MacKenzie, 57, has been building wooden boats for 35 years. Working with these kids for the past two years, he said, "was enlightening, it was challenging, it was frustrating. You're trying to create an experience they've never had the opportunity to do. ... They're a little shy."
But it's about more than building wooden boats. "It's empowering them to get excited about learning something, getting kids inspired to ask questions and to learn," MacKenzie said.
He recalled one young man who helped with early construction on the first cutter.
"You just have to have a willingness to get dirty and work hard, and he had it in spades," he said. "Now he's a manager of two restaurants. He came back two months ago ... with his mom and said, 'You made all the difference in my life.' He's an example of what you're trying to do."
Turning out beautiful boats, along with better citizens, is a bonus.
Designs for the Constellation cutters were found in the National Archives and the archives of the Washington Navy Yard.
The boats, the student curriculum and part of the marine railway were conceived and completed thanks to a $110,000 grant from the National Park Service's Chesapeake Gateways Network and a three-for-one match from Living Classrooms donors.
MacKenzie, his regular staff and Fresh Start helpers built the boats of Atlantic white cedar, Maryland white oak, African hardwoods and bronze. The cutters took their shape and fabric, he said, "from 1854 ... when beauty and function were synonymous."
The Constellation carried eight small boats when it sailed in the late 1850s to suppress the African slave trade and during the Civil War, Rowsom said. The cutters carried officers and crew to shore or to other ships. The two launched Friday will one day hang from Constellation davits and be used for demonstrations of rowing and seamanship.
The first of two double-ended whale boats is under construction in the museum's boat shop. With enough funding, two launches and a gunboat may follow.
