1967 Century 19' Arabian

El Jefe’ is a 1967 Century Arabian.  I always wanted one (since Jr. High).  One owner until 1996, I bought hull #Q6767 and immediately took her to a friend’s restoration shop – Lenire Yacht Restoration – in Seabrook, Texas.  As I had the funds, we replaced major portions of the chines, transom framing, and some bottom/transom/lower side planks.  Although the first owner did as well as he could to keep the boat in repair during his tenure, the 70’s and 80’s were not an abundant time for wood boat craftsmen.

 Anyway, by this time I had had seen another (Tom O’Rourke’s beautiful Arabian in Lake Tahoe) redone with wooden decks.  Lenire’s Gary Hoyle and I accumulated information on various options and decided to replace the orinigal blue vinyl deck with ribbon-striped African Mahogany.  By 2005, although the boat had not been our of Gary’s shop (due to my lack of cash to finish) it was obvious that the boat was going to need a new bottom.   Early 2006, we finished stripping the Arabian of equipment and turned her over to start the bottom transformation.  We replaced the old batten seam bottom with a new “5200” style bottom.

 JZ Custom Rails mitered and welded the corners of the custom hatch trim, made custom handles, welded the corners of the rub rails, and contoured the stainless upholstery trim.  Dockside Canvas completed the A&A upholstery kit.

 Its amazing how much time each modification absorbed.  The deck is 3/8” higher…which threw – off the windshield, cutwater, and rub-rails.  The original vinyl deck no longer trimmed the cockpit.  Do we roll the underside of the foredeck with blue or black (black – it matches the dash).  The Century stain didn’t look as good as the red.  The king plank  (we found a 22: wide piece of ribbon-striped African) and covering boards needed to be black…but not too black to hide the grain.  The upholstery looked better in solid blue (originally, the boat was two-tone light and dark blue with the light blue deck and lounge pads).  The tach wasn’t gong back on top of that dash.  The original flooring was unavailable.  New switches custom machined to fit the special Century knobs.  The swivel buckets were thru-bolted (due to the owner’s needs!).  New wiring/cut-offs for the batteries.  And there are minor things still to do.

 The engine is the original 390 Interceptor with a top-end job and an Edelbrock intake and 750 Holley Marine carburetor.

 El Jefe was finished November 2006.

Last Edited On: June 3, 2009