One of 419 examples of this model size built the year that she was made and one of the best old style ski boats is this mahogany Century 16’ Resorter model. This one has a replacement 260 Hp Chevy Mercruiser inboard V-8 for power and she really goes when a skier says “hit it”. She is a high speed, speedboat.

A wood runabout Century boat has a good amount of v (vee) at the bow that flattens aft for a very shallow amount of deadrise for the most speed and quick acceleration that a performance boat on lake waters needs.

Further, a Resorter Century from this era used the light but strong batten seam construction style for her hull construction. She has many athwart ship frames as well as having seam covering longitudinal battens that the planks are both fastened to (A separate wood batten runs behind all of the planking seams to add strength and water tightness to the hull in this style of boat building).

 A hard chine, v-bottom mahogany runabout was and is the runabout style of choice for many water sports. She is best described as a utility, as each passenger row is easy to get between, rather than being described as a twin cockpit mahogany speedboat.

Straight shaft inboard runabouts with their separate prop, rudder, and propeller strut, are one of the oldest, most reliable ways to design a timber boat. And, Century was a quality leader in both design and styling in the 1950s era. This classic mahogany runabout was the official tow boat brand in the late 1950s, not a Chris Craft.

Century Boat Company started in the wood boat business in 1926 and by 1969 had stopped production of wood hulled boats as they continued on with fiberglass boats.

The photos are from antique boat america.com that has this boat for sale.

16 century wood boat 1959 model

Dashboard of the 16' Resorter Century

Classic boats are here along with historic planes and antique cars.  Wood Antique and classic booats as well as race boats are apart of this Florida event.  Enjoy the boats on the water and on land. Ideally, one would enjoy all three (land, sea, and air) in this one event.

Show Hours

Thursday, January 27, 2011
      11am–9pm 

Friday, January 28, 2011 
      11am–9pm 

Saturday, January 29, 2011 
      10am–9pm

Sunday, January 30, 2011 
      10am–5pm

His Resorter is powered with a gas Norberg engine. This is a rare combination, as the Cal Connell “Crusader” Cadillac 331 cu. in. engine was coming to market via Century Boats in both Coronado and Resorter Century Boat models and it was a lighter weight engine so it delivered speeds of 60 mph in a prototype Resorter (these Cal Connell modified  gas Cadillac engines powered similar cut- down family boat designs to over 67 mph in race conditions).

This Century Resorter 20’ is a 1953 model. One of 87 made that year by “The Thoroughbred Fleet” as Century boats were nicknamed from 1950 on. Peterbilt is a apt name for a classic wood boat Century Resorter  owned and restored by Peter.

Century Resorters were made in Manistee, MI in the 1950s. They were properly called utilities (walk-around the center engine box) rather than a runabout (fully decked over designs such except for the seating areas). These Resorters were all single planked  hull sides and bottoms backed up by a narrow batten behind the plank seams using mahogany wood in the boats that offered a little more speed and performance compared to its Chris Craft contemporaries. They came in 16’, 18’, 19’, and 20’ lengths over the years.

another photo of the sliding hard top

1958 Century Coronado with factory Hard Top

This is the boat that was and is still famous for being able to deep-water start 12 water skiers at one time.

It is often mentioned as it was the fastest production boat during the time it was built.

I am sure that fans of the Chris Craft Cobra 21 models powered with the hot-rodded Cadillac engine option would want to challenge that statement.

Certainly, almost all knowledgeable classic boat owners will say that the Century at high speed far out-handles the Chris Craft Cobra while giving the man behind the wheel more of a sense of confidence.

At the same time, those same people will pay a far higher price for a Cobra boat for sale than the Century Coronado boat for sale.

underside view from the boat's cockpit

The Coronado was introduced as a one of the first 1955 models from any boat builder. The styling was very different and caught the fancy of boaters that lusted after a luxury boat to use on the lakes of the world.  It was said to be the most successful and impressive luxury boat ever.

Regular engine choices offered speeds to boat owners of up to 50-55 mph when all the other production boat builders only set up their offerings to go 40-45 mph.. The Coronado was introduced in the summer of 1954, as a 1955 model. It was the most successful and impressive luxury boat ever. It not only had style but also offered impressive speeds reaching in excess 55 mph with stock engines.

1,743 wood boat units were built by Century in a 14 year model run. A record for what is a top shelf boat offering. About 1,000 more boats were later built using fiberglass. The fiberglass Coronado is a very close clone of the wood Coronado, but not an exact copy.

Hey, Elvis Presley owned a Century Coronado, as did Robert F. Kennedy, the Shaw of Iran, and Liberace did also with his having a special trim treatment, plus TV’s Dr. Spock was an owner of a Century Coronado.

In another posting, seabuddy / chris brown blogged about a model of the boat shown in these photos. Look between the two and see how close the model matches up to the real boat, if you want. I expect the model and the boat to be at the Antique and Classic Boat Festival in St. Michaels this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 18-20.

nice, comfortable seating with walk around cockpit space

engine cover box

Like a 1950's Car interior

In the boat modeler’s own words…We make scratch-built miniature replicas of boats ranging from elegantly simple line models to those of exquisite detail. We create all of our models from start to finish, including research, blueprints, woodwork, metalwork, upholstery, rigging, graphics, painting and finishing. When appropriate, we also take our own lines directly from subject boats. We do not use kits, or parts from any other sources. We can style your model in a variety of ways to suit your tastes; at any size or scale. We take great pride in the quality of every boat that we make and every one carries a serial number and our signatures. Other services that we provide include Display cases and accessories, restoration, line drawings and renderings, conversion of “paper” mechanical drawings to CAD, custom decal and parts making and other related activities.

John has over 40 years of modeling experience and we can make a replica of any boat provided that there is sufficient information available or we can have direct access to it. In fact, we are specialists in making models of boats that have never been modeled before. Having made over 250 models, we have significant experience with Antique & Classic boats, Workboats (from rowboats to lightships), Pleasure craft and Historical craft. We have researched myriad vessel histories and have developed a significant database, a library of a variety of maritime information, as well as contacts with other experts in the field.

Model making, properly done, takes time and patience. Every model, as with every boat, is different and will require different types and levels of work. We are fortunate to have a number of commissions in the works at all times. Please bear in mind that to produce the highest quality of model for you, unless it is one of the boats that we have made for shows, there will probably be a time factor. For short term circumstances we have presentation quality certificates available.

http://intothings.com/

1967 Century 18' Sabre original boat above the waterline

Century Boats got into fiberglass boats one step at a time. This boat is all  fiberglass from about the metal trim  on the hull side and above that. She uses a traditional wood Century Wood Hull below that point. Note the Automotive style windshield that Century Boats made for this model. Century was at the front of bringing Auto styling to the boat business. Most of this model  Century will powered by a 351 or 390 Ford V-8.

Photo credit Vance

I enlarged this photo of the same 18' Century Sabre boat