’s a lot of work still to do, including a post-refit deep clean of the boat and then we have to get all the kit out of store and back on board, and get the sails back on and new halyards fitted. We’d be enormously grateful for all the help we can get – please email refit@oytsouth.org if you can help (and to ask about accommodation if you need). Usual incentives … cake, good company and more!
Huge thanks to everyone who has helped at refit this week and last weekend: Gotch, Josh, Sara, Shaun, plus Michelle van den Bergh, Iori Kent, Linnea Johansson, Rob Jelley, William Robinson, Si Brammer, Keri Hammond and special thanks to Jeremy Jenson and John van den Berg who took part in “bring your dad to work day”!
We are very grateful to those who helped to clear and tidy the rented refit house and ensure we got our deposit returned. Otherwise the big news is that Prolific went to Gosport and got her masts back – big thanks to Vortec. This is how you put a mizzen mast in:
And a main mast:
Other jobs this week have included more work on tanks and oven; the mast electrics and lights; and we have collected the sole boards from Tom Bennett at Solent Wooden Boats – apparently they are now far too beautiful to stand on!
The boat is moving back to Ocean Village today and there’s still loads more work to do – please email refit@oytsouth.org if you can spare any time at all, or text Gotch, Josh or Sara if you have their numbers, or use the boat phone 07990 518915, or contact the team via the sea staff WhatsApp groups. Age 18+ only, please.
More details about our refit here – please email refit@oytsouth.org for more information about how you can come and help, and to book yourself in. We aim to make it fun and sociable as well as getting through lots of work. And we’re always happy if anyone turns up with snacks and goodies! And for our sailing volunteers, refit is a chance to get to know bits of the boat you might not see during a normal voyage, and to improve your understanding of how things work.
* Volunteer sea staff – voyages available
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 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.
23-27 May, Southampton, qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun. This one doesn’t need sea staff joining the day before.
16-21 June, Southampton – qualified watchleader
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 need
TBC 5-10 Aug, Brixham, watchleader possibly needed – someone else MAY need to drop out for work reasons
1-5 Oct, Southampton, watchleader or bosun
6-10 Oct, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
14-19 Oct, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun, ideally able to join for maintenance day on 13th October.
24-28 Oct, Southampton – qualified watchleader
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!
* Chris Ellis Award – the winners
The Chris Ellis Award, in memory of one of the charity’s founders, is given for a piece of work created by a young person based on their voyage. Winners get funding help to sail again, and the competition is judged by Chris’s daughter Emma and by Peter Tracey who knew Chris and sailed with him on a voyage which started it all!
This year’s top prize and the Chris Ellis Award Winner for the 2024 season is Ethan McConway, who was 12 when he sailed with us and wrote this poem:
The Ship, I, Sailed
by Ethan McConway
That frightful day I set sail anxiety gripped me strong.
I was leaving familiar land,
stepping off familiar sand,
on a journey ever so long.
However all was not lost,
for as the mighty boat tossed,
I put some new friendships to use.
On the ship I learned many new things,
about a game about a battle of good and evil
and the rulership of kings.
Life was a pleasure,
my memories of my time on board I shall truly treasure.
And although it was sailing which brought us together,
and I did feel a bit under the weather,
I will remember it forever,
as a time where I bonded and gained new interests,
because the friends I made are worth more than 1000 times the knowledge I earned.
Ethan’s entry added: “My time on the ship was truly memorable, I made new friends and learnt many new things time on board was a breeze and even though I did want to go home, a lot, the memories I made there have stayed with me, from showing off my rather small knowledge in knots from scouting on my first trip, the one my poem talks about, to me having rather interesting talks with the other people on board, about who could take what animals in a fight and them saying I couldn’t take a bunch of koalas, I think that was the animal, as I learned so much and travelled so far we even got the experience to sail the ship by ourselves home. I loved the activities we did so much, including Murder where I wasn’t the first one to kill a very sad Emma. We also had a log book where we wrote stories down in the night about the ship, and it got very deep, all in all this was a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to do more.”
The runner-up prize went to Sandie Lambert, aged 13. Her description of the voyage included this: “I just want to start off by saying thank you to all those who helped me get here. Wow! … It was by far the best experience I’ve had in a long while. So phenomenal I can’t put it into words. I saw a whole new light for me, it opened so many doors. Amazing views – the Needles I had never seen before. And the Staff Crew were just fantastic and all had the patience of saints. Supporting kids from anywhere with ANY disabilities and challenges. If you ever get the chance, leap for it immediately, I almost didn’t. If I hadn’t have gone, I don’t know where I’d be now, Thank you all so much.”
Sandie said this peaceful picture summed up her memory of the voyage:
You can read about previous Chris Ellis Award winners on the website, and if you are doing a voyage this season and you enjoy it and want to come again, do think about submitting an entry for the next award!
2025 individual voyages available – individual bookings for young people
Our 2025 programme has plenty of exciting opportunities to join us this year!
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, places possibly available to join a booking from some members of a Nautical Training Corps unit
30 July – 4 Aug, 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. A lot of our individual voyages attract keen young sailors, over-18s, people doing the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and people wanting to test themselves with a challenging adventure; and, weather permitting, longer passages such as Channel crossings. But this doesn’t suit everyone! So for next year, we have designated this one shorter coastal voyage as a gentler opportunity, ideal for the younger end of our age range (11-16-year-olds) and passports not required. If you know anyone who is unsure about coping with a more ambitious voyage and wants an easier introduction, this is the voyage for them!
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
Email voyageadmin@oytsouth.org to ask about individual bookings.
2025 group voyages available – group bookings for young people or adults
See the 2025 programme or the availability list for group voyages – 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.
Email caroline.white@oytsouth.org to ask about group bookings and funding help if needed.
Adult weekend voyages – including opportunities to look at joining our volunteers’ team
We have adult weekends (18+, no upper age limit) available as follows:
2-4 May, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £265 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
10-12 Oct, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £265 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
Come and enjoy sailing our beautiful boat, or maybe find out what it takes to become a sailing volunteer – these weekends are a chance to find out if you might enjoy volunteering and, if so, for the skipper to recommend you for further volunteer training.
Email seastaffadmin@oytsouth.org to ask about adult weekends.
Funding help if you want to take part in a voyage
If you have sailed with us in the past and earned a recommendation to join our volunteer training programme, you can ask us about funding towards a crew berth to give you extra experience and time on board. The Gipsy Moth Fund is only open to people aged 16-25 who have had a volunteer recommendation from one of our skippers. You just need to tell us which voyage you want to do and how much you can afford to contribute, and we’ll see if we can fund the shortfall.
We also have a standard bursaries programme open to anyone aged 25 or under who wants to sail with us but can’t afford the full cost, whether or not you have sailed with us before, with grants available from a range of different donors. To apply, you need to email us with details of any personal circumstances relevant to why you can’t afford to sail without help; what you want to achieve and why you want to take part; which voyage you want to do (or some options for different possible voyages); and how much you can afford to contribute. You need to think hard about what, if anything, you can raise – bursary applications won’t be considered if they simply ask how much you can have, or request “as much as possible”: your application has to come after serious thought about anything else you can put in. This doesn’t mean we can’t grant 100% bursaries in exceptional circumstances, but we would need to understand why. Our funds are limited and if one person gets a very large grant, someone else may get nothing at all, so it’s important only to ask for as much as you genuinely need.
Events needing volunteers
This year Prolific will be open to visitors at the South Coast Boat Show in Ocean Village on the weekend of 10th-11th May, and at the Gosport marine festival on 17th May. We will need lots of people to show visitors around the boat and talk about our work – please put the dates in your diary and contact webmaster1@oytsouth.org if you are interested in helping!
* Financial appeal
A few weeks ago we mentioned the fund set up by Ewan Hind’s family in his memory. It was Ewan’s memorial last weekend, a very special occasion to remember a very special person, and people have been contributing very generously to the fund, which will provide opportunities for disadvantaged young people to sail with us. We are in discussions with the family about exactly how they would like the money to be used.
Big thanks also this week to Fraser Old for a very kind donation, also for bursaries.
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 £2,400 through Easyfundraising!
“What a fool I was!” says Mark Todd.
“For ages I’ve seen in the bulletin that Easyfundraising is a good way to raise money for charity, but I never got round to doing anything about it, and when Caz told me how easy it was, I didn’t listen.
I thought it might be a hassle, or that I’d have to remember to do something when I bought stuff online, or that it probably wasn’t really worthwhile.
This week I finally got round to it and it turns out it’s a REALLY EASY way to raise money for the charity I care about … and I definitely should have done it sooner.
It takes a minute or two to sign up; you can do it on a desktop, tablet and/or phone, and you can install a widget that flags up when a donation is available. Once that’s done, imagine you’re looking to buy – say – a rainbow unicorn: just put “rainbow unicorn” in your usual search box, and the list of results shows you which sites come with donations, and how much. It’s up to you what to pick and whether to accept the donation from the site, but a huge choice of sites will offer a donation – and it doesn’t cost you a penny.
I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner … but if there’s anyone else who has been like me and just not got round to it, PLEASE click the link now and sign up!”
We have already raised over £2,400 through Easyfundraising – huge thanks to everyone who has used it!
OYT South social media – please share as well as liking! NB OYT South is leaving Twitter/X – find us on Bluesky instead
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.