Farewell Lauren Mackenzie!
We’re immensely proud of the progress that Lauren has made with OYT South – but sadly this means she has now outgrown the role of Staff Mate and it is time for her to move on to start working as a Skipper!
Lauren first came to OYT South to do her DofE Gold residential at the age of 16. You might be able to spot her in this group, during John Laing’s final season before Prolific came into service!
She was invited to return as a volunteer and sailed as a bosun on a number of voyages before qualifying as a third mate on the first opportunity after her 18th birthday, and being upgraded to second mate later that season. Meanwhile she was completing a maths degree. She might have made even quicker progress in sailing if we hadn’t then lost a season and a half to Covid, but in 2022, aged just 22, she passed both the RYA Yachtmaster exam and her OYT South First Mate assessment – and started work as our Staff Mate at the end of the year.
She’s now done two seasons in that role, as well as two challenging refits where she had a lot of responsibility as we had significant gaps between Staff Skippers in both winters! Everyone who has sailed with Lauren knows how talented she is, and we have seen her invaluable positive impact on young people, staff and volunteers.
In February this year at the UK Sail Training Conference, Lauren won the award for Best Potential Sail Training Skipper, and this season she has taken every opportunity to develop her skills and realise that potential. In early September 2024 she successfully completed the first of two parts of an OYT South skipper assessment, and in October she completed her skipper qualification by passing Part 2, confirming the view that she is ready for command and for new opportunities outside as well as within the OYT South family.
She has some exciting plans for when she leaves us – beginning with a voyage from the Canaries to Cape Verde and on to the Caribbean as part of the ARC+, She is also aiming to do some freelance work as skipper with other organisations, as well as making use of her RYA Cruising Instructor qualification. Any organisations which can employ Lauren will be very lucky to have her, and of course we hope to see her back on board Prolific from time to time!
If you would like to contribute to Lauren’s leaving present, you can donate via the PayPal button below, either using your own PayPal account if you have one, or using a credit card.
If this really doesn’t work for you, you can send a cheque made payable to Ocean Youth Trust South (with a note explaining it is for Lauren’s leaving present) to:
Ocean Youth Trust South
Unit 2
Endeavour Building
Shamrock Quay
Lower William Street
Southampton
SO14 5QL