For nearly three decades, Paul Cundiff has been building a business that started with his daughter’s dream of owning a boat. That wish led to the eventual founding of Woodies Restorations, a globally known wooden boat restoration and repair business in Jamestown, Kentucky, just minutes from Lake Cumberland.
It all started in the early 1990s when Paul’s daughter came home from a boating trip with friends proclaiming that instead of continuing to save for the horse she had dreamed of, she was now saving for a boat. They soon purchased a 1962 28-foot Constellation, a vintage wooden cruiser they cheekily named “Tara’s Horse.” On their young family’s limited budget, the boat was a stretch, but Paul, an engineer by trade, was up for the challenge of restoring it. His careful work soon drew boat lovers from miles away to admire the restoration job.
Not long after, the family added a 1960 Chris-Craft Capri to their fleet, named “Taylor’s Pony” after Paul’s son. That boat earned the 1994 Best Non-Professional Restoration award at the Antique and Classic Boat Society show in Washington. Word of Paul’s skill spread quickly, and by 2004, he had built a home overlooking Lake Cumberland with a 3,500-squarefoot shop underneath, officially launching Woodies Restorations.
Customers from Around the World
Since then, Paul and his team of now 17 people have restored and repaired countless wooden boats and engines for boaters around the world. Their customers come from all walks of life—a French woodworker who once worked on the Eiffel Tower to a retiree in Pikeville, Kentucky, and even filmmaker Roman Coppola, son of Francis Ford Coppola. At any given time, his shop, which now totals 40,000 square feet between two locations, is handling about 30 projects.
Paul said that whether their customer’s goal is an award-winning showpiece or a reliable family boat for relaxing weekends on the water, the team at Woodies ensures the result is both beautiful and functional. Each contractor or employee at Woodies is highly specialized, whether they are a carpenter, mechanic, or upholsterer.
“Every project is different, and every scope and every budget is different for the person having the work done,” Paul said.
Because this is the case, they’ve taken care to detail what customers can expect as far as costs on their website, allowing vintage boats to become more accessible to the average family. They also run a YouTube channel with more than 2,000 videos on DIY repair and maintenance.
The work sometimes takes them far from Lake Cumberland, like a trip to Belize to replace a boat’s bottom. They currently have boats headed to Iceland and France.
Paul’s Story
Paul grew up in the neighboring state of Indiana, where his mother—though deathly afraid of water—made sure Paul and his siblings learned to swim and respect the power of the water.
“We grew up going to visit the old strip mine lake, riding on a pontoon made of military surplus bombs,” Paul laughed. He moved to Nancy, Kentucky in the 1980s, where he spent 27 years working as a maintenance engineer with 10 years teaching at Kentucky Community and Technical College mixed in. That early exposure to lake life, combined with his engineering background, made boat repair a natural fit, and explains why education is such a key part of Woodies.
Expanding the Business
In 2022, Paul and the team moved into a new 30,000-square-foot facility in Jamestown. The former Fruit of the Loom jeans factory now houses their woodworking, sanding, mechanical, and shipping areas, plus space for canvas production and storage. They have Rayco and Custom Canvas & Vinyl divisions, which handle everything from upholstery and commercial awnings to Coast Guard–approved fuel tanks and custom metalwork.
“When you can’t buy it anymore, we can make it,” Paul said. The team can cast bronze parts, build trailers, and laser-strip varnish. Working with a company on the West Coast, they can even recreate 1930s textures and colors for authentic restorations.
Now, with affordable financing and energy expertise from the Mountain Association, Woodies Restorations is adding solar to its operations to reduce its overhead. Their large roof and high energy bills make solar an ideal solution, and it is expected to cut their bills in half.
This type of business decision ensures that Paul and his team can keep prices affordable so that generations to come can keep classic wooden boats out on the water, whether it be the local waters of Lake Cumberland or halfway around the globe.
Learn more about their work on the Woodies Restoration website here.
