With the Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival just seven weeks away, the official festival merchandise has now gone on sale - from T-shirts and baseball caps to the double CD with the official programme expected any day now.

The T-shirts and polo shirts sold out last year so twice as many have been ordered this year, but anyone wanting to ensure they get hold of one, should head down to the Cornish Store in Arwenack Street where they are being sold.

There are 150 T-shirts available, in both blue and dusky pink, which cost £15; 250 polo shirts in blue, selling at £25; 100 blue baseball caps and 30 pink caps, available for £10.

"If you want the best pick of sizes and colours, you should get in pretty quick," said John Warren, a member of the festival organising committee. "We find the nearer you get to the date of the festival, the more limited the sizes available gets."

All the profits from the sale of the merchandise, including the CD, will be donated to the RNLI's 150th anniversary fundraising appeal, which has a target of £100,000 which is needed to upgrade the current lifeboat station ahead of the arrival of a larger and faster lifeboat in two years.

The CD features a total of 48 tracks supplied by a number of the acts who will be performing at this year's festival including Fisherman's Friends, Falmouth Shout, Cadgwith Singers, Pirates of St Piran, the Oggymen and Bounding Main.

As well as being available from the Cornish Store, the merchandise will be on sale from the two souvenir shops which will be set up on Events Square and Custom House Quay during the festival.

The festival runs from Friday, June 16 until Sunday the 18th with 61 groups booked to appear at 23 venues across the town. It is expected that between 40,000 and 50,000 people will flock to the port to soak up the atmosphere across the weekend.

*The Packet, which is the festival's media partner, has three copies of the official CD to give away to three lucky readers. To be in with a chance of winning simply answer this simple question: Q: Which charity will receive the money made from the merchandise?

Answers on a postcard to: Sea Shanty CD competition, Packet Newspapers, Unit 5, Falmouth Business Park, Bickland Water Road, Falmouth, TR11 4SZ or email editorial@packetseries.co.uk subject: Sea Shanty competition. Please include name, address and daytime telephone number. Closing date Wednesday, May 10. Usual Newsquest competition rules apply.