About Us

Originally from Arizona, Arnold lived in a time in the "Tin Can Alley" surfing neighborhood just south of Long Beach, California. There he met Hobie Alter, surfboard innovator and designer of the Hobie 16 sailing catamaran, a boat which utterly altered the daysailing scene around the world.  The Hobie cats were quickly becoming a popular racing class around the country.  Arnold persuaded a friend in Illinois into becoming a Hobie dealer there.  To do so, he needed to buy a minimum of three boats and Arnold agreed to take the one in 1969.

Recently out of the Navy and wanting to enjoy some time on the water on his own terms, Arnold raced his Hobie actively during the "Hobie Heyday", becoming successful enough to qualify for the Hobie Nationals in Massachusetts in the early 1970s.  This taste of racing success led Arnold to look for the next challenge.  It came in the form of the Worrell 1000, a single-handed Hobie 16 race from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Virgina Beach, Virginia.  Arnold began training for the race by hauling his Hobie and his hound to Louisiana, where the six-legged crew set out for Ft. Lauderdale over a period of weeks. Arnold's race was cut short in Georgia where his boat broke early in the race.  Having liked Ft. Lauderdale during the time he spent training there, he returned to begin racing and crewing on larger Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) boats.  These boats often needed delivery skippers to return them to their homeports after races, and thus began Arnold's career as a yacht captain.

One delivery took him west through the Panama Canal.  Arnold wound up in southern California aboard Rapid Transit, a Trans-Pac racer.  The offices of Ardell Yacht & Ship brokers were nearby, and the president there needed a full-time captain and mate onboard a 60' (18.3m) Chris Craft Roamer, an aluminum flush-deck motoryacht.  Richard Arnold admits to never having driven a twin-screw vessel in his life, but eagerly offered himself and his new wife Kathy for the task.  The Roamer had just been purchased by a Mexican family whose patriarch was a double-arm amputee.  Both Richard and Kathy were capable woodworkers and they began adapting the yacht to allow the owner to enjoy the Roamer more easily.  This owner-crew relationship lasted for many happy years according to Arnold, but eventually the family aged and the boat was sold.

Next stop: King of Beers.
The Arnolds then migrated to the fast-paced arena of entrepreneur Bernie Little's fleet of corporate yachts, following his Miss Budweiser hydroplane racing team around the country. Described by Arnold and others as a man of many trades, Bernie Little sent Richard to look at two large yachts he was considering to purchase.

Arnold had for years aspired to captain a Feadship, and it so happened that one of these yachts had been built by the famed Dutch builder.  Arnold now found himself entering the arena of the elite yacht captains of the world, even considering that the schedule of a corporate yacht is demanding and the job requires more varnishing of teak than one's ego.

The world of successful, self-made captains of industry sometimes revolves in fast forward.  One day, Smithfield Hams CEO Joe Luter walked to the big Feadship, knocked, and offered to buy the boat at a handsome price so long as the crew agreed to stay on.  Suddenly, Arnold's home became a private, not corporate, yacht for Luter family use only.  "All the dreams came true", says Arnold of those years.

Seasons passed onboard the Feadship.  Then, Richard got a call from a friend of the Mexican Roamer owner.  The friend wanted to build a Feadship.  At dinner one night during a rare charter of Arnold's current charge, the friend announced that Richard had agreed to captain his new Feadship after his close involvement in the design and outfit of the new yacht.  In 1989, Charade was launched, the first large Feadship with networked electronics.  Richard and Kathy cruised around the world around Charade for several years.

Richard Arnold walked away from Charade for the last time in Sardinia after the Arnold's second child was born.  He flew back to Ft. Lauderdale to join the growing family and quickly got into yacht construction project management roles.  A brief stint with Broward Yachts as Director of Operation and General Manager spanned the tumultuous transition between the outgoing Denison family but new ownership wasn’t doing it to build the best yachts in America, and finally soured Arnold's taste for the large-yacht construction business.  Ft. Lauderdale had transformed itself in the decades since he'd lived there racing his Hobie, and not to the Arnold's liking.  Richard and Kathy began the search for a small town where they could raise two kids and combine their woodworking skills and boating passion.

Enter Eustis, Florida
A sleepy hamlet near the geographical center of Florida, Eustis is minutes from Lake Dora, Florida's stage for vintage wooden boats and the annual ACBS Antique Boat Show each spring.

After a couple of years Richard and Kathy were able to establish a home in Eustis for Rejuvenation Woodworks, with hopes of attracting clientele from the ranks of Florida's wooden boat community and beyond.

Rejuvenation's open house was naturally scheduled to coincide with the 2007 Mt. Dora boat show.  Arnold says he took on five new projects as a direct result of the event.  The first client arrived with two boats; a 1953 20' (6m) Chris Craft Sportsman that had been stored in a garage for over a decade.  Richard has performed a thorough restoration on the Sportman including all new wiring and a new interior.  The client's other boat, a 1949 Chris Craft Riviera, "had a bad life" according to Arnold.  "The entire boat had been glassed over sometime about twenty years ago".  Work continues on resuscitating the Riv.

A 1953 Dispro (disappearing propeller) Gravette is in the Rejuvenation shop with a cracked garboard plank, soon to be remedied.  Next to her sits a 1908 L. E. Fry launch, 26" (7.9m) in length from the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York.  Arnold says this boat is "being put back together" and the restoration is almost complete.

Finally, a 1953 Century Viking is in the shop, a lapstrake utility with softly rounded chines and just a touch of tumblehome.  "She needed everything" Arnold says.  And she'll get it; a new stern, keel and ribs for starters. After the first year the shop continued to receive better and more collectable projects.  Several show quality boats are in use today after having the magic wand of Rejuvenation Woodworks touch them. The most recent is a 1930 Dodge restored for the Minnesota Maritime Museum and a rare Greavette Streamliner currently on tour with the proud Owners.

Richard and Kathy Arnold's travels and talents have come together in Eustis for  the benefit of discriminating classic boat owners from as far away as New York and Colorado.  In addition to the restoration work, Richard has begun making plans for the future.  He's developing a set of drawings and specifications for a modern 28' (8.5m) mahogany runabout. Rejuvenation Woodworks will be the home of Arnold Boat Company if his plans progress.  By all accounts Rejuvenation seems an apt name for both the boats and the well-traveled pair who bring them back to life.