International Yacht Restoration School

Down on the waterfront in Newport, there's a quiet revolution going on: a specialized training center where woodworking skills are honed to mastery, and the results are seaworthy vessels. If you stop in for an informal tour of the INTERNATIONAL YACHT RESTORATION SCHOOL ("Iris" to locals), you are apt to see students working on wooden boats of all kinds, including the dry-docked 1885 schooner Coronet, which is being restored to sail as a floating museum. As you walk all the way around this fascinating boat, high up on a balcony inside a hangar-like building, you will relive the colorful history of this mini-Titanic, through many fact-packed plaques. For example, in the Coronet's heyday,133 passengers used a marble-treaded stairway to reach the lower deck, where they could sit in a salon with a cloisonné chandelier. | 449 Thames Street, Newport | 401.848.5777 | iyrs.org