A group of schoolchildren were put through their maritime paces yesterday as they embarked on a weeklong series of sailing exercises as part of the America’s Cup Endeavour programme.

The students from T.N. Tatem Middle School and Sandys Secondary Middle School arrived at the Dockyard base bright and early to begin the community sailing project, which is aimed at leaving a sporting legacy in Bermuda.

Due to wind conditions, the group remained on shore and learnt how to launch and retrieve the boat and some technical aspects of sailing.

“The programme has been a big success with the children,” said Katrina Williams, programme co-ordinator for the America’s Cup Endeavour programme in the West End.

“There’s always a lot of smiles on the faces of the students.

“The week is based around the school curriculum day, so they are with us from 8am to 3.30pm and we go through all aspects of sailing from science, technology, art, engineering and maths to going out on the water and actually putting these different aspects into practice.”

The Endeavour programme was launched in October 2015 in the East End, and the West End operation began in February.

More than 400 students from the public school system have gone through the programme so far.

“Dockyard is the perfect place to launch these boats from, plus they also get to see the Oracle base and all the things associated with the America’s Cup,” Ms Williams said. “The project is a great way for them to learn skills and objectives in the classroom and then apply them to real life.”