Meet James Moores

Jim Moores founded Moores Marine in South Florida in 1986 after building commercial fishing boats and dories in Lubec, Maine. One particularly cold winter, he came to Palm Beach County with a box full of tools and learned he could make a pretty decent living repairing and restoring wooden boats built by the old masters of American yacht building.

The business now has two locations in two states and remains family run, with his brother-in-law heading up the North Carolina shipyard.  The 18-acre Moores Marine Yacht Center, which opened in April 2007, in Beaufort (Pronounced Bo-Furt) has been designed from the ground up for restorations and repairs of classic and antique boats .

The company has restored 23 Trumpy yachts and completed more than 100 refits of wooden boats including Aldens, Consolidateds, Defoe, and New York Yacht and Launch.

Notable projects include a complete hull restoration of the eighth presidential yacht, Honey Fitz, a 1930 93' Defoe that served as the private yacht of five presidents, from Eisenhower, Kennedy to Nixon.

Moores Marine won the Innovation in Restoration award at The Wooden Boat Show's Concours d'Elegance in Mystic, Conn., for its complete refit of the 1923 John G. Alden Schooner, Summerwind in 2010. The schooner won the Newport Bucket in the Grande Dame class two months after her launch.

The company has been featured in Wooden Boat, Professional Boatbuilder, Yachting, Soundings, Showboats International, Southern Boating, Classic Yacht magazine and Trade Only.

Jim Moores is a member of Society of Naval Architects and Engineers, Trumpy Yacht Association and Antique and Classic Wooden Boat Society.

He owns a 57' 1947 Trumpy yacht, Aurora II, the second show boat John Trumpy built for himself.