Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) is bringing their popular build-your-own-boat classes back to the International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS) for a busy summer of boatbuilding. Located on four acres right in downtown Newport, Rhode Island, IYRS (pronounced "iris") is one of the most important boatbuilding trade schools in North America. Their facilities are magnificent: the main shops are in an enormous converted mill building ten paces from the water, and some of the most famous yachts ever built (Dorade, Sonny, Whitehawk) are tied up at the dock. Some CLC classes will be there, others will be a short boatride across the harbor at the Museum of Yachting. It's difficult to think of a more inspiring place to build boats.
CLC has been teaching build-your-own-boat classes since 1994. Over the last 15 years, CLC boatbuilding classes have launched 900 wooden boats and introduced more than a thousand students to the joys of DIY boatbuilding. In CLC classes, experienced professional boatbuilders help students assemble their own boat from start to finish. Classes are 5-1/2 days---ideal for a one-week vacation, with a boat to take home at the end, ready for finish work.
While CLC's precision-cut wooden boat kits are within reach of first-time boatbuilders working at home---more than 20,000 completed CLC boats are on the water---a classroom setting still has its advantages. Students work in a lavishly equipped shop with a professional boatbuilder at their side and enjoy the positive energy (and extra hands) of a group setting. For those who bring helpers, classes are a rewarding and memorable parent-child or family experience. And in Newport, students can walk from the school to the busy shops and seafood emporiums of downtown Newport. The city also teems with B&Bs, some of which are offering special rates for CLC students.
The International Yacht Restoration School in Newport belongs to a list of distinguished CLC boatbuilding school partners, including the famous WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, Maine, the Wooden Boat Foundation in Port Townsend, Washington, and the Great Lakes Boatbuilding School in Cedarville, Michigan.
Newport students can select from 10 different wooden boat designs. For the kayak enthusiasts there are the Shearwater sea kayaks, Wood Ducks, ultralight Sassafras pack canoes, or Nick Schade's new recreational kayak design, the Ganymede. Sailors may build the 15-foot Skerry Daysailer, 8-foot Eastport Pram, or a 17-foot sailing dory. Two sliding-seat rowing boats are offered in classes this year: the Annapolis Wherry and the Oxford Rowing Shell. For surfers there is the Kaholo Stand-Up Paddleboard.
Tuition for the week costs $750 and the various kits built in class range from $749 to $2349. Students may bring a helper for the week for an additional $375. More information on Chesapeake Light Craft's Build-Your-Own-Boat classes can be found at
http://www.clcboats.com/classes. Those unfamiliar with the stitch-and-glue boatbuilding can see these week-long classes condensed into ninety-second timelapse videos at
http://www.clcboats.com/timelapse.
Contact Chesapeake Light Craft at 410-267-0137 for more information.
The complete IYRS schedule is here:
http://www.clcboats.com/news/2010classlocations.html#iyrs
- Location: IYRS in Newport, Rhode Island
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