History

IYRS was founded in 1993 and made its home on a waterfront tract of land edging Newport Harbor. The school’s two historic buildings were abandoned and disheveled compared to the elegant yachts in the harbor, but that would soon change. The school restored the 1903 electricity plant on the campus and launched its first program in 1996. As soon as graduates started moving into the workforce, the IYRS reputation for training craftsmen took root. Soon, students from throughout Europe, North America, and Asia were moving to Newport to study at IYRS. Today, the 2.5-acre Newport campus is fully restored, a second campus has been established in nearby Bristol, and IYRS programs have expanded to prepare students for all aspects of modern boatbuilding. Historic milestones are:

1993: IYRS is founded.

1995: The 1903 electric generating plant is restored and renamed Restoration Hall, and it becomes home to the school’s core program in Boatbuilding & Restoration. The first students enter the program in 1996.

1995: The school acquires the 1885 133-foot schooner yacht Coronet (PDF, 50KB). The yacht is a rare survivor of her era whose contemporaries have mostly vanished—from sinking, grounding, or neglect.

1998: The first class of graduates from the Boatbuilding & Restoration program are launched into the workforce.

2004: IYRS develops a Continuing Education program so marine professionals and serious enthusiasts can study at the school on nights and weekends.

2006: IYRS launches a second full-time program in Marine Systems at a new location in Bristol. Developed in partnership with the American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC), the program prepares students to sit for the relevant ABYC certification exams, a gold-medal standard in the industry.

2006: The schooner yacht Coronet (PDF, 50KB) is conveyed to Coronet Restoration Partners, an organization that shares the same high standards for historic restoration as IYRS, and the group continues the restoration project on the IYRS campus. This large-yacht restoration—one of the most significant being done in the world today—is a valuable learning opportunity for students.

2007: IYRS converges with the Museum of Yachting, located across Newport Harbor. Both organizations preserve maritime traditions: the school’s focus is vocational training while the museum educates the public through exhibitions and events. The school and the museum start to coordinate their restoration projects and exhibits.

2008: The school’s second historic building, the Aquidneck mill building (PDF, 19KB), is restored and repurposed with expansion space for IYRS, a maritime research library,  and space for tenants who bring maritime businesses back to the waterfront. This once-abandoned building on the National Register of Historic Places that stood abandoned for years is now a crowning addition to the neighborhood.

2010: IYRS launches its third full-time program in Composites Technology. The program is targeted to meet the needs of the marine industry, yet graduates have a wide choice of career paths since the composite-technology methods pioneered by boat builders are now in demand by many industries.