Last Friday, the 22nd of March, a large crowd of supporters of the Anguilla Youth Sailing Club were treated to a Wine Tasting Evening at the da’Vida Beach Restaurant. There were six different varieties of wines chosen and graciously provided by Grands Vins de France, the largest distributors of wine on Anguilla. Philippe Jobert, Managing Director of the company came over from St. Maarten and was there to do the presentation, explain the fine points about the wines and answer the many questions that everybody had. He was assisted by Nathalie Lesenechal, the Anguillian representative for the company who operates the retail and wholesale store located at South Hill Plaza. There were also four very charming students from the Sailing School to help in the pouring and the cleaning up. The use of the outdoor facility was donated by da’Vida and the guests were thrilled to witness an almost perfect sunset with many searching for the famous “green flash” as the sun disappeared over the horizon. They were disappointed that the green flash did not materialize but they were in no way disappointed in the quality of the wine or the large choice of foods prepared by Mr. Laurie Gumbs of The Pumphouse and Tradition Cruises fame. There was a raffle where five special items provided by ZaaZaa Boutiques Anacaona Hotel, Kokoon Villas and Grands Vins de France were won and three very lucky and happy guests went home with door prizes donated by Kokoon Viilas, John Bedford and Grands Vins de France.
The evening was presented by the Anguilla Sailing Association, a non-profit organization that operates the Anguilla Youth Sailing Club (AYSC) and the sailing school located on Sandy Ground. The AYSC has been teaching sailing to kids from ages 4 to 17 since 2003. It employs a fully qualified instructor that runs daily sailing classes during school terms and sailing camps during the holidays. The Club has a policy that no child is turned away despite financial difficulties. As a result of this and the fact that boats (we have a fleet of over 23 boats) require a significant amount of maintenance the Club is not self financing. This means that the AYSC and its parent organization must constantly find ways to supplement the tuition funds. This is done in part by running the Anguilla Regatta every year which is kindly sponsored by the Anguilla Tourist Board but the rest must be raised through fund raisers and contributions by generous donors. This all requires huge efforts by our volunteers and supporters and without them we could not continue. So the Board of the Anguilla Sailing association would like to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to those who came out, those who provided the facilities and the wines and those volunteers who made sure it succeeded as well as it did. Mr. Donald Curtis, The President of the Anguilla Sailing Association stated “I did not know how much I did not know about wines and I am in awe of the knowledge that Philippe has at his fingertips. The evening was a tremendous success and we intend to do it again as soon as we all recover.” For anyone intending to take lessons for themselves or their children or wanting to help the school they can contact the school at 264-584-7245 or e-mail us at aysc@sailanguilla.com .
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
