MORE than 70 young sailors took to the water in West Kirby as part of the Merseyside and Cheshire OnBoard Festival.

The 77 youngsters whose ages range from six to 16, took part in the four-hour relay race on Saturday. 

Feva class event was won by West Kirby SC’s OnBoard Club who said they were "proud to host an outstanding event and winning was an added bonus."

Run by the Royal Yachting Association, OnBoard is a grass roots programme which introduces sailing and windsurfing to young people aged eight to 18, through schools, youth groups and training centres.

With temperatures soaring on the hottest day of the year, team members from four clubs had to swap over every time their boat had completed one lap of a box-shaped course that was designed to give the most similar conditions for all abilities.

The teams of four to six youngsters were sailing two classes of dinghy, the RS Feva and Laser Pico. Three of the Fevas had been supplied by RS themselves as OnBoard suppliers and they were on hand to offer support.

The winning team from West Kirby were Alex Colquitt, James Colquitt, Max Hanson, Rory Stafford and Jack Scott.

Evie Byrne from West Kirby SC was presented with a Merit Award for her 'team player' attitude within her team and club.

Over a ten-year period OnBoard aims to introduce a minimum of 500,000 children to sailing and windsurfing in the UK, converting over 10% of them into regular participants. So far it’s nicely on track.