In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * DofE Gold Award 70th anniversary celebrations
- * International Day for Women in Maritime – and a big success for an OYT South crew member and volunteer!
- * Volunteers’ Week
- * Voyage news
- * Volunteer sea staff bookings – PLEASE help!
- Funding for sail training staff / volunteer qualifications
- Sea Staff awards – nominations welcome
- * Individual bookings for summer 2026
- Funding available for young people from West Berkshire
- Adult voyages
- 2026 dates for your diary
- Vessel tracking
- * 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!
- Chris Ellis Award – win £££s of the price of your next voyage
- New readers’ welcome and introduction
- Receiving this newsletter by email
* DofE Gold Award 70th anniversary celebrations
This year is the 70th anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award, with hundreds of young people having completed the Residential section during OYC / OYT voyages. So we were very proud that our long-serving Bookings Coordinator, Annette Potter, was able to represent OYT South this week at a celebration event at Buckingham Palace!
* International Day for Women in Maritime – and a big success for an OYT South crew member and volunteer!
Last Monday was International Day for Women in Maritime 2026 and OYT South was represented at an event in Trinity House with a very impressive panel talking about how to recruit, support and promote women in all areas of the maritime industry. The event was organised by WISTA UK, part of the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association who were celebrating the International Day for Women in Maritime by announcing the name of the individual who has been awarded the WISTA UK Cadetship after interviews with a shortlist of outstanding candidates. OYT South was absolutely thrilled to find that this amazing opportunity has gone to Bayleigh Funnell – whose first time at sea was on board Prolific with her school! Bayleigh’s potential was clear from the start and she came back to us for volunteer bosun training, but now she will be starting at Warsash Maritime College, Solent University, in September, as an Engineering Cadet.
Bayleigh has written this for us about her journey:
“Before joining my first voyage with OYT South on board Prolific in 2021, I had no real interest in sailing or being on the water. I studied at Cowes Enterprise College on the Isle of Wight, where maritime careers were introduced to us from the early years of secondary school. Alongside this, we were offered a variety of water-based school trips, including an OYT South voyage, so I decided to sign myself up.
Spending that week at sea was a real eye-opener for me. Through sail training, I discovered something I truly enjoyed and learnt so much about myself in a very short space of time. Being local to Cowes was also a huge advantage, as I was able to join a crew who were happy to teach me and help me gain more experience in sailing and racing.
After this, I continued returning to OYT South and stayed in touch so I could join a second voyage. During this voyage, I achieved a skipper recommendation and attended a watchkeeper training voyage. I then went on to volunteer with OYT South, where I gained confidence and developed my leadership skills. I learnt from a wide range of knowledgeable sea staff with different areas of expertise on board, which allowed me to explore what life working at sea was really like and discover which path interested me most.
I later moved on to study at UKSA and became a watersports instructor, working three summer seasons and one winter season. Although I loved dinghy sailing, I realised that the experience of teaching on tall ships through OYT South was what I enjoyed most. I wanted something more from my career and applied for the Maritime London Officer Cadet Scholarship, kindly sponsored by WISTA UK, as an engine cadet. As they were selecting their first female cadet, I felt incredibly privileged to be offered the opportunity.
I will begin my studies at Warsash Maritime School in September 2026, with my sea time during training taking place with Oldendorff Carriers. WISTA has already given me so many opportunities to connect with people across the industry and build a strong support network that I’m sure will guide me throughout my cadetship.
I am incredibly grateful for the role OYT South has played in both my personal and professional growth. Through sail training, OYT South helped me discover my passion for the water and ultimately set me on the path towards a career in the Merchant Navy.”
10,000 young people take part in a sail training voyage in the UK each year and the gender split is approximately 57% male and 43% female. Over the last 5 years, 54% of ASTO/Trinity House bursaries for sail training staff and volunteers have gone to women. There is always more to be done – but sail training has a real part to play in promoting inclusivity and attracting talent to the maritime sector, and Bayleigh is a shining example of how a sail training voyage can set someone on the path to a maritime career.
Here’s a picture of Bayleigh (second from left) on her very first voyage with us:
And here’s Bayleigh third from right (different hair colour!) with the WISTA UK Board this week at Trinity House:
* Volunteers’ Week
Volunteers’ Week runs from 1st to 7th June and while we are hugely grateful all year round to our volunteers, this is a week when we really want to showcase and highlight volunteers and tell everyone how much they mean to us. If you want to be involved, can you complete the sentence “I like volunteering with Ocean Youth Trust South because ….”, either in writing or in a video, and send it to the office? The easiest option for a video may be to send via WhatsApp, if you are a member of the OYT South Community WhatsApp. Written contributions can be emailed to office@oytsouth.org, and you can include a photo, or we can use one we already have of you!
* Voyage news
The last newsletter was written as students from The Petersfield School were just completing their voyage. Their feedback included:
“I had an awesome time and loved winching, helming and all the other activities. I really appreciated how all the sea staff were super helpful but still allowed us to be independent and to figure things out by ourselves. Best bit: helming through the really rough weather when I had to squat and lunge to stay on the helm. Most lasting memory: sitting on the benches with my friends and having the waves splatter us and feel like I was on a rollercoaster.”
“This was so good!!! I really enjoyed making friends with people I don’t speak to at school. It was really challenging and fun and I really want to do it again. Best bit: the massive waves ’cause they were really fun.”
“I had the best time, learnt so much new skills. Lifelong experience, I would recommend it to anyone.”
“It was really fun and exciting. I had a once in a lifetime experience (the massive waves). I really enjoyed it. I liked when I cleaned the galley and the toilet because I felt very nice and clean. I learned a lot of new skills on this trip and had a lot of fun. I have definitely built my confidence during this week when I started to get to know people.”
“I love it, this is my second time and I will 100% be coming back again. I am into sailing and this has been an amazing eye-opening experience.”
“This is my first trip and it was amazing! I learned lots and had new experiences. Made lots of new friends and everyone was really friendly … I didn’t eat too much sweets and tried to try new food!”
“I had an amazing time this week where I have learnt so much and have met so many new people. The sea staff were really helpful and friendly. Would recommend and do again.”
“T’was absolutely spiffing I loved it I shall try to come again.”
“I loved it I want to come again as I had so much fun and met new people.”
“This was my 2nd time on Prolific and I had an amazing week. I am going to try to go again as it is a great experience.”
“It was really fun … The staff were really nice, it is for everyone.”
And from the school staff member who sailed with them: “I had a wonderful experience, the students were amazing, the crew were wonderful, I loved it. I definitely learnt some new things … Thank you, I would definitely come back next year. Thanks so much for giving us all a week to remember … Things like this just don’t come along very often and I just think it is something I will remember for the rest of my life.”
We also had this email from a parent:
“I earlier today picked up my daughter who was part of the Petersfield School sail this week and I just had to send you an email saying a HUGE thank you – she has come back with rosy cheeks, a croaky voice, utterly shattered but SO SO SO happy. She has had a wonderful time and cannot wait to come back next year! My husband and I very much appreciate all you have done to give her this wonderful experience – what a fantastic bunch of people you all are! Thank you!”
Big thanks to sea staff Constantinos, Patrick Kelly, Michelle van den Bergh, Unity Bowns, Aoife Harringtson, Sarah Kenwright, Dom Danks and Juno Hollyhock.
Last Saturday we enjoyed a birthday celebration voyage organised via our friends at the Seven Seas Baxter and Grimshaw Trust; who make generous donations to our bursaries fund each year – many happy returns, Suzanne, and thanks to Ray for organising it!
We had a visit from Cowes inshore lifeboat with our volunteer Willoughby on board – we had just finished making lunch and were about to pass some goodies over the side (always be nice to the RNLI) when they were called away in a hurry and did in fact save a life.
On Sunday we had a mix of guests – sponsors, donors and other friends of the charity.
Two lovely days with lovely people and a great atmosphere on board, with lots of new connections to follow up! Big thanks to sea staff Constantinos, Mark, Patrick Kelly, Glyn Collins, Annant Shah, Iori Kent, Theo Bennison, Millie Hughes, Andrew Page, Dom Coleman and Caz.
This week we have been sailing with Applemore College, with very generous sponsorship via the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation.
The crew joined on Monday afternoon and after introductions and briefings, sailed to Johnny Caulcutt’s buoy off Yarmouth in time for dinner and games before bed. On Tuesday they sailed off the buoy and had a very good sail in 25-30 knots of wind. They ended the day in Gosport and went ashore for showers before dinner, a chart chat, and more games.
Wednesday was a day of much tacking in winds that averaged around 30 knots but actually fluctuated wildly, from 12 knots to far too many knots – which made it difficult to settle on the right sail plan! But at one stage they found themselves flying upwind doing 9.6 knots. The young people were coping brilliantly with the conditions – on deck, joining in, working hard and never shying away from it when things were challenging.
They ended the day in Cowes.
Yesterday morning they went out under very deep reefs and had a party in the Solent with lots of music and dancing on deck in the sunshine!
Then back into Cowes to fuel up and a stop at Shepards while they prepared to navigate back to Southampton in the dark. The young people took charge and did a great job.
The voyage ended this morning with all the young people successfully earning an RYA Start Yachting qualification. They had completed 95 nautical miles and you can see their voyage track here.
Big thanks to sea staff Andy Viney, Josh, Glyn Collins, Annant Shah, Lucy Mitchell, Aaron Arnold, and special congratulations to Reya Batchelor and Katherine Chippett who both completed third mate qualifications!
* Volunteer sea staff bookings – PLEASE help!
Please do get in touch if you can help with any of these! Some of these dates are reappearing on the list because no sooner do we replace someone who has dropped out, than someone else drops out!
8-12 June, Southampton – qualified or trainee mate urgently needed as a reserve – we had someone in place but are now concerned their DBS may not come back in time
13-17 June, Southampton– space for a trainee mate
11-18 July, Poole to Brixham – qualified watchleader URGENTLY needed. Someone who is not yet a qualified watchleader but has good Prolific experience might be a real help if we can’t find anyone else. PLEASE help! We have filled one of the two spaces on this voyage but still need to fill the other.
NEW 12-16 August, Brixham – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun
31 Aug – 4 Sept, Poole to Southampton – qualified watchleader needed
26-29 Sept, Southampton – qualified watchleader or bosun needed
5-9 Oct, Southampton –qualified watchleader ideally needed, but possibly also space for a trainee watchleader
19-23 Oct, Southampton – qualified watchleader, and possibly space for a trainee watchleader as well
28 Oct – 1 Nov, Southampton – qualified watchleader
2 Nov – qualified watchleaders for day sail
Please send offers or questions to webmaster1@oytsouth.org.
Funding for sail training staff / volunteer qualifications
Are you a watchleader or bosun with us and committed to long-term involvement in sail training, already qualified to at least Day Skipper level, and looking to gain more qualifications in order to make progress? The Trinity House ASTO Bursaries Scheme could help you afford some courses, but under a new system starting this year, the application window is 1 April – 30 June each year, with no other rounds, and applicants MUST be endorsed by an ASTO member such as OYT South. If you are thinking of applying in this year’s window or simply want to know more about how it works, please contact us!
Sea Staff awards – nominations welcome
Regular readers will know that in recent years we have had our annual Gipsy Moth Award for Young Volunteer of the Year (aged 25 and under) – the current holder is Jack Thompson. But we have never had an award specifically for over-25 volunteers. This season, we are introducing the Brian Eyres Award, in memory of our late Skipper and Treasurer. Brian exemplified the best of volunteering, ashore and afloat, for OYT South as well as a range of other causes – he did so much in his lifetime and this award will be a way to recognise and remember his huge contribution to the OYC and to OYT South.
The Brian Eyres Award is not for long service or similar (we now have a series of long-service certificates for every five years that a volunteer spends with us). Instead, we want people to nominate volunteers if you see them doing something particularly impressive or heart-warming, ashore or afloat, in 2026. This could be something as simple as being the watchleader who took time to turn things round for a scared and unhappy young person on board; or the person who did a tough job in miserable conditions when no-one else wanted to do it; or someone who invented a brilliant activity to raise morale. It might be something which saved a voyage, but equally it could be something that no-one even noticed except you. Please email webmaster1@oytsouth.org with your nominations. Don’t worry about the age of the volunteer you are nominating – if we get anything for someone aged 25 and under, we can take it into account in the discussions about the Gipsy Moth Award (which is a collective decision by all the paid staff).
Nominations can come from anyone – other volunteers, staff, young people, parents and carers, clients, group leaders.
At the end of the year we will ask someone to look at nominations for the Brian Eyres Award and choose a winner to be announced at the next training weekend.
* Individual bookings for summer 2026
The 2026 programme is on the website and there is an availability list here.
There are just TWO voyages left this summer which have spaces – please spread the word and let’s fill the last few places!
12-16 August, Brixham to Brixham, 4 nights, age 11-16, passports not needed, £540 per person
31 Aug – 4 Sept, Poole to Southampton, 4 nights, age 11-25, £540 per person
Funding available for young people from West Berkshire
Do you know someone aged 11-16 living in West Berkshire who is having a hard time and may not get a holiday this summer? Thanks to a generous donor, we can offer one or two funded places on an exciting sailing voyage 12-16 August, starting and finishing in Brixham. Imagine dolphins, sunsets, beach BBQs (weather permitting!), making friends, sailing under the stars, taking the helm of a big sailing vessel, and earning a sailing qualification! Please spread the word. There is a nomination form here. Big thanks to the local paper in Newbury for publicising the scheme!
Adult voyages
There’s one more adult weekend this season:
9-11 Oct 2026, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £270 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
These weekends are ideal for people who want to find out more about the possibility of volunteering with us – but you are also welcome if you simply want to come along and enjoy a sail on board Prolific! Contact us to ask about booking.
2026 dates for your diary
Prolific has planned maintenance days this year and we always need lots of help (skilled or unskilled) – email refit@oytsouth.org to book yourself in for any of these:
Monday 1st June – Southampton
Saturday 27th June – Southampton
Sunday 23rd August – Brixham
Monday 12th October – Southampton
The 2026 OYT South AGM and Curry Night will be on Saturday 7th November.
Looking even further ahead, the next shorebased volunteers’ training weekend is set for 5th-7th February 2027 – keep it free!
Vessel tracking
Prolific’s vessel tracking is available on our website – you can look at any time to see where we are and where we have been sailing. Big thanks to Andy and Nick Viney who built us a whole new tracking system when the one we used to use was discontinued!
* Financial appeal
Big thanks this week to Nicholas Phillips, Brigid Leworthy, Trevor Goodhew, Edward Cherry and Pamela Swain 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. For example, one volunteer got a £17 donation when renewing their home insurance. Someone else earned nearly £10 from a VistaPrint order. A few donations like that from a hundred supporters and it starts looking like a really significant total each year.
Do tell us if you’ve got a really good donation from something you bought – these stories help to inspire others. Maybe you even order things online for business purposes and your employer would agree to donate to us like this – at no cost to them but a way to feel good every time they need new boxes of business cards or train tickets to get staff to a conference!
It takes a minute or two to sign up to Easyfundraising: you can do it on a desktop, tablet and/or phone, and you can install a widget that flags up when a donation is available. Once that’s done, imagine you’re looking to buy – say – a rainbow unicorn: just put “rainbow unicorn” in your usual search box, and the list of results shows you which sites come with donations, and how much. It’s up to you what to pick and whether to accept the donation from the site, but a huge choice of sites will offer a donation, often including the site you would normally choose to use for all your rainbow unicorn requirements – and it doesn’t cost you anything, you pay the same price you would pay anyway.
PLEASE click the link now and sign up!
We have already raised over £2,800 through Easyfundraising – huge thanks to everyone who has used it!
OYT South social media – please share as well as liking!
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, and these days we recommend Bluesky rather than Twitter/X – 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.
Chris Ellis Award – win £££s of the price of your next voyage
Open for 2026 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.
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.