by William F. Galvin

HARWICH — Using borrowed boats, the Harwich High School sailing team has made a name for itself across the waters of Massachusetts. But that is about to change for the better, the sailors hope, as they prepare for their first season in school-owned boats.

The Harwich sailing team accepts a donation. Pasqual Antolini (right) presents a mock version of the $8,000 check he contributed to the team to purchase a fleet of board. He is shaking hands with team member Tommy Leach, while teammate Jamie Scarbrough and coach John Dickson look on..

The Chatham Yacht Club and Pasqual Antolini have come into alignment to make it all happen. The yacht club made the decision to buy new boats for its sailing program and Antolini was looking to honor his late wife, Ann Antolini, an educator for 35 years in New Hartford, Conn. Assistant sailing coach Thomas Leach navigated the two proposals onto the same tack.

"It’s a pleasure for me to be here and do this," Antolini said on Monday when presenting a check for $8,000 to the school sailing team. "There is nothing left in my life but to do good deeds."

Antolini, 88, is a long-time seasonal resident of Harwich, who shares his time between here, his Connecticut home and a residence in Florida. He admits to not being an avid boater, but he spends much of his time in Harwich perched on the end of the Wychmere Harbor breakwater angling for fish.

"I’m not really a sailing enthusiast, I get sea sick," Antolini admitted.

Leach, the town harbormaster, said Antolini approached him and said he wanted to do something to honor his wife. Given his wife’s dedication to education, a donation toward something that would benefit students and the schools was the course he was sailing.

Leach said there was concern that when the Chatham Yacht Club purchased its new boats, the Harwich sailing team, which had enjoyed use of the older vessels, would not have access to these crafts in the off-season. That might have put an end to the sailing program, he said.

"When it comes to education, I’m all for it," Antolini told The Chronicle. "My wife was a dedicated teacher."

That statement is substantiated by the act of the town of New Hartford in 1968, when the decision was made to name its elementary school "The Ann Antolini School of New Hartford." For 34 years she served as principal of the elementary school. She passed away in June 1998.

Ann Antolini had a drive to accomplish her goals, explained her husband, citing a desire at an early age to become a teacher. But lacking the money to attend the state teacher’s college in Connecticut -- Central Connecticut State College-- she went to work in a tobacco factory and saved her money to pay for her education. She saved her money over the years and Antolini said he is now in a position to give something in return.

Sailing coach John Dickson had the inside track on the boats, since he serves as sailing master for the yacht club during the summer. There are eight vessels, Vanguard 420s, the type of craft used to race in high school programs. The boats were built in 1987 and, according to Leach, are sturdy vessels. He and Dickson said they will serve the sailing program for at least another decade or longer with a good maintenance program.

"They’ve got a lot of life left," Dickson said of the boats, which he first sailed in the junior sailing program at the yacht club in 1987. "It will take a little more maintenance on an annual basis, but we did a lot of that work last year."

Dickson said there will be minimal cost to the town because the sailing program is not recognized as a varsity sport and as such does not received a substantial financial commitment from the school budget. Most of the money for major maintenance and new sails, when required, will come from fund-raising and donations, said Dickson, a teacher at the high school.

These are the boats the sailing program has been using since its inception five years ago, the same boats with which Harwich has built a name in high school sailing circles. Last year, the team placed second in the state in competition, and the goal this year is to make it to the New England championships and hopefully on to the national championships.

That success rests in a large measure with the two helmsmen who took the sailing team to the second place finish in the state championship last year, seniors Tommy Leach and Jamie Scarbrough.

"We’re going to make the nationals this year," predicted Scarbrough.

"We look forward to this every year," Leach added of the sailing program he began participating in four years ago.

Leach and Scarbrough said the school having its own boats will keep the program going over the years. Leach encouraged anyone who wants to come out for the team to do so. He said they do not require sailing training.

"It’s a good bunch of kids and we have a lot of fun, but we get serious when we have to," Scarbrough added.

"This is one sport Harwich High School participates in where we can go to nationals," Dickson said with a confident twinkle in his eyes. "We haven’t qualified for New England finals, neither team nor fleet. It’s one of our goals and on a good day we have a shot at nationals."

On Monday night the board of selectmen accepted the $8,000 donation from Pasqual Antolini and Leach also secured permission to store the vessels in the winter months in a bay at the harbormaster’s work shop at the former fire station on Bank Street. In season, the vessels will be stored along the shoreline at Round Cove.

The plan, said Dickson, is to establish a trophy in the name of Ann Antolini for the annual Cape and Islands invitational sailing race the school sponsors on Pleasant Bay each spring.