Everyone has heard about the America’s Cup village in Dockyard and the festivities on Front Street ahead of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Bermuda, but St George’s is where celebrations will begin.

Bermuda’s maritime heritage will be on display in the East End on Thursday, with open houses at partnering sailing organisations, Bermuda Fitted Dinghy racing, a gig display and invitations to climb on board the Spirit of Bermuda and Deliverance.

But the real focus will be on the introduction to the youth sailing programme, Endeavour, initiated by Sir Russell Coutts, the chief executive of the America’s Cup Events Authority.

America’s Cup sailors will race a team of Bermudians and take children on board with them, while visitors will be able to take a peek at the America’s Cup trophy, also known as the Auld Mug.

Billed as ‘Endeavour Day’, the event will promote the educational sailing programme, aimed predominantly at children between the ages of 9 and 12, which aims to leave a lasting legacy in Bermuda.

Tom Herbert-Evans, the community sailing manager for ACEA, said: “This is totally unique to Bermuda — they did the AC Open in San Francisco, which was just a week-long programme and the children sailed as part of the AC event, but it was a very small window.

“They have never done anything like this so it is really exciting. It is all about using sailing as the tool to teach the science, technology, engineering, arts and maths (Stem) curriculum.

“The main focus is for 9 to 12-year-olds but during the summer it will be open to a broader age group of children.”

The programme is fully funded and free for participants.

Donations have come from marine partners, partners of the America’s Cup and the International Sailing Federation, as well as local partners Butterfield Bank, Appleby, Orbis and PWC. The classes will be run by three Bermudians — Katrina Williams, Tristan Loescher and Joshua Greenslade. It is predicted that about 1,500 schoolchildren will take part in the programme each year.

Mr Herbert-Evans said: “We will access every school on the Island and it will benefit children who are not interested in becoming sailors.

“Some people would even say it is not about the sailing it is Stem education first and sailing comes second, so they are using the tools like the mechanical leverage, how you use natural energy through the wind, how your boat floats.

“Out of this we will have children who are interested in continuing and then there is another element where we will take the retained sailors from Endeavour and feed them into the local clubs.”

The America’s Cup sailors may be world-class but they may meet their match on the day when a team of Bermudians challenges them to a race in Bermuda Fitted Dinghies.

Mr Herbert-Evans said: “There are three dinghies going out. One will be a local boat full of a local crew who sail the Victory, the St George’s Fitted Dinghy.

“Then there are two others that will have three members from each team of the America’s Cup taking on the local crews. They are going to be jumping in fresh — they haven’t sailed these boats before and they don’t know what they are getting into.”

Endeavour Day will open at noon followed by the dunking of the wench at King’s Square at 12.30pm. At 1pm there will be an opening ceremony at the TS Admiral Somers Building on Convict Bay Lane — home to the Sea Cadets and the St George’s Sailing Centre.

Children will have the opportunity to have a taster session with the America’s Cup sailors right after school and the day’s events wraps up at about 8pm.

After the official speeches there will be racing in the harbour that can be viewed from Ordnance Island, then musical entertainment, vendors and promotional activity in relation to Endeavour. St George’s mayor Quinnell Francis said: “This is the start of the AC 2015. The community is engaged — anything to do with the youth you find many people get excited about it. We should see St George’s booming.

“We hope people can take the day off or half the day off to come and kick the event off and see that St George’s isn’t being left out.”

Some restaurants will be offering special Endeavour lunches — the businesses taking part will have AC or Endeavour flags outside their establishments.

• For more information visit the Endeavour Sailing Facebook page or visit www.americascup.com and click on the Endeavour tab.