The Bermuda Power Boat Association has announced the addition of a junior programme to coincide with the start of the next season in April.

The announcement was made at the association’s annual meeting last week in which it was also confirmed that nine race days will be staged from April to September.

Robert Cardwell, who was returned as commodore for a fifth successive term, is relishing the introduction of juniors, while emphasising safety.

“We are really excited to launch the junior programme,” he said. “The BPBA have permission from the Port Authority to have juniors aged from 9 years to 15 race our specifically built race boats with 15 horsepower engines under the BPBA flag.

“The boats will be quite nippy and will provide much adventure for our juniors. Under normal law and outside of the BPBA, a person between the age of 9 to 15 cannot drive a boat with more than a 6hp engine.

“The BPBA has to be all hands on deck to ensure the success of the programme.

“Safety will be paramount for our junior racers. Each junior racer will paired with a senior member, who will provide advice and mentoring while the juniors race. Our senior professional members are very keen to get on board with this.”

While Cardwell spoke of his excitement for the new junior programme, he did concede to a lack of interest in another initiative — a jet-ski league.

“There was no response from the jet-ski community members at the AGM,” he added. “However, we are still hopeful that we can introduce a jet-ski league.

“We ask for jet-ski owners to make contact with the BPBA so we can set this up. BPBA members will putting feelers out into the community to see if we can draw in jet-ski owners to come forward to race.”

Alongside Cardwell, David Selley was installed as the deputy commodore, while Andrew Cottingham was confirmed in the role of rear commodore.

Other positions include Richard Davidge as treasurer and Janae Nesbitt as secretary, while Henry Talbot, Jody Correiro and Clayton Harshaw were named as flag officers.