Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center

This beautiful watercraft center, an extension of the NC Maritime Museum, is just across the street from the main exhibit building on the Beaufort waterfront.  The watercraft center is a working boatbuilding facility, alive with the sounds and smells of traditional wooden boatbuilding.  The viewing platform above the shop floor is a great place to watch the boats take shape, from frame to finished product.  In addition to boatbuilding and restoration projects, the center keeps alive the art of wooden boatbuilding through classes in carpentry, oar making, lofting, tool making and halfmodeling.  Be sure to check out the John S. MacCormack Model Shop, where model builders construct scale models of a variety of vessels, small craft and other historical ships.