In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * First mate news and a job ad
- * Last few places for young people this summer!
- * Voyage news
- * Volunteer sea staff bookings – PLEASE help!
- 2027 sailing programme
- Sea Staff awards – nominations welcome
- Adult voyages
- Planning a gap year, or not working over the winter? Join our refit core team!
- 2026 dates for your diary
- Vessel tracking
- * Financial appeal
- Police Dog Hogan
- Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £3,000 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
* First mate news and a job ad
Regular readers will know that our Staff Mates are normally on a two-year contract as this is very much a training and development role – and sadly that means we will be saying goodbye to Sara Abdur at the end of the season!
Sara first sailed in 2019, aged 17, on a school voyage. She earned a recommendation to return for volunteer training, which she began at the end of that season. After the pandemic, Sara was back, passing a bosun assessment in August 2021, third mate in April 2022, and spending the second half of that season full-time with us as Staff Cadet before being upgraded to second mate in April 2023. She became a refit core team volunteer and was our Youth Trustee; and eventually, after graduating, she became our Staff Mate for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, passing a first mate assessment and gaining many qualifications along the way.
It really is time for Sara to take all that experience and spread her wings, moving on to different boats and different organisations and different ways of doing things. We hope she will be back as a relief mate and we would be so proud if she becomes a sail training skipper in future!
Sara always brings the fun and joy (and not a little mischief), and we’d like to make a record of some “best bits”, so if you want to share your favourite example of incidents and antics on board, do send them in to webmaster1@oytsouth.org. We will also be setting up a collection for her leaving present fund in due course.
This the earliest photo we can find of Sara, from her first voyage with her school:
And here’s a photo from last week:
Similar pictures but oceans of experience, skills, competence, confidence, fun and laughter lie between them!
We still have Sara with us for several months but we are announcing the news now in order to give ourselves time to look for a worthy replacement as Staff Mate:
Job advertisement
Ocean Youth Trust South is looking for an outstanding Staff First Mate for our 105-foot sail training vessel Prolific, to deliver exceptional voyages for young people aged 11-25.
You can find full details with job description, person specification and how to apply here. Closing date for applications is midday Monday 31st August.
* Last few places for young people this summer!
The 2026 programme is on the website and there is an availability list here.
There are just TWO voyages left this summer which may have spaces, especially if not all provisional bookings are confirmed – 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, £540 per person. The age range for this one was not originally specified other than our general 11-25 range; but in practice bookings so far are aged 17-24.
If those dates don’t suit you, have a look at our 2027 programme!
* Voyage news
Last week’s newsletter left a mixed crew of individual bookings enjoying Salcombe. They had a game of beach volleyball on a wonderful beach.
Next morning they walked to another beach and had a swim and played more volleyball before going to Salcombe Yacht Club for showers and a chance to enjoy the view of Prolific in the river.
Once the tide was right, they set off again and hoisted sails:
Sadly, once again there was no wind so they motored to Dartmouth with dolphins playing around them. Fajitas for dinner followed by games on board.
On the last day they were up at 0630 and everyone packed and cleaned the boat while motoring round to Brixham for the final debrief and farewells.
They had completed 184 miles at sea and you can see their full voyage track here.
Feedback included:
“This has been one of the best weeks of my entire life. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time aboard Prolific … The best part of this trip for me was being able to, on the first night, see the entirety of the Milky Way galaxy in a single night. So many souvenirs from so many different planets.”
“Genuinely the most fun I’ve had in years. The crew were fabulous and I had the chance to make friendships greater that most back home.”
“This was an amazing experience that I think many people should have. You learn about yourself, the boat and others. The sea staff are amazing, kind and patient. I loved it.”
“This was the first time I had ever sailed and I don’t think I have ever learned so much in 6 days in my life! Everyone, crew and sea staff, were so much fun and it was a great time. Saw dolphins for the first time too! … The best bit was the night watch – taking the 1am to 4 am and being woken up and it was so exciting, especially taking the helm for the first time ever at like 1 in the morning which was really cool.”
“I’ve had an amazing experience on Prolific this week. I’ve made some great friends and I have learned to work in a team. I thank all the crew and sea staff … I think the least favourite bit I must admit I think it must be the multiple wake-up calls … like Thunderstruck playing at 6 o’clock in the morning. … I think the most memorable thing has got to be like the experience I’ve had. Literally everything, like meeting people, going sailing, learning new things and I think I’ve had a really good time.”
“One of the funnest trips I can remember. The staff and crew were great. I would not have wanted to have it any different … I think my best bit was talking and interacting with the crew and sea staff, asking questions about why we do stuff and how we do stuff. Even if we have a 10-minute long conversation which at the end is basically “we do it because we do it” … All the people I’ve met are going to stay with me for a very long time, both sea staff and crew alike.”
“This is the most enjoyable voyage I have ever been on and the crew were so friendly and supportive to the other people on the boat.”
“Most lasting memory probably seeing all the dolphins leap out of the water.”
“At the start, I had never been on a yacht before, by the end I learnt lots, felt more confident and met so many awesome people.”
“This was really great, sailing was really fun, learning new things was amazing. The night sailing was amazing. Thank you to all of the sea staff … The most memorable bit was just meeting everybody here and having the opportunity to sail on a big boat. Not many people can do that so it was really nice.”
“I loved learning all the knots and sailing with my watch group last night. I would love to come again.”
Big thanks to sea staff Constantinos, Adam Lane, Rob Lawrence, Mark Dent, Glyn Collins, Theo McKay and big congratulations to Penny Herschel who completed her third mate assessment!
Next came a new client, South Brent Explorers. They joined in Brixham last Saturday and after the usual briefings they headed for Dartmouth. People had a chance to steer and they saw the first dolphins of the voyage, and had dinner under way. Watchleader Tom Hounsham took charge of the pilotage and the park – a tricky one, downtide, the wind blowing Prolific off and two boats rafted up behind them on the approach, with only half a pontoon available. Tom did a great job.
Next day it was very windy as they left the dock and motored up river, allowing them to practise winch drills and get the sails ready in sheltered waters:
They set reefs in each sail and prepared the ORC, our smallest headsail:
They eventually hoisted sails in the entrance to the Dart River and sailed out. Although it was windy, it was an offshore wind and the sea was dead flat.
They did a few tacks and a man overboard recovery exercise:
Then Tom had to sail the boat onto at anchor next to a town called Beesands. This a photo of Tom thinking hard while Gotch doesn’t have a care in the world:
They got up at 4am the following morning to a pretty red sunrise, to sail across the channel:
The forecast wind didn’t show up and they motor sailed across to beautiful Guernsey and St Peter Port and got the sails tidied:
The young people went ashore for showers after supper, and next morning had a chance to explore the town. Back on board they worked towards their RYA qualifications, with sessions on knots, parts of the boat and points of sail.
Then they took packed lunches and went to Candie Park where the Guernsey Museum is. This park is high up and has a panoramic view of the islands including Jethou, Herm and Sark, and as far as the French mainland in the distance. This is also where Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables.
The crew borrowed the key to Victoria Tower, built for Queen Victoria, and scaled the 100 foot tower to see even better views. (Amazingly this was completely free – you just borrow the key from the museum).
Back on board it was time for sessions on reefing and rowing.
After this they set off for Icart, an anchorage in the south of Guernsey, piloting in past the rocks.
They had a beautiful red moonrise out of the ocean and could hear the waves lapping onto the shore and birds singing into the night, and see a lighthouse flashing on mainland France.
The following morning they got up at 6 am and motored across the Channel. Halfway across, almost everyone was on deck to see a minke whale which breached right next to Prolific blowing a spout out of its breathing hole. It was very memorable.
The wind suddenly filled in and they started to sail with main mizzen, staysail and jib. As they approached the UK coastline it picked up to a Force 5 and Prolific was fully powered up doing 9.5 knots constant speed – much enjoyed by all on board.
They dropped the jib in the wind shadow of Berry Head and then got all of the young people to do a tack on the helm and on the sheets. Tom then put Prolific at anchor next to Paignton for the evening, and they had dinner on deck to a beautiful sunset.
On Thursday morning they motored back to Brixham and did final cleanup and debriefs.
They had sailed 195 miles and you can see the complete voyage track here. Eight people earned RYA Competent Crew certificates and two got Start Yachting.
Feedback included:
“I really enjoyed my time on the boat and with the crew. Everyone was great with supporting me and my friends’ needs. I particularly had fun learning a bunch of new skills for sailing which gave me a new-found confidence and a deeper love for the ocean. I would recommend to anyone to come on the boat and join in to the best of your ability.”
“Before I left I was a bit nervous about the trip. However, by the end I have really enjoyed it and hope to do similar events again … Best bit: when we were coming back, when it was really tilted over when I was controlling it, and trying to keep it on the heading – that was really fun.”
“At first the nerves were telling me not to get on, but it was one of the best experiences I have ever had … Best bit: reaching Guernsey and all the sailing, like when we were at an angle.”
“At first I was very apprehensive as to the nature of the trip and whether it would suit me, but afterwards I am extremely pleased to have come and learnt how to navigate and log, along with many more practical skills.”
“This week has been amazing and I would love to come again … Best bit:. getting the best ice cream I have ever seen. Most lasting memory: I got up at 4am and it sucked!”
“I was able to improve my skills from a previous comp crew qualification. I also felt like I was looked after well… Most lasting memory: being able to lead the staysail hoist.”
“I was able to develop countless new skills thanks to the crew’s leadership and assistance. Great voyage.”
“Just being on the bowsprit and being able to see the waves, that was really cool.”
And from the leaders who sailed with them:
“All of the young people had an amazing time and definitely made the most of their time on board. The sea staff were very friendly and helpful and ready to deal with any scenario.”
“Best bit: definitely yesterday when she fully powered up, stretching her legs, that was amazing.”
“Just been overall a wonderful experience, the young people just being amazing … Thank you for supporting all the young people and giving them such a fantastic experience!”
Big thanks to sea staff Constantinos, Sara, Clara Theil, Lucy Mitchell, Aaron Arnold, Rick Donoghue, Terry Patterson and special congratulations to Tom Hounsham – many of you will have guessed from the descriptions above that he was doing a first mate assessment, which he passed. This is a really significant qualification as the first mate must be able to take command if the skipper is ill or injured and get the vessel and crew to a safe haven: it’s a big step up from watchleading with all the support around you, and we are very proud of all our first mates.
* Volunteer sea staff bookings – PLEASE help!
Please do get in touch if you can help with any of these!
26-29 Sept, Southampton – qualified watchleader or bosun needed
28 Oct – 1 Nov, Southampton – qualified watchleader
2 Nov – qualified watchleaders for day sail
Please send offers or questions to webmaster1@oytsouth.org.
2027 sailing programme
Our 2027 sailing programme is now on the website and we are OPEN for group bookings (full-boat bookings for 12-15 young people). Please contact caroline.white@oytsouth.org to discuss voyage options for a school, charity, local authority or youth group.
There are currently a couple of voyages showing on the programme as designated for individual bookings in school summer holidays and these are now open for bookings (one is our annual shorter UK-only voyage for 11-16-year olds, the other is open to people up to the age of 25) but the intention is to add at least another four individual voyages soon – please contact us if you would like to be informed when the full set of individual voyages is confirmed.
There are also two 2027 adult weekends – ideal for new prospective volunteers to come and find out more!
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.
Adult voyages
There’s one more adult weekend this season, and two next year:
9-11 Oct 2026, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £270 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
23-25 April 2027, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £275 per person, adult weekend voyage (Friday evening to Sunday evening)
17-19 Sept 2027, Southampton, 2 nights, age range 18+, £275 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.
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.
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:
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 Millennium who built us a whole new tracking system when the one we used to use was discontinued!
* Financial appeal
Huge thanks once more to all the people who are so kindly donating in memory of our friend and Chair of Trustees, Penny Scott-Bayfield.
Thank you also to the people still donating at the request of Gill Beddow in lieu of presents for her 80th birthday!
And thank you to Andy Grimbleby, DJB Memorial Fund (in memory of Kit Power), and for an anonymous donation on Justgiving!
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.
Police Dog Hogan
Regular readers will know that our Trustee Eddie Bishop plays the fiddle in the band Police Dog Hogan. They are playing in Exeter on Saturday 5th December, and then three nights in London, at the Half Moon, Putney, on 14th, 15th and 16th December. There will be OYT South people at several of these shows – come and join us – tickets here. You can find the band on YouTube but an appropriate song for our sailing community would be this one which they did with the RNLI (and eagle-eyed viewers might spot our new Vice Patron and former RNLI CEO Mark Dowie in the background).
Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £3,000 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 £3,000 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.