Sea staff
Sea staff profiles
This page has profiles of our full-time professional sea staff. See here for a selection of the volunteer and relief staff.
Staff skipper, Constantinos Jensen
Constantinos (aka Gotch) joined as Prolific’s Staff Skipper in January 2024.
Constantinos is a very experienced Yachtmaster Instructor who came to us after some years instructing at UKSA, who describe themselves as “the world’s leading provider of maritime training”. Constantinos had been skippering their Farr 65, running Yachtmaster training. He has 12 years’ experience in the sailing industry, including time spent as a sailmaker as well as training and coaching racing sailors in events from the Clipper round the world race through to the Fastnet Race.
It was this last experience that sparked his interest in sail training. Many of you will know of our regular voyages with Greig City Academy in Haringey, which, through the Scaramouche sailing trust, has a remarkable reputation for giving sailing opportunities to inner-city young people, and back in 2017 realised an ambition to become the first state school to compete in the Fastnet race. Constantinos coached the Greig City Academy crew for the 2019 Fastnet and has seen the difference that sailing has made to their lives. He has also worked with the SeaChange Foundation at UKSA – all of which convinced him that the most fulfilling next step in his career would be to become a full-time sail training skipper.
On being appointed to the role, Constantinos said:
“Dear all,
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.
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.
What I’m most looking forward to is creating an environment where our young sailors can pick up not just sailing skills but also life skills that will stay with them such as teamwork, resilience, and adaptability. I am also just very excited to sail Prolific, she seems like a perfect boat for the voyages we are on. I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun, build friendships and ignite a lifelong love for the ocean.
Fair winds,
Constantinos Jensen”
Staff engineer, Josh Caudrey
Josh did several voyages as bosun during his marine engineering apprenticeship. By the time he was a fully-qualified marine engineer, OYT South was making the transition from John Laing to Prolific, a larger and more complex vessel. Once we decided that we should employ an engineer rather than a bosun, Josh was our only choice for the job. He has been sailing with us full-time since the start of the 2016 season and is an immensely experienced second mate as well as a skilled engineer who knows Prolific inside and out.
Staff mate, Sara Abdur
Sara first sailed as a crew member on a school voyage in 2019. She then came back and volunteered on a winter refit. and qualified as a watchleader. In February 2022 she was awarded the Gipsy Moth trophy as our Young Volunteer of the Year, and she spent several months of that year full-time with us as our Staff Cadet. At the end of that she returned to university to complete her degree but continued to sail as a volunteer, and also served on our Board as Youth Trustee. After graduating she was able to spend more time working on her sailing qualifications and experience, and she came back to us full-time in November 2024 as Staff Mate.