Bermuda’s young sailors got a sneak preview of the America’s Cup Community Sailing Programme yesterday.

With the programme’s first eight Hobie Wave catamarans arriving on the Island this week, the opportunity to test the boats with 14 youth sailors was too good an opportunity to pass up.

America’s Cup sailors Jimmy Spithill, Tom Slingsby, Rome Kirby and Andrew Campbell from Oracle Team USA were joined by Dean Barker, the newly appointed SoftBank Team Japan skipper, and they all served as the crew on the Hobie Waves, with the youth sailors handling skippering duties.

Shirley Robertson, the double Olympic gold-medalist and host of the CNN Mainsail television programme, took out another boat, as did five-time America’s Cup winner Sir Russell Coutts.

“Today was a lot of fun for all of us,” Spithill said. “Seeing this, I get a sense of what the Community Sailing Programme will mean when we have all of the boats on the Island operating from the two sailing hubs in St George’s and Dockyard later this summer.

“It’s such a great opportunity for the kids to get out on the water, to learn about sailing and all of the aspects that go into it, including the academic parts that are so important — the science, technology, engineering and math. But the learning comes in a fun environment and that’s what makes it so powerful.”

Jada Phillips, from Somerset, with Campbell as her crew, won the first race and said she could not wait to see the bigger boats in action when the America’s Cup begins in earnest.

“It was really fun,” Phillips said. “It was cool getting to know Andrew [Campbell] and learning about the Hobie boat. It’s really exciting to have the America’s Cup in Bermuda and I can’t wait to see it.”

The Endeavour programme will operate from bases on the eastern and western ends of the Island, beginning late in the summer.

The Youth Sailing component will provide sailing experiences for children aged 9 to 12 years old as well as access to tours of the Oracle base in Dockyard, where they will be exposed to the technology and innovation at the heart of a modern America’s Cup team.