Raising a Glass to the Past, Present and Future

A chance meeting with a member of Ramsey RNLI led to the creation of a partnership between Fynoderee Distillery and the charity.

The Fynoderee Distillery has announced that it is partnering with the RNLI charity to raise funds with a special ‘Coastal Collection of Spirits’ to mark the organisation’s 200th anniversary.

With next year marking the RNLI’s second full century of saving lives at sea, Fynoderee’s Tiffany Kerruish said a chat in Ramsey led to the creation of the spirit, with 9% of the sale price of each bottle sold being donated to the charity.

She said: ‘It all started about a year-and-a-half ago, a bit of a chance conversation with one of the ladies from Ramsey Lifeboat Station who bumped into me in Parliament Street in Ramsey and she was telling about the fact that the RNLI is turning 200 years old next year and she thought it would be a nice idea for Fynoderee to come up with some kind of commemorative spirit.

‘So we had a little think about that and thought what an amazing idea that would be and the idea kind of grew legs of its own and went from being something quite small maybe for Ramsey to something for the whole island and now something that hopefully will be able to promote and shine a light on the history of the island’s connection with the RNLI right across the British Isles.’

RNLI

Allen Corlett, operations manager at Peel RNLI, added: ‘We’re very very proud to be working with Fynoderee, such a prestigious local company. We have a small panel on the Isle of Man that are working towards celebrating the 200th anniversary. We started work about two years ago because we wanted to make the Isle of Man at the forefront of the 200 celebration and part of that has been trying to get prestigious events, prestigious products to be associated with it us.’

As part of the partnership, Fynoderee will also be aging some rum in the Tower of Refuge (before you get your snorkels out, it will be well locked up) some of which will be on sale, while the rest will be sent in bottles to every lifeboat station across to auction off to raise funds for the RNLI across the British Isles.

History

A Yorkshireman by birth, Sir William Hillary came to live on the Isle of Man in 1808, where he made his home at Fort Anne.

Having taken part in life saving missions, he realised a body was needed to help save people who take to the seas and, with King George IV as patron, the National Institution for the Preservation of Lives and Property from Shipwreck was born, later to become the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

More

Find out more about the gin, or buy some, click here. And for more on your local Lifeboat Station, the island is home to five, Douglas, Peel, Ramsey, Port Erin and Port St Mary, each has its own Facebook page and website.