First Place
Kenneth Beck
Newport, RI

t took Kenneth Beck eight months, seven extra woodworkers, and approximately 11,000 man-hours to restore the "Corsair", a 35-foot tender motorboat originally built in 1932 by the Nathanael Herreshoff Company to accompany one of JP Morgan's expansive yachts.

Then a member at the IYRS School for shipbuilding in Rhode Island, it was Kenneth's graduating project to restore the boat. "It was also the desire to build and restore a wooden boat that was the pinnacle of woodworking in my eyes," he said.

Nathanael Herreshoff was an American naval architect and mechanical engineer in Rhode Island in the early 1900's who revolutionized yacht design with the largest, most expensive and most powerful yachts ever created. During his 72-year career, Herreshoff generated over 2,000 designs and became the foremost creator of competitive yachts in the United States.

Using his Wood-Mizer LT40 Hydraulic sawmill, Kenneth enjoyed the precision cutting that was required to restore the sailboat.

"The ability to re-saw dried, twisted lumber so close to the finished dimension not only saved materials," Kenneth said, "but also an enormous amount of time." Kenneth estimated that without his Wood-Mizer he would have had to order almost thirty percent more materials.

There were seven other shipwrights involved with the restoration of the Corsair.

"We lofted her and created exterior molds," Kenneth explained. "By doing this we were able to pull the boat to its original shape." Removing everything that wasn't original, misshapen or rotten, they then bent all new frames to the original backbone and stem. Then the planking began, along with the "one billion details" that go into restoring a boat.

On launch day, he recalled hearing people saying things like, "Wow!" "How inspiring!" and "How beautiful!"

"That feeling of accomplishment is one that will stay with me for the rest of my life," said Kenneth.