sophie rennie
Sophie Rennie is a relative newcomer to Dartmouth but in seven short years she has immersed herself fully into local life and enjoys a variety of key roles in the town.
First and foremost she is the Navy Cadets Liaison Officer at Britannia Royal Naval College – a job which led her to relocate to Dartmouth from Exeter in 2015.
She has since also taken over the role of organising the thrice annual college balls for the hundreds of newly commissioned Royal Naval Officers who celebrate their passing out with family and friends.
To boot, Sophie is also a volunteer deputy launch authority and joint press officer for Dart RNLI Lifeboat, the chief powerboat instructor at Dartmouth Yacht Club, a member of the Friends of Dartmouth Orchard and the Dartmouth Litteracy Society litter picking group which she co-runs with Andora Glanville, and has recently become a town councillor.
She is also a national instructor for the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) and finds time in her busy life to care for her 92-year-old mum who lives with her at home.
Born in Glasgow but brought up in Newmarket, Suffolk, Sophie boarded at St Felix School in Southwold, which she loved, before gaining a Joint Honours Degree in sports science and geography at Brunel University London, followed by a Master of Philosophy in exercise physiology.
It was while travelling after taking time out following her education that Sophie experienced something that would alter the course of her life.
“When I was in Australia I found myself wanting to dive the Great Barrier Reef, and I got the bite there,” Sophie said.
Twelve years later she became a national instructor for the BSAC.
“Diving has since taken me all over the world; training and running courses. The Galapagos Islands are my favourite because there is big shark life, manta rays and turtles – it’s just wow-factor diving.”
Diving also led to Sophie’s career as an MOD civil servant.
“In 2000 I was brought onto the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) team because I was a BSAC national instructor and also a RYA (Royal Yachting Association) powerboat instructor.
“We run camps and courses for CCF cadets countrywide, although the ones I am involved with are generally at HMS Raleigh and BRNC Dartmouth.”
Sophie became a Sub Lieutenant Royal Navy Reserve (RNR) after an intense week-long course learning the navy basics, and eventually landed the job as liaison officer at BRNC.
“My role is to plan and execute visits by CCF school contingents.” explained Sophie.
“We invite youngsters, who are aged between 14 to 16 in the main, to the college for the weekend about four times a term.
“I introduce them to the Hindustan, which is the grey ship at Sandquay, which is their home for the weekend, and I take them out on the river in either the picket boats or the motor whalers. We go up to the castles or to Dittisham and they get to have a go on the helm.
“They get a fire fighting fun thing with some of the officer cadets and then we do the low ropes course which is all about trust, working as a team and leadership.
“I get them out on the parade ground and we do some drill with ‘Simon Says,’ and a real highlight is to go and see the college beagles.
“We also have a bridge simulator so they can drive a ship into harbour somewhere, but we make it a bit more fun than the real guys and crash into things, give them the northern lights or make it a very rough sea, which they love!
“I also give them a tour of the college and if I’ve got enough surface cover I put on a try dive, or run them through the naval swim test.”
BRNC’s passing out balls used to be organised by a rota of different lieutenants at the college, but it was after one of them started to plan a ball resembling a “student union” series of bars and nothing else that Sophie was asked to take over.
“He was stood down with two weeks to go because he didn’t have any bands or anything booked,” she recalled.
“So the committee, which I was on, sat down in someone’s office and booked everything and made it happen.
“After that the commander asked me to take it on as I am here all the time and the navy staff tend to move on after two years.”
Sophie approached RNLI Dart three years ago.
“I went in all guns blazing saying ‘Hi, I’m a power boat instructor, diver, coxswain, assessor – I’ve driven boats all my life…’ and they were like, ‘Yeah, forget that, you will never be a helm or boat crew because you are too old,’” she laughed.
Instead, Sophie became one of the charity’s deputy launch authorities (DLA) and is on duty six days each month.
“If the pager goes off I phone the Coastguard and find out what’s up, then depending on what it is I make the decision to send either the big boat if it’s further out to sea and can cope with heavier weather conditions, or the little boat if it’s up river and the tide is low.
“If we get three or four shouts in a day or weekend it’s quite onerous, especially if you are the DLA because you’ve got to do shedloads of paperwork. So we try to share the workload and look after each other”.
“But it has been a really positive thing for me, as when my mum moved down, I was spending so little time at the college because I was working at home a lot, and I started to lose social contact with my colleagues up there.
“To have a different set of friends at the lifeboat who are all locals, from all walks of life and know so much about Dartmouth has been amazing.”
This year Sophie joined Dartmouth Town Council after several people encouraged her to try for councillor.
“I didn’t know if I was going to be too busy but there was a vacancy mid-term and I thought ‘well it’s only for two years,’ she said.
“We are 16 eclectic people who all have different ideas.
“It’s quite interesting to go and see what people have to say and then ask them why they are saying that and if they have thought about looking at it a different way.
“I’m a good challenger of what has always been and listening to people because, if you do, you get to hear about what the town is going through.
“Dartmouth seems to be a town of two different parts. We all need to work together to ensure that the town’s harmony is as good as it can be.
“I want to try and close that gap a bit because we are all in it together.”
Sophie first visited Dartmouth while preparing for her national instructor exam on board the dive boat MV Maureen of Dart.
“When I got the job at BRNC the commute from Exeter was just hideous, so I bought a house in Pathfields and I love it here.
“I’ve got great neighbours and we all look out for each other.”
First published in By The Dart magazine October 2021
