This is Mental Health Awareness week – a subject that lies at the heart of our work, especially since the pandemic and seeing the lasting impact on young people’s wellbeing. A voyage with OYT South allows you to complete your Residential Project within a relaxed, informal environment where you will learn a great deal – but you will also have a fantastic time! Diggory says the young people are brilliantly engaged and are running lots of things for themselves. But big thanks anyway to the sea staff: Diggory, Adam Lane, Lauren, Iori Kent, Susanna Paynter, Frederik Ferner, Aoife Harrington and Richard White. Qualified sea staff (anyone who has previously sailed with us as a watchleader, bosun or engineer) and anyone who has already sailed as sea staff but is partway through training and assessment – ideally please give us voyage numbers of anything you would like to do ( see here for voyage numbers); or give us names of any regular clients you’d particularly like to sail with; or simply tell us the maximum number of days you can offer in 2024 and any times of year you can or can’t manage. Please be specific: “voyages in university holidays” only works if you tell us your exact holiday dates!

Big thanks to sea staff Diggory, Lauren, Unity Bowns, Glyn Collins, Aaron Arnold, Susanna Paynter and Callum Doyle. Sailing has always been much more than just a job for me, I have made some lifelong friendships through it and I have seen people discover strengths they never knew they had. 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.

Register Interest

They covered 141 nautical miles and twelve people earned RYA Competent Crew certificates (the other three already had it). Big thanks to sea staff Diggory, Brigid Stoney, Lucinda Neall, Martyn Powe, Julian Ware, Anna Owen – and special congratulations to Caitlin Neall-Johnston who completed her bosun assessment. And then they were ready to get under way, with lots of fun and laughter. Staff Skipper Diggory seems to be enjoying his return to sail training: My memorable bit would be the waves and getting absolutely drenched, I thought that was really funny, having the feel of, like, a roller coaster as we were going up and down the waves.” Please do share them with anyone aged 11-25 who might be interested in sailing with us – as well as with parents, grandparents, teachers, youthworkers and others. We still have some places to fill this year and the issue is not that there aren’t people wanting to sail – it’s that too many people who would love the opportunity don’t yet know about us! If everyone who reads this newsletter found someone new to give the link or a leaflet to, we could easily fill the remaining places.

As Christmas approaches, don’t forget these very special earrings, designed by Vurchoo based on a drawing by a Prolific crew member and with part of the proceeds coming to us to support our charitable work! You can read the full story here. In 1948 she was sold to Estonian refugees not wanting to be repatriated to Russia after WWll, and in July she set off for the USA with 69 men and women and at least ten children on board. She put into Dover, crossed Biscay in a storm and suffered damage; was saved by a Spanish three-masted ship and escorted into Pontevedra, north of Vigo. The fishing village helped the vessel to be repaired and the crew to recover. Next, she put into Madeira; she suffered more damage in a storm near the Bahamas; and finally on 20th September 1948 was escorted into Wilmington, North Carolina. The crew had no papers and the story goes that after their harrowing Atlantic crossing they pleaded for one night’s rest on board before being interviewed and possibly turned away. That night, Prolific sank in Wilmington Bay – readers can speculate as to the cause but it did mean that the Americans had no choice but to let them stay! The crew were then taken to Ellis Island to be processed as immigrants. A voyage with OYT South really can transform a young person’s life – and it can have an impact in so many different ways. This video tells JP’s story: You can also find three of the presentations from the training weekend (Safeguarding, Online Harm, and Understanding Autistic People), we have links to the handbooks for the new Raymarine kit we have on board – if you are going to be involved in any navigation this season, do have a look. And then we have the 2023 editions of the three main volumes of the Voyage Handbook:

Voyages available NOW

Essentially, it’s not simply a question of finding dates that work for individuals and then just booking you. What we have to do is put together a TEAM of staff and volunteers for each voyage, with a skipper, 1M, 2M, 3M, bosun and/or engineer and often but not always a trainee mate or bosun, and we can’t book anyone until we have at least some idea of who else is going to make up each team. For example, at least one adult on each voyage must be a woman, if there are girls in the crew; and then we have to think about special skills if the group includes people with disabilities or challenging behaviour. We also don’t want to end up with a voyage where too many of the volunteers are all newly-qualified at their particular level – each trip should include some people who are comfortable and familiar in their roles and therefore hopefully able to support others who are new to their own role. Then sometimes the client will be a school or charity where a staff member has qualified or wants to qualify as a volunteer, so needs a staff berth. Meanwhile, some client groups are just not suitable for brand-new trainee mates. Plus we have to think about some priority bookings (e.g. people who have been identified as potential first mates or skippers, if we can give them enough time on the boat). And we do promise that people who help the most with other things like refit or raising money or introducing us to new clients will be higher up the list to get their choice of voyages. Saturday was a maintenance day – big thanks to Diggory, Josh, Graeme Cole, Rob Jelley, and Nathan whom we met at the South Coast Boat Show. Nathan and Rob oiled the capping rail and it now looks lovely! The team also caught up with routine maintenance on a glorious sunny day with ice cream breaks … Diggory says: “Seriously everyone, you need to get involved in the next maintenance day – it was such a joyful day!”

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. 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. I am very excited in taking on the role of Staff Skipper on board the incredible Prolific . I am really looking forward to sharing this adventure with all of you. The process is that we will do a rota for the paid staff and book relief skippers, and then go on to booking relief first mates. After that we’ll look at a few other priorities (e.g. for training and assessment to senior levels) before allocating teams of people to fill the other roles on each voyage.In 1898 she was sold to Sweden and moved to the village of Halleviksstrand on the west coast, on the island of Orust (home to Hallberg Rassey, Najad and Malo Yachts). From there she spent the next half-century fishing in the North Sea, from Halleviksstrand to Utsire in Norway, to Shetland and Peterhead, to Skagen in Denmark. Ocean Youth Trust South depends on the immense support we receive from our volunteers – sailing on our boat, helping ashore, carrying out vessel maintenance, assisting in the office, raising funds, and spreading the word so that as many young people as possible hear about the opportunities we offer, and have the chance to come sailing with us. An excellent day, good vibe and great fun. The real bonus was learning about OYT South and the good work you do. Keep it up!” Dates open for individual bookings are as follows. Please state your age when applying – we can sail with young people aged 11-25 but we aim to organise compatible groups and not have too wide an age range on any voyage. After that, a couple of adult day sails allowed us to sail with sponsors and donors as well as to invite representatives of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch and Trinity House, as well as our local MP, plus some friends and family of the OYT South team.