Since its inception, Sail Martha’s Vineyard has dedicated itself to preserving the Vineyard’s maritime history and passing it on to a new generation of sailors. Hundreds of kids have sailed in the summer programs or with the high school sailing team. Others take their interest to the shipyards or to the classroom.

On Monday night, Sail MV’s newest teaching tool arrived in Vineyard Haven harbor. Named Dolce, the 41-foot Concordia yawl made the trip down from Boston, sailed by Scott DiBiaso, captain of the schooner Juno, and crew. The boat was a gift to Sail MV from Swanee Hunt, former United States ambassador to Austria.

“It’s unbelievable in terms of providing opportunities to Island youth,” Sail MV director Brock Callen said Monday morning. The Sail MV fleet of wooden boats currently has two rowing gigs, six flatiron skiffs and four Periwinkles (designed by Nat Benjamin), but nothing on the scale of a Concordia yawl.

The yawl design dates to 1938. According to a Concordia company history, the boat was specifically crafted for racing and cruising in the choppy waters of Buzzard’s Bay — the company was based out of Fairhaven at the time. Most of the yawls, including Dolce, were built in Germany at Abeking and Rasmussen shipyard. They are all made of wood, and discretely feature Concordia’s moon-and-stars design on the hull. Only 103 were made. Dolce is hull number 53.

“They’re gorgeous,” Mr. Callen said. “They’re pleasing to the eye, they sail beautifully.” Any Concordia yawl would fit Sail MV’s mission and “who we are as an organization” to a T, he said, but Dolce in particular is an outstanding fit.

The boat’s trip to the Vineyard was actually a homecoming.

Dolce’s first owner was the late Hugh Bullock of Edgartown, a member of the Edgartown Yacht Club. Built in 1957 and christened Prettimarie, the boat lived in Edgartown for 30 years and competed regularly in Island races. She was sold in 1987 and changed owners and names three times before Swanee Hunt’s late husband Charles Ansbacher purchased her. When Mr. Ansbacher died in 2012, the family began to search for a buyer for the yawl but could not find one. Ms. Hunt’s charitable foundation contacted Mr. Callen seeking advice.

“I think the ambassador was realizing that a wooden boat is not an easy thing to maintain,” Mr. Callen said. After more conversations, Gail Franck, manager of the foundation, asked if Sail MV would like Dolce.

“I did a little bit of research on the boat,” Mr. Callen said. “I said, wow!” He met with the Sail MV executive committee, and traveled with Mr. DiBiaso to look at the boat. Nat Benjamin later went up to Boston, too.

“We were crawling through and up and around as much of that boat as we could,” Mr. Callen said. But they hesitated, knowing that even with the help of Sail MV’s boatbuilding apprentice program, maintenance would be a challenge.

Then Ms. Hunt’s foundation offered to contribute $30,000 toward the maintenance, a sum that was more than matched at the Sail MV seafood buffet and auction fundraiser this summer. As part of a Fund a Need item, attendees pledged slightly more than $41,500 to the maintenance cause.

“That put us in a position to credibly do this,” Mr. Callen said.

Now Dolce is ready to be refitted. Over the winter, her teak decks will be recaulked. Some of her wooden ribs will be upgraded, and in the long term her mainmast will be replaced with Sitka spruce.

Mr. Callen said he envisions a bright future for both Dolce and the students she’ll help teach. Her maintenance and upkeep will be the work of apprentices at Gannon and Benjamin. Mr. Callen hopes she will race in the Vineyard Cup, crewed by students with a captain on board, and cruise Vineyard Sound, as she was designed to do nearly 50 years ago.

“It takes the organization to a new, exciting place,” he said.