The region's current building boom isn’t excluding area nonprofits that are poised to grow along with our rising population. Exciting projects on the way include the new ArtsCenter Manatee building, new Sarasota Orchestra address, and now the Sarasota Youth Sailing (SYS) education building.

Before Sarasota became an arts hub, it was—and continues to be, thanks to nature’s design—a water hub. Sailing has an enduring bond with our region's identity, and the SYS program serves roughly 400 kids from ages 5 to 18 years old in the summer and 75 sailors in the year-round program.

And it's growing.

The original SYS building, now roughly 35 years old, doesn’t have air conditioning, and a temporary trailer serves as SYS' home base. Local sailor, coach and Sarasota High School student Millie French, 16, can’t wait for the change.

“[The building] is almost all outside, so there’s lots of bugs in the summer and it gets very hot, and in the winter it’s cold because you’re wet. My team is growing so it would be nice to have a little more space,” French says. “It would be nice to be more comfortable and have an enclosed area and focus more on classroom learning, too."

The SYS program supports high school sailing teams in local and national regattas, and the new building will offer space for education, events, and offices. t will also be shared, in part, with the Luffing Lassies, adult Sarasota Sailing Squadron members and more. With storage mainly composing the ground floor level, the second floor will be home to SYS' core programs. It will also be ADA-compliant for the first time, outfitted with an elevator.

Bill Niblock, who passed away last month, was an architect, avid sailor and member of the Sarasota Sailing Squadron; along with other squadron members, he built the original structure in 1989. In the '80s, Niblock worked for Sarasota School of Architecture founding member Tim Seibert, and from the '90s on with Sarasota architect Gary Hoyt.

“There’s history here," says SYS program director Megan Swick. “But we need to move forward now that we're growing and need more space to serve the youth who want to sail with us.”

In keeping with the spirit of the Sarasota School of Architecture, which embraced the connection between indoors and out, the new SYS building will have maximized views of the bay, with lots of windows that allow the building "to breathe," per Sarasota School of Architecture philosophy. The new building will have large overhangs for lots of shade, allowing it to naturally cool, and the ground level will have louvered walls that allow wind to pass through.

Sustainability is a cornerstone of the design. "We want the building to be educational in and of itself. Water cisterns will collect rain off the roof so it can be used to wash off the boats,” says Derek Pirozzi of PS Design Workshop, the project's design consultant, in collaboration with William Antonzzi, of William Olmstead Antozzi Office of Architecture, the architect of record.

It's in line with sustainability efforts the SYS kids are already part of. For example, hands-on teaching recently allowed students to build clam farms to filter water. “The kids take an open clamshell, drill a hole in it, put a string through it and hang it. Over time, little clams build on the shells and start filtering water. The more [clam shells] we hang, the more the little clams that no one wants on their boats go to them,” says sailor and parent Mark Whittman, who is on the board of the SYS program and chair of the building committee. The kids also conduct annual surveys on area shellfish and plant life to monitor marine health.

It’s unclear when the ground will break on the new SYS building, whose cost is expected to be roughly $3 million. It largely depends on fundraising efforts, which recently got a big push thanks to former pro-captain Lisa Earhart. Earhart is a member of the Luffing Lassies, and her children grew up in the SYS program.

"Our children went on to become collegiate sailors because of SYS," Earhart says. "We're one of the few strong programs that doesn't have a substantial home base, and I'm passionate about creating a safe home for the Sarasota youth sailors and their families."

"It can be a global center for sailing and ties into sports tourism, too," she adds. Future rates and scholarships for sailing kids won't be affected by the fundraising or the building. 

Sixteen-year-old Millie French perhaps captures best what young sailors take away from the sport.

"When I sail, it's all there is," she says. "I can go fast and I can just focus on the water, the boat and nothing else."

To learn more about SYS, volunteer, sail or donate, click here.