By Brian P. Nanos
GateHouse News Service
Posted Feb 14, 2008 @ 11:07 AM

Scituate — If everything works according to plan, this may be a big year for sailing in Scituate.

The town’s recreation department has teamed with the historical society to plan a major expansion of the town’s sailing program. The department is raising money so it can provide advanced sailing classes, the type that currently are not available to Scituate residents who do not already belong to a private club.

In these classes, students would learn, among other things, the ins and outs of racing. Sailing Director Ed Vachon sees the classes as the first step toward Scituate High School — whose nickname, after all, is the Sailors — eventually having a sailing team.

Currently, the recreation department offers a yearly beginner sailing program, which is attended by 200 children every summer. Vachon calls the classes, “more of a starter program.” The problem is that with no advanced program, students have little choice but to take the same lessons over and over.

“These kids who have been learning all along have a place to jump to,” Vachon said.

Two factors have combined to make this year one in which the recreation department believes it can expand the program. The historical society has restored the Massachusetts Humane Society boathouse and mossing shed and offered it to the recreation department as a home for its programs. And Friends of Scituate Recreation used funds from last year’s PJ Steverman Golf Classic to buy the fleet of seven boats needed for the advanced classes.

David Ball, the director or the historical society, sees the sailing program as a good fit for the historical building, which was first built to hold supplies needed in case of shipwreck. According to Ball, holding classes in the boathouse will help the community learn about the its past uses.

“This is great for us,” he said. “You’re going to have a lot of public awareness of these buildings.”

Now that it has the boats, the recreation department needs to prepare the boathouse for the program. Steve Chase of Friends of the Scituate Recreation estimates that they need $20,000 to make needed additions to the building. To raise money, the department is hosting a number of fund-raising activities in the coming months.

The main event will be a March 28 event at the River Club at which attendees will vote on the winner of a contest to design the official flag, called a burgee, of the program. Aspiring artists will be able to submit flag proposals in boxes the department has placed in school art rooms, at the Scituate Recreation office and Scituate Town Library.

By making donations to the recreation department, residents can also sponsor a boat ($2,000), sponsor a custom-made bench ($700) or have a personalized nautical flag hung in the boathouse ($150).

It’s all part of a plan Scituate Recreation Director Jennifer Vitelli says will open sailing up to “your average resident.”