KEEN paddlers are putting the finishing touches to seafaring vessels ahead of a charity beach festival.

Participants have been fashioning rafts of all shapes and sizes to appear at Paddle Round The Pier (PRTP), the watersports extravaganza that takes over Hove Lawns and the seafront this Saturday and Sunday.

As well as a range of sea-bourne activities from kayaking to the Main Paddle for sporting types, there is also Paddle Something Unusual, a fun raft race at noon on Sunday.

Among the longstanding entrants are last year's winners, who entered with a pirate ship.

Dave Cooke, with Mike Bone (and their sons Tim Bone and Matt Cooke), represent loft conversion company Rooms In The Roof.

Mr Cooke said: "We were in the 50th Brighton Scouts as lads and grew up in Brighton.

"We had a great Scout leader called Cyril Jancey who spent hours creating floats for the Brighton Carnival and Gang Show.

"He's in his 80s now but still likes to get involved and helped us build the pirate ship. He is an inspiration to us all."

This year the team have made a large floating cake and stand, dressing up as bakers, to celebrate PRTP's 20th anniversary.

Other competitors include The Albion - a group of football fans taking part in their sixth PRTP, this time with a football pitch raft.

Dan Porter, 35, of Hangleton is one of the team and said: "We just started out for a laugh and this year we have been raising money.

"The whole two days is brilliant so we're glad to be involved."

A five-a-side football match will take place on the raft, with Mr Porter currently devising a way to retrieve the ball if it goes out for a throw-in.

Elsewhere, Hartleys Wines, based in Brighton and Burgess Hill, has mounted one of its vans on drinks barrels.

Casey Ruse, operations manager, said: "We are a family-run business and this is a great opportunity to get everyone involved.

"We are excited and hope our van will provide some entertainment and be the winning raft."

Supernova Surfboards, based in Fort Road, Newhaven, is also putting forward a team.

Craig Lindfield-Butler, who "lives and breathes surfing", has assembled a team with Andy Stanyard, Ady Paterson and Nick Stanyard along with champion surfers Matt Hillier and Jock Paterson.

Mr Lindfield-Butler said: "Our goal is to develop and maintain deep roots in the local surf community. We aim to make surfing and stand-up paddleboarding accessible to everyone."

GREEN BUSINESSES AIMING TO TURN TIDE ON SEAFRONT POLLUTION

PADDLE Round The Pier sees two stalls aiming to make a difference to the ocean environment through new products.

Riz board shorts, a company that recycles the plastic from bottles to turn them into beachwear, is calling on punters to deposit their containers into bins at the festival so they can be used again.

Their campaign, called #Bottlestoboardshorts, looks to remove clear plastic bottles from the event and ultimately recycle them into shorts.

Ali Murrell, 39, said: “All our fabrics are made out of recycled bottles and can be used in and out of water.

“We want to engage the public with the general use of plastic and the litter that ends up in our seas.”

“Paddle are a good partner for us in getting out a positive message.”

He hopes Riz, working with a foundation called Hubbub, can provide a service for other large-scale events in the future.

Another organisation at Paddle is Ocean Sole, which is finding use for thousands of flip-flops that get washed up on the coast of Kenya in Africa after being thrown away.

Mark Dougal, 43, of Hove, is helping Ocean Sole explore opportunities in his spare time and is bringing colourful sculptures and trinkets made from flip-flop foam to Paddle. Each item is handmade by locals in Kenya, providing much-needed jobs.

Mr Dougal said: “The statues are just awesome and they are also having an impact on the environment.“We’re testing the market at Paddle bit we really want to make the public aware of the problem, too.”