The Restoration of The Winter Has Just Started! Phil Andrews Extremely Rare Century Blue Arabian!
The Prototype V- Drive Blue Arabian ready to be stripped and flipped
We are proud to announce the official start of the Pettit Gettit Done Week, with Phil Andrews Blue Arabian Preservation/Restoration of a very very VERY rare Blue Century Arabian at Katz’s Marina. How rare is it? Know of any others, with a prototype V DRIVE?
The Cadillac engine pulled!
This will be the top Century afloat by Lake Dora! How is that for a call. Seth has said it, that guy does not mess around. In two days the boat was stripped, flipped and work was under way. We had to race Bob Kays over there fast to capture it all with his camera and eye for detail. In fact the guys had to wait around for pictures. The coolest part of this Restoration/Preservation is going to be the unique finish.
The original Bimini Blue/Dawn Grey finish is still on her
Fact sheet from Tommy Holmes image TomCat collection
This is believed to be the same boat being restored.
Removing all the parts
More originalness, yes that a word!
These blue stained hulls can be a trick to do, and we can’t think of a better place on earth to pull this off. With help from Mr Thomas Holmes and Frank Myklos this is sure to meet and beat every standard out there to be the best in the world on top of possibly being a one of a kind. Phils plans are to let her make the show circuit here in the U.S. next summer and then she is to shipped to New Zealand for the summer there.
Stripped and being flipped
Flipped, for the Winter
And into the shop
Into her special spot
Nice and clean and ready
Seth and Tommy discuss the next move! Strip that bottom!
And Poof, its gone! Oh the magic of editing!
There she is, ready to go
The cool thing, is if she is shipped upside down here, she arrives right side up! That’s right…Right? Stay tuned for what will be regular updates on her progress through out the winter, Phil’s summer!
And tune in and send us your fun Pettit Gettit Done stories for this fun week of work being started. Like now.. Come on, Gettit done! Were waiting. Heck, Seth already has some bottom planks on by now!
I think I remember one of these at Antique Boat Center when you had the WoodyBoater event there a few years ago. Is this the same boat?
No, this is an original that was in the Katz Collection. The one at Antique Boat Center is already restored. There are a handful of these out there, but this is the only V drive. It is believed to be the Prototype of the V drive as well, and used in some of the marketing materials.
That is one sweet looking Arabian!
Pulled the swim platform off Gottago the other day so she can get some new paint before she makes the trip to Dora in the spring.
I see recessed head screws in the rub rail. Didn’t Century only use slotted head screws?
The engine was a standard CM-300 with the big-bad-a transmission. The exhaust manifolds were side swapped to get exhaust out at the flywheel end.
Where is the V-drive?
That blue/gray stain is a challenge. Note the bow pole is much different than the hull sides. A number of different ways to do it. More art than science. Lots of luck. This Arabian was designed by Richard Arbib for century in 1955.
And yes century used slotted screws.
This might be the one from Antique Boat Center. Was at the Madison Boat Show in August.
Antique Boat Centre had the Rheinhart boat called Luv Lee. They restored it for him. Its the 6 cyl engine and a lighter Blue than the originals but it still looks terrific. The challenge with these boats is getting the colour right. We’ve got the Century boys all over this one. I expect it to be an interesting process but we have a few things on our side. For starters the Arabian has been painted at some stage of its life. While it makes me wince to think about painting this gorgeous boat the paint has done a great job of preserving the original stain underneath. The engine shown is not the original but we have the original engine.
This would be a good time to thank some people for helping me find this gem. Matt and Texx who I reached out to when I found a picture on the net and asked if they could find the owner, Dane for knowing the owner and sending loads of pictures of the boat from the 80’s. Turned out the boat was not for sale. Them a week later Matt emails me to say he’d found another one. Turned out to be sitting in the racks at Seths. Thanks guys.
Yup, it was the John Rienhart boat at Madison. Fell in love with it!
Great project and it sure looks like the guys have sunk their teeth into it. I will enjoy following it through the winter.
Interesting how the different color, painted wood hulls really never caught on. Gar Wood tried it with some of their larger hulls right after the war (Dick Kish’s Misty Morning is an example of that effort) but it was not met with approval from the buying public. Given the scarcity of these boats, I suspect the same is true for Century 10 years later. But, at the same time, brightly colored fiberglass boats were starting up…..go figure.
I always liked the Arabians, great style. I just happen to know where another one of these are sitting in a barn needing a complete resto. I don’t know what it has for power but I believe most if not all Arabians had V-drives. I’ll have to go take a peek.
I have hull# 5502 and it was a blue and white. Boat went thur a fire in mid 70’s and was then left partially outside an old barn to rot away. I choose to save boat, doing a ground up restoration, new engine stringer, all new frames with exception of two and all new planking. Original engine was left stiting out in the elements with head off. I was unable to get Pistons out of block, so I chose to repower with small block 283. I finished with brown stain and varnish and boat is used every summer in northern Indiana.