NMHSNEWS:
Remarks of Elizabeth Meyer on a New Yacht Restoration School It is with the greatest pleas ure and exci tement that I receive the A merican Ship Trust A ward for the International Yacht Restoration Schoo l. You all know my personal background-it' s the basic girl meets boat story-but I want to take this opportunity to introduce to yo u the In tern at io nal Yac ht Resto ra ti o n School- known to all of us as IYRS and Spinnakers bloom on the dueling Endeavo ur and Shamrock V. pro nounced " iris." IYRS was fo unded in 1993. We have a 25-member board of trustees and a 24- the past, the importance of preservation of yachting and education to stand as an member board of advisors, we have raised and the necessity for doing good work. If irreplaceable repository of America's I 9thnearly $500,000, of which $66,836.25 has a student fakes or cheats as he puts a new century history. Because of thi s, we feel been put into our endow ment fund, we plank on the bottom of a boat, the boat will the restoration of Coronet will attract the have purchased a site on the waterfront in sink with him in it. The message-do highest level of interest. downtown Newport and have beI am extremely encouraged and The results of pleased by the response to our gun design work on a building. Our teaching program will begin in the proposals we have received. I Elizabeth Meyer's am happy with the amount of fall of 1996. Wealso haveourmajor efforts are two of the restoration project, the 1885, 130money we've raised and am in world's most foot schooner yacht, Coronet. vigorous and constant pursuit of I started my first yacht res toramore money. We would be destunning yachts, tion schoo l in 1988, when I was on lighted to receive any help sugEndeavour and the board of the M useum of Yachtgestions, or fi nancial support. Shamrock V ing in Newport. The first group of In clos ing I wish to thank students incl uded a computer prothe National Maritime Hi stori ... now she is cal Society for their earl y recgra mm e r, a n airlin e pil o t, a boatbuilder and two "bad" kids helping to establish ognitio n and encouragement of a yacht restoration who had been enrolled in the class the In ternational Yacht Restoby their parents. These kids were rati on School. We hope IYRS school. very alienated, they hated the idea and the National Maritime Hi sof doing anything, hated people and were honest work or yo u' ll get wet. torical Society will be able to work toessenti all y very difficult kids. My first There are many ways in which !YRS gether for many years to come. - ELIZABET H MEYER instinct was to throw them out of class pl ans to work with the education commusince they were so di sru ptive . nity. Local elementary schools, hi gh Luckil y, we didn ' t throw them out of schools, vocational train ing schools and the class because they taught us a lot colleges have expressed interest in having about the potential of teaching restora- their students take classes for credit at tion. Al though these kids hated peop le, IYRS. We intend to have a regular apthey did become interested in the 60- prenticeship program to allow a student to year-old sa ilboat the class was restoring. go fro m apprentice to master in six years. They graduall y came to see the beauty of Our interchange with fore ign boat buildthe boat and to feel as if they were sav ing ing schools indicates that we will have no a life of a priceless antique. One of these trouble fi nding fellow institutions which kids is a boatbuilder still , six years later. would like to exchange teachers, students I do n' t have the idea that we can and restorati on projects with us. redeem all the world' s problem kids In addition to the progress IYRS has through teaching restoration, but I do made with planning, fundraisi ng, site acthin k the help we can give some ki ds quisition and bu ilding desig n, we have lends additional meani ng to historical also fully stabilized the 1885 schooner preservati on of vessels. yacht Coronet, our premier restoration The !YRS building planned fo r Newport 's Restoring a beautiful historical artifac t project. Coronet will be coming to IYRS downtown wate1front. For information, connot only preserves the object for fu tu re and to Newport permanently in the sum- tact !YRS, 28 Church Street, Newport RI generations, it teaches values: respect for merof 1995. Coronet transcends the fields 02840; 401 849-3060. SEA HISTORY 72, WINTER 1994-95
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