The check was delivered by Angela Burns, Marketing Executive of Digicel, and presented to Omauni Francis who will be the captain of the KATS boat entry at this year’s Premier’s Cup. “This is the fourth year that Digicel has been a platinum sponsor of the KATS Premier’s Cup” said Ms. Burns. “The KATS pledge, to introduce all children to healthy and safe water sports activities, is what we at Digicel like to endorse. We are very impressed by the new developments KATS has implemented in the last few years and we are excited to be part of it.”

KATS teaches children swimming, basic sea skills, boat handling and safety, scuba and sailing.

Chris Ghiorse the KATS Executive Director commented, “I am really looking forward to the Premier’s Cup this year, because we have made a great effort to bring a full KATS team to the event, which to my knowledge has never been done before. We started the year with 21 students vying for six spots and we now have the team selected. None of this would have been possible without the financial commitment of our sponsors. Digicel as a platinum sponsor has been instrumental in making this particular program possible.”

Mr. Ghiorse explained. “The KATS students have no real racing experience, but with help from the Royal BVI Yacht Club and their youth development coach Omari Scott, the team has been able to learn basic racing skills and they are now sailing together well enough to attend the regatta and continue learning. Five of the six members of the team are under 15 and my objective is to keep them sailing together for the next three or four years. In that time frame they will still be eligible to compete in the Premier’s Cup. With the amount of experienced racing sailors around willing to share their knowledge, I think we have a program that could create a competitive or even winning team from students that would never have had the opportunity to sail let alone race without the existence of KATS and its supporters. Imagine the positive impact that will have on kids in the future and how they look at sailing and water sports in general.”

With three weeks to go there are 10 teams confirmed. Last year’s winning team from Anguilla and teams looking to challenge them from Antigua, Bahamas, Cayman, Nevis, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, Tortola, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States.

According to Ghiorse, “the public is welcome to come and watch the event on Saturday and Sunday, July 14th and 15th to meet the competitors and watch the action. There will be a VIP boat making frequent trips on both days to take spectators out on the course to see the sailing up close.”