Newport, Rhode Island –
People surprise you.
Not by trying, of course.
Not that they won’t try, given the chance.
It’s just that, when allowed to be themselves, they have a tendency to do unexpected things.
But that’s the key, they have to be themselves.
Far too many of us aren’t.
We have a tendency to put on masks and pretend to be someone else.
Partly, it’s out of expectations.
Other people’s expectations for us, not our own.
So when someone figures out what he really wants to do, and then does it…
Well, that’s when things get surprising.
Take my nephew, Andrew, for instance.
He grew up in Midland, Texas.
Midland, Texas.
Flat, desert-like, with mostly scrub all around.
More oil derricks than trees around, once you get out of the city.
Of course, this was because his father, my brother, works in the oil and gas industry.
So, he naturally gravitated to ship-building as his career choice.
Wait, what?
Ship-building?
I mean, like a lot of people, he grew up visiting the beach maybe once a year for about a week.
And then he was spending his time on the beach, not out on the water.
Yet, somehow, he figured out that he wanted to spend his life working with his hands, building and restoring boats.
So, we were in the area, and decided to drop into Newport to pay him a visit.
And we found him, in a very large shed, behind IYRS (International Yacht Restoration School), on the waterfront.
This is where he works.
On a team that is restoring a yacht, the Coronet, that is almost one hundred and fifty years old.
Actually, it’s more like they are rebuilding it.
They took it apart, completely, and now they are reassembling it.
Maybe some of the parts they are using are from the old ship, but a lot of them are new.
New wooden planking along the sides.
Maybe the ribs are original…
It all reminded me of visiting the restoration of the H.S.S. Delft, in Rotterdam.
Only on a slightly smaller scale.
But not much smaller.
After all, the Coronet is one of the largest schooner yachts in the world, so it’s a pretty good size.
To my untrained eye, it appears as if the primary difference between the two restoration efforts is that the Coronet is being restored next to, and in collaboration with an existing yacht restoration school, while the H.S.S. Delft had a completely new ship-building school built from the ground up for its restoration.
That, and the fact that the restorers of the Coronet did get to study the existing boat as they took it apart, while the H.S.S. Delft crew had to engineer it completely from images in old paintings of it and other similar Dutch warships built around the same time.
That’s quite an advantage; being able to see how it was built versus a complete redesign from the ground up based on a couple of old paintings.
And because of this, I didn’t see any scale models being built with the Coronet.
Why work things out on a small scale when you already know how it needs to be done?
Still, it’s fascinating work, especially if you are interested in craftsmanship.
It’s kinda like taking a step back in time to when just about everything was made by hand.
Only with modern power tools.
And the Coronet is being restored thanks to one wealthy individual.
It must be nice to be rich!
Especially since this isn’t his first and only boat restoration project.
No, it appears to be the third one he’s been involved in.
And luckily for us, one of the other of those just happened to be docked behind the Coronet restoration shed.
The Cangarda, a similar-sized, steam-powered yacht about fifteen years younger than the Coronet.
And they did a beautiful job restoring it.
Even down to rigging up the original electrical board deep in the engine room.
It was the launch of the restored ship that had problems.
The boat almost capsized as they were launching it.
Luckily, they were able to right the ship, and here it was, docked where we could ogle it.
As well as getting a private tour.
It’s good to be connected.
Of course, the owner was not around at the time. Not that it would have made any difference. I understand he’s a very nice guy…
So, I can say that the Coronet restoration was further along than the H.S.S. Delft was when I visited.
But not by much.
So, I still had my question.
How did a kid growing up in Midland, of all places, figure out that restoring ocean-going yachts was what he wanted to do with his life?
“A lot of reading, I guess,” was the answer I got.
At least, that’s what Andrew told me.
School was what his mom told Dore.
According to her, sometime in the fifth or sixth grade, he had a research project on boats, which included a field trip to a sailboat retailer.
“I need a boat,” he announced to his family on the way home from the field trip.
It didn’t matter how much his parents explained that it wouldn’t happen, because having a boat would require having water around for the boat to sail in.
And they lived in the West Texas desert.
Still, it didn’t deter him, it just delayed the fulfillment of his need.
And now, he’s got his boat.
A small one on which he lives.
With his wife.
Talk about tight quarters…
And lots of water for it to sail in.
And eventually, he and the team he’s part of will finish restoring the larger yacht that he’s currently working on.
At which point, he’s liable to weigh anchor and sail off to his next adventure.
Wherever it may be.
I have a feeling that it may involve boats and water…
For more photos from the Coronet, click here.
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