Sea staff
Joining the team
There are four stages to joining the team as a volunteer watch leader:
Skipper's recommendation
Application form and mates fee, and CRB
Assessment voyage
Qualified mate
The first step, if you are new to OYT South, is to sail on the boat and aim to get a recommendation from the skipper to come back and train as a member of volunteer sea staff.
These recommendations are not necessarily about having extensive sailing experience, though this is always welcome. But the skipper will be looking for people who will be enthusiastic, committed and reliable, and who have the potential to lead, teach and look after a watch of young people, making sure they all enjoy their voyages, get as much as possible out of the experience and, above all, stay safe.
If you are aged 25 or under, you can book on any standard voyage in the normal way and try to earn your recommendation there.
If you are over 25, you will need to book on an adults-only voyage. People aged 16+ may also choose to try to get their recommendation on an adult voyage.
There are several adult voyages earmarked in 2009.
19-24 April 2009, Southampton (priority given to suitably-qualified prospective volunteer watch leaders), £300.
24-26 April 2009, Southampton (training weekend for current qualified second mates, third mates and bosuns), £150.
28 June - 4 July 2009 , Kiel (Germany) to Gdynia (Poland) £750
18-20 September 2009, Southampton (advanced training weekend for current qualified first and second mates), £150.
Other dates may be possible by arrangement.
They are charged at a subsidised rate, and we can also take your annual membership and mate's sailing fee out of your voyage fee.
These voyages can be booked by emailing the webmaster.
Doing one of these trips enables you to learn about our boat John Laing, a 72-foot ketch, and to find out how we work, without having to take responsibility for young crew members at the same time. If you enjoy the experience and feel that you have learned enough about the boat to have a go at teaching youngsters, then ask if the skipper will recommend you, so that you can be booked on an assessment voyage.
People sometimes ask why we don't have more training and familiarisation voyages for new sea staff; but the answer is that these voyages tend to give us about the right number of new people to join our sea staff each year. Any more and there would be a risk of encouraging people to get trained and qualified, only to find that we can't actually fit them on the boat to sail as mates.
It is possible for experienced sailors (usually those with RYA Coastal skipper or above) and those with other sail training experience to go straight to the assessment stage without a familiarisation voyage, in consultation with the skipper.
2) Application form, mate's fee and CRB
This stage can take a few weeks to complete, so you can always start the process before earning your recommendation - which would mean that you will be ready to move to the next step as soon as the skipper says yes.
You will need to download and print a mates application form (pdf version), fill it in and return it to us.
You will also need to pay a flat rate sailing donation of £100 (£70 concessions) plus annual membership of £36. If you have already booked on a voyage this year, then this sum will be taken out of your voyage fee in the first year - you won't have to pay twice. If you haven't paid for a voyage, you can pay your mate's fee by credit card over the phone (0845 365 6781); by cheque (payable to "Ocean Youth Trust South") and sent to David Salmon, General Manager, Ocean Youth Trust South, PO Box 203, GOSPORT PO12 9AZ; or you can donate online here:
Once you have paid your annual mate's fee, there is no further charge for any voyages on which you sail as a mate in that year.
If you are a taxpayer and have completed and returned a Gift Aid form (pdf), we can claim the tax back on this and any other donations you make.
Before you can take responsibility for young crew members on board, or sail as an adult on any voyage with children, you will need to have a Criminal Records Bureau background check, just to make sure there is no known reason why you shouldn't be working with young people. This can take several weeks to arrange, so please plan ahead! Sending in your mates application form will start the process, or you can email Brian Eyres for more information on arranging a CRB check for OYT South..
Once you have a recommendation and CRB clearance, your next voyage should be your assessment.
An assessment voyage must be a voyage with crew members aged under 25, lasting at least four nights. There are assessment forms which list all the areas to be assessed: these are available on the members-only section of this website (if you are a paid-up member, email the webmaster for a password),
During your assessment, you will start the voyage running a watch jointly with a more experienced OYT South watchleader – probably the first mate. The first couple of days of the assessment will include a great deal of training - you are not under exam conditions through the whole voyage! If all goes well, as you become familiar with the vessel and with OYT South routines, the watch will be progressively handed over to you. If this is successful, by the end of the voyage you should be happily taking responsibility for your watch of three to six young people. You will then have a debrief with the skipper and should be signed off as a mate – probably as a third mate to begin with, though an experienced sailor with strong youth work skills will sometimes be assessed as a second mate straight away.
Sometimes the skipper will decide that you need further training or experience in certain areas before you can be signed off as a qualified mate; or, occasionally, conditions may mean that you are unable to complete the assessment (for example, if it has been flat calm all week, we may need another chance to see how you run your watch under sail). If you don't complete your assessment, you should agree with the skipper what needs to be done next and, if appropriate, book a second assesment voyage.
Once you are a qualified mate, you can then sail whenever there is a suitable space on the boat, and in consultation with the skipper you may do further assessments and take on greater responsibility. If you need any certificates or qualifications as you progress within OYT South, we can help you to achieve this. The regular newsletter (contact the webmaster if you want to receive this by email) will keep you in touch with news about voyage vacancies, training days and other activities, such as the vessel refit, at which all sea staff are asked to help over the winter.
Click here to see some of our current volunteer sea staff. If you have just qualifed, make sure you send in a phot so that you can be added to this page.
