ELEVEN youngsters from Blackburn will set sail from northern Spain in front of 500,000 people as part of a five-month challenge.

The teenagers from schools and colleges in the Blackburn area will set sail from La Coruna on July 29 to take part in the Cutty Sark tall ships race.

They will try to beat 64 other boats from around the world on the 250-mile journey across the Bay of Biscay to Santander, also in northern Spain.

The youngsters have been training for more than five months for the voyage, which could see them travelling twice the set distance if they have to navigate high winds.

They were chosen by their schools as the most deserving pupils to go on the challenge as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.

The 11 are Hasan Sidat, 18, Stephanie Worswick, 18, Mattew Whaley, 17, Zara Fielding, 16, Laura Bilbie, 17, Charlotte Bevitt, 17, Nick Gilpin, 16, Jessica Coy, 16, Rachel Fairhurst, 17, Poppy Stuttard, 16, and Nicola Lofthouse, 17.

They will join the captain and three other permanent crew of the Hartlepool Renaissance on the Monday after they have flown out from Heathrow on the Sunday.

Team leader Hasan Sidat, a Blackburn College student, said: "We're all really excited. It's a great experience and an opportunity that won't come very often.

"We've been learning to tie knots and to use the sails and we've been to Ipswich to go on a boat and to learn how to use it."

Hasan plans to study graphic design and marketing at Leeds University.

Stephanie said: "I'm really looking forward to it and the opportunity to put into practice something that we've planned for so long."

The Westholme School pupil, who wants to go to University College London to read biochemistry, said she was quite apprehensive. "We don't know quite what to expect. I'll be a bit nervous - I've never sailed before. But hopefully it will go to plan." Norman McColl, one of the organisers, said: "It's fabulous to get young people doing this type of thing.

"We tend to hear only negatives where young people are concerned but these lot are fantastic."