In this Bulletin
Sections which have changed since last time marked *
- * Voyage news
- * NEW urgent volunteer sea staff vacancy – PLEASE help!
- NEW Annual Report and accounts
- 2027 sailing programme
- Sea Staff awards – nominations needed
- Adult voyages
- Planning a gap year, or not working over the winter? Join our refit core team!
- Dates for your diary
- AGM and curry booking! And is your membership up to date?
- Vessel tracking
- * Financial appeal
- Painting of Prolific – prints available to buy!
- Police Dog Hogan
- Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £3,100 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
* Voyage news
The last newsletter ended as a new client for 2026, the National Fostering Agency, were returning to Brixham for the end of their voyage. Feedback included:
“I have had an incredible time and I have loved being part of a team and learning new skills. I would definitely come again … My best bit was probably being able to help out as much as I could and being able to feel confident enough to offer support and not having to worry about whether I am doing it right ‘cos I felt confident … My most memorable bit was having a really good group around me and having a really nice time with everyone through this week so I’ve had a really, really lovely time.”
“Best 5 days of my summer … My best bit was probably laying up on the deck in the sun and seeing all the sails up and just starting appreciating the view. That was really nice.”
“Even though when I arrived I wasn’t as keen to do much, as I progressed through the days I really wanted to carry on and was loving the experience. I am glad I came even if it followed with worries. It was really fabulous and I am sure I would come back … I think my best bit is, like, just helping others and just doing it even though I was struggling, and just getting on … I think the most memorable bit was just being here, making friends and loads of other stuff.”
“I loved this experience so much I might just get a job here.”
“Very, very good experience. Getting to talk to new people and talking to people was amazing. Thank you OYT South. I’d love to come back. :-) … My best bit was probably hoisting the staysail with Tori and Hope (watchleaders). That was amazing, I loved doing that. And my most memorable bit is getting to work with new people and learning different things.”
“I have enjoyed this experience and found it as a wonderful week full of learning, fun and new things. I would 100% recommend and come back … The best bit was probably sitting on the bowsprit with the dolphins under us.”
“I really enjoyed sailing and making new friends and making new memories … My most memorable bit was yesterday, the sunset, it was just really pretty.”
“I have had a very good experience during my time. I have had to adapt to living on a boat. Thank you OYT I would come again … My favourite bit is most of what we’ve done.”
“I have enjoyed the travel and seeing the dolphins and learning how to do the sails and night watching. I had a lovely time with friends and eating ice cream. :)”
And from the adult leaders:
“BIG thank you for sharing Prolific with our amazing young people and us. It has been an amazing experience and something that will stay with us all. You are all fantastic!!! :-)”
“My best bit would be, I think, just spending time with everyone, the young people and seeing them grow in confidence, working together has been really, really lovely.”
“My best bit is working with all of you guys, meeting new people, seeing everybody work together as a team, becoming confident and just getting on with things and not really needing an awful lot of support because you actually know what to do.”
Big thanks to sea staff Andy Brown, Josh, Miranda Camping, Anna Owen, Tori Pickles, Tyler Grant, Pavan Kumar and special congratulations to Hope Haynes-Coote who completed her third mate qualification.
Then there was a maintenance day in Brixham – big thanks to Josh, Lee Mosscrop, Aaron Thomas-Epstein, Anna Owen, Brigid Stoney, Matts Kruger, Rick Donoghue, Tyler Grant, Hannah Blyton, Ishbelle Dean-James and Ella Hargreaves.
After that came another voyage for a mixed group of individual bookings, including quite a few people doing DofE Gold residentials.
This was a voyage bookended by strong winds. They spent the first night in Brixham, completing all their briefings and enjoying macaroni cheese for dinner. Then on Tuesday morning they set off for Fowey. Although the wind had dropped, it was still pretty bumpy as they sailed out of Torbay:
Although some people found the conditions challenging they soon recovered and together the crew still managed to eat their weight in fish finger wraps.
Next morning they enjoyed some time ashore in Fowey for ice-cream and showers. They also had a visit from former Staff Mate and now occasional relief skipper Lauren who was skippering the Sea Cadet boat TS City of London. They rafted up alongside and their crew came to look around Prolific, including going out on the bowsprit.
From Fowey they set off for Salcombe, with time out on the bowsprit under sail:
They had dolphins for company:
One of the young people helmed the boat into harbour and onto the buoy.
They had some more shore time in Salcombe before heading out on the afternoon tide to carry on heading east. The crew experienced some night sailing as they made their way to anchor in Swanage. They arrived at around 2:30 in the morning and got to see an amazingly bright moon (although they missed the lunar eclipse as everyone needed sleep!).
The next morning, they made their way to Poole, as some very strong winds were forecast so they needed to get the boat somewhere safe. The crew planned and carried out the pilotage into harbour, including helming, spotting buoys and using the VHF to speak to VTS.
Once in Poole they were treated to a tour of the RNLI college. Highlights were the simulator and learning about the history of the RNLI. Big thanks to our guides Gerald and Dave, and to Dave Dent for his help in arranging the visit.
On Saturday they had the day in Poole due to the strong winds (46 knots was the highest wind speed that was seen in the harbour!). The morning was spent finishing off Competent Crew qualifications, including sessions on knots, points of sail and dinghy rowing in some challenging conditions.
This was followed by pizza making for lunch before the Great Prolific Bake Off, judged by Paul Hollywood (skipper Lee) and Mary Berry (first mate Brigid). There were some amazing creations, including a 3D Prolific including cherry fenders and a blueberry bowsprit, and a scene of a stormy sea, complete with dolphins.
The voyage ended with all crew members who didn’t already have it earning their Competent Crew certificate.
They had sailed 201 miles and you can see their complete voyage track here.
Feedback included:
“I loved every second of the trip and have made friends for life. I’ve come out of my shell in a way I could not imagine. Best week of my life!”
“Had so much fun. I would if I could stay on forever.”
“Prolific is amazing! I’ve loved making friends with the crew AND the staff, everyone is so friendly. I really feel I have learnt a lot from this voyage, AND HAD A LOT OF FUN!!! … Best bit: sailing at night and not being able to see any land and seeing the moon and talking with my friends.”
Thank you for this week, I’ve had so much fun getting to know the boat more and all the other lovely people aboard! I can’t wait to come back again … Best bit: the whole week and every little thing, every day. Made it such an amazing experience. Standing on the bowsprit and looking out to sea was really cool and seeing all the sunsets on the water.”
“I have had the very best of times aboard Prolific, the crew are lovely … The voyage was great and it had many highlights including seeing porpoises. I rate it highly and thanks to everyone to make it lovely.”
“Thanks for a different experience on a big boat. It was also great fun meeting new people on the crew, it was a great time. Defo something to do again.”
“I have really enjoyed being on Prolific this past week. All the staff are so kind and fun too. I really enjoyed the night sailing. I hope to come back soon and maybe as staff someday … Best bit: having fun with my friends and like singing and just standing in front of the bow and like going up and down in the waves and getting really wet. Most lasting memory: has to be the bake off and just the pure chaos of flour and just everything.”
“Most lasting memory: night sailing, looking at the moon and looking back at the boat and not being able to see anything, any land. That’s the first time that I’ve not been able to see land outside of a plane.”
“It’s been a great voyage, definitely want to come back again. Maybe next time we’ll make it to the Channel Islands. The crew are very funny. Thank you :-) … Best bit: in the night sailing up at the front and watching out and eating Cheerio’s. That was fun.”
“OYT voyage is now the highlight of each year. I’ve met so many lovely people, crew and sea staff, and I’ve gained valuable sailing experience.”
“I’ve had an amazing time on Prolific and loved the sailing and learning new skills.”
“I have had an amazing time on Prolific. I have loved meeting loads of new people as well as learning a lot of new skills and having the best time doing it!”
“It’s been an amazing time. I have such a good time, the people are so friendly and the mealtime games are so fun. The sailing was great and I learnt a lot … Best bit: late night sailing, I really enjoyed that. It was really pretty as well.”
Big thanks to sea staff Lee Mosscrop, Josh, Brigid Stoney, Matts Kruger, Hannah Blyton, Aaron Thomas-Epstein and special congratulations to Rick Donoghue who completed his third mate qualification.
This week’s voyage was another mixed individuals’ crew. They joined on Monday but stayed in port that first night due to stronger winds. They did all the briefings in-depth, did some dinghy rowing and got the chance to explore Poole before dinner. Plans for the next day meant an early night was in order!
On Tuesday they had an early wake up and were straight up on deck and off, with breakfast underway while leaving the harbour. Then main, mizzen, staysail and jib went up and they set off for Alderney!
Twelve hours later they dropped the sails outside Braye Harbour and anchored for dinner. Then they had a game and some stargazing on deck before bed.
After breakfast on Wednesday they cleaned the boat and prepared pizza wraps to take ashore for lunch on the beach, with swimming, showers and a chance to explore the island. Back on board in the afternoon they had sessions on the chart and the weather, and those working towards RYA sailing qualifications learned about knots, distress signals, points of sail and more.
Those who already had Competent Crew certificates planned the pilotage out of Alderney. Then the crew had some free time before dinner, with card games and guitar playing – and there were more games after dinner.
Yesterday they had a quick breakfast at anchor before going out into the swell, and prepped the mainsail so it could be hoisted immediately the anchor was up. Then they headed out for another Channel crossing. The staysail also went up; but later in the morning they ran into reduced visibility and it was time for sound signals and extra focus on radar navigation.
Darkness fell as they approached the forts in the eastern Solent. Once past Portsmouth they dropped the staysail and mainsail and motored up through the north channel into Southampton Water spotting buoys. It was a late arrival in Ocean Village and time for bed. Wonderful to be back in our home port after 60 days away and a glorious summer in the west country!
They had sailed 178 miles, and you can see the complete voyage track here. Eight people earned RYA Start Yachting certificates and five got the more advanced RYA Competent Crew. We will include the crew’s feedback in the next issue.
Big thanks to sea staff Constantinos, Sara, Keri Hammond, Si Brammer, Iori Kent, Aaron Thomas-Epstein and Megan Flood.
* NEW urgent volunteer sea staff vacancy – PLEASE help!
Please do get in touch if you can help!
11-15 Sept, Southampton – qualified or trainee watchleader or bosun needed for a very rewarding voyage with brothers and sisters of people using a children’s hospice.
Please send offers or questions to webmaster1@oytsouth.org.
NEW Annual Report and accounts!
OYT South’s Annual Report and accounts for the year ending 31st October 2025 is now available on the website – do have a look! It contains far more than the financial statements – there are fact, figures and feedback from the year plus all sorts of information about the Trust and some of the people involved. Enjoy!
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 needed
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) – provisionally fully booked but please ask if you would like to go on the waiting list in case anyone drops out.
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.
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 – just one left this year:
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!
AGM and curry booking! And is your membership up to date?
Our AGM and social evening will be on 7th November – you can see the details and book your curry here.
Don’t forget that although anyone can attend the AGM, you can only vote if you are a member of the charity. If you are unsure about whether you are a member at the moment, please ask. You can pay your membership fee here – either as a non-sailing membership, or as part of your annual mates’ fee for sailing volunteers. There are reduced rates for under-25s, and sailing volunteers of any age who can’t afford to pay their annual fee can talk to us about bursary support – no-one should be deterred from sailing as a watchleader or bosun by the cost. But anyone who is regularly involved with the charity ought to be a member, able to have a say at the AGM, elect the Trustees and influence the future direction of the charity.
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 this week to Peter Binning and Fred Cole for very kind donations.
Thanks also to a donor who prefers to remain anonymous, for a very generous contribution towards bursaries for young people who could not otherwise afford to sail.
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.
Painting of Prolific – prints available to buy!
Several years ago our friend, renowned marine artist Colin Baxter, painted this picture of Prolific and people were offered the chance to buy prints. It has been suggested that we should offer another chance for people to buy one!
The unframed prints measure 370mm x 230mm plus border. They will be numbered and signed, and will cost £70 if you can pick yours up in Southampton, and £75 if you need it posted to somewhere in the UK (they will probably come rolled in a cardboard tube). See here to order. Anyone outside the UK wanting to order a copy, please email us.
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 if you haven’t heard their music before:
Raise funds for OYT South if you’re shopping online – we’ve made over £3,100 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 £3,100 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.