Sarasota Youth Sailing (SYS) is knot your average club. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit youth sailing organization has been serving young people ages 5-18 in our community for more than 45 years and hosts more than 400 youth sailors annually with year round racing and summer programs. Operating out of the Sarasota Sailing Squadron (SSS), a 501(c)(7) nonprofit organization and sailing club on Longboat Key, SYS was formed in the late 1970s by mothers of the Luffing Lassies, a large women's sailing organization who have been sailing out of the club since 1972. The two organizations have grown over the decades and continue to share a boathouse at the club which provides two open air classroom spaces, sail lockers, boat storage racks for their fleets and a workshop. The boathouse was built in 1989 and designed by Sarasota architect and SSS member Bill Niblett. It has served its purpose well and provided housing for both programs over the decades, but due to wear and tear on the building, which is located directly on the salty beach of the club, and the incredible growth and growing needs of both SYS and LL organizations respectfully, the building is set to be replaced by a new two story sailing education center on Sarasota Bay. 

A three million dollar project, the new sailing center will provide housing for two expanded (air conditioned) classrooms, office and meeting spaces, large sail lockers and boat storage, a workshop, as well as a large deck and event space. The structure will present green technology, solar panels and rainwater silos. Located directly on the beach of the club overlooking where the youth launch their boats and the SYS dock, the new center will stand where the current boat house, as well as SYS mobile office, stands currently. 

The new center design was led by Sarasota-based architecture firm PS Design Workshop, now in their final stages of permitting and design, with help from William Olmsted Antozzi Office of Architecture. The design of the building draws from both the guiding principles put forth by the Sarasota School of Architecture as well as the regionally defining vernacular projects of the area and existing Squadron buildings. Serving as a coastal demarcation and point-of-interest, the new building will serve the day-to-day activities of youth sailing, but also personify the identity of the Squadron and the continuing relationship it has with its community. This project hopes to break ground in one to two years and be open by 2026.