Sail with us

There are many reasons to sail with Ocean Youth Trust South - sail with us and find your own adventure

Sail with us

“I loved every minute of it, it has changed my thoughts about going outside and getting stuck into things.”

I can’t tell you how much this kind of experience means to a child who struggles at school, rarely gets praised by teachers, often feels a failure, not reaching the mark, needs to try harder, could do better etc…etc…. What an absolute boost to his self-esteem this week has been … When he came home yesterday he was on such a high … Many many thanks to everyone involved, it is appreciated in so many ways.”  

“My favourite bit, I think that was actually probably doing where we were steering ourselves and planning our own route because that felt like a really big achievement … And then my most memorable bit was being on the net at the front and watching dolphins underneath, that was really cool”

There are many reasons to sail with Ocean Youth Trust South. We have a beautiful boat, Prolific, which offers safe sailing to novices, including young people with physical and learning difficulties, but is exciting enough to offer genuine adventure to those with more experience and confidence.

Most of our voyages are for young people aged 11-25 – sometimes sailing as part of an organised group, with a school, youth club or another charity, but sometimes joining a voyage for individual bookings and coming along to make new friends. We also offer occasional adult voyages, including training for people who want to sail as volunteer watchleaders and bosuns on our youth voyages.

Some people join our voyages to earn a sailing qualification (we are a Royal Yachting Association sea school) or to complete the Residential section of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award. Others come for an adventure holiday. Many will use a voyage to develop skills and qualities such as confidence, communication, teamworking, resilience, mental wellbeing and the ability to cope with new experiences. Some will want to challenge themselves or to use the voyage to show potential employers that there is more to them than simply their record at school or college.

Whatever your reasons for sailing with us, our aim is that everyone on board Prolific should stay safe, have fun, and achieve more than they expected!

This section of the website covers:

An introduction to how to sail with us
Information about group voyages, adult voyages, funding help, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and details for parents and guardians
Voyage availability, and how to book
Our vessel Prolific
Tracking Prolific while she is sailing
Videos
Before you sail – a page for young people about to join the boat for the first time
#SailToWellbeing – our programme for developing mental wellbeing on board
The Chris Ellis Award – a competition for people who have sailed once and would like to come again.

See here for feedback from people who have sailed with us!

 

Booking a Voyage

Guide to booking a voyage

Tracking our boat

Find out where we are sailing

Prolific bookings

We look forward to seeing as many people as possible on board Prolific. See here for our 2023 sailing programme.

Bookings for 2023

View the 2023 sailing programme

New sailing programmes tend to be published in the early summer each year for the following year, which means we start looking at the next year’s plans in around May each year. If you are involved with a group which would like to book one or more voyages on board Prolific, please contact caroline.white@oytsouth.org to discuss your requirements.

How to sail with us

Ocean Youth Trust South is an adventure sail training charity which takes young people aged 11-25 to sea in our 30-metre vessel Prolific.

Individual Voyages

Voyages for people aged 11-25

 Group Voyages

Introduction for adult leaders

Adult Voyages

Voyages for people aged over 18