Our new Hewescraft

[Gisteppo]

Thats hilarious that you met The Thumb on the ramp. I guess he decided to be home from Tacoma earlier than I thought. Decent guy, Im sure he was wondering why your truck was parked on the ramp beside his.

Great to see such a nice boat and having SWMBO happy is always ideal.

E

[hewesfisher]

How was it inside the curtains at 35+ mph? Is the motor loud enough that it's hard to talk? How much wind leaks through?

It's not bad inside at all, then again, I'm comparing it to our other Hewes with a carbed 90hp at the same speed - about the same. Don't get me wrong, the Opti isn't real quiet, but conversation isn't an issue. The grin factor is pretty high!

Wind leakage is about the same as our other boat, not bad at cruise, but not really "sealed" eirther. It wasn't exactly warm yesterday, and when we were about 20 minutes away from the launch, I was thinking I should have brought some gloves to keep my hands warm.

The one thing I noticed different between the two is the rear drop curtains really ballooned out at cruise on the ProV. They didn't do that on our Sportsman. I haven't figured out why yet, and was already thinking of how to keep them more stable on the bottom. I haven't thought about it that hard though, as I had real work to do today. See my post in off-topic, it's not boat related.:bom:

Decent guy, Im sure he was wondering why your truck was parked on the ramp beside his.

Matter of fact, he specifically mentioned how I was parked. I was backing down while he and my wife were chatting. We won't park that way again, no need to get anybody riled up. Guess "The Thumb" hears it all from others or so he told Debbie. Even so, he was cool about it so no worries. :bigsmurf:

[Gisteppo]

You shoulda told him he's an idiot, gave him the finger, and drove through his yard!

On your curtains, are you moving faster than you were before?

My canvas on the s*** boat (as my hewes is affectionately referred to) snaps to the sole about a foot from each side. Pretty handy really. You can also attach them with velcro.

E

[hewesfisher]

You shoulda told him he's an idiot, gave him the finger, and drove through his yard!

Hey, he was being nice to us, complimenting us on our boat and everything, I didn't want to p*** him off!

On your curtains, are you moving faster than you were before? My canvas on the s*** boat (as my hewes is affectionately referred to) snaps to the sole about a foot from each side. Pretty handy really. You can also attach them with velcro.

Our Sportsman would do 43 - 45mph and I routinely cruised at 30mph but the drop curtains didn't ballon out like these do. There are twist lock buttons that go through the canvas about a foot up from the floor, same as on our Sportsman, but they don't seem to help much. I'm going to try a couple things next time we get out to see if I'm getting some wind intrusion from around the windshield. Don't know why else it would be ballooning out like it does.

[Gisteppo]

I think you are spot on with the wind intrusion with the different shapes of everything.

I have snaps and can screw them in if you need some.

E

[Aaron]

Phil:

How are you anchoring your boat?

Where do you store your anchor?

[hewesfisher]

Aaron - We rarely anchor, but carry a folding grapnel style anchor for the occasions when we do. I store it in one of hte seat boxes along with, IIRC, 150' of anchor rope. Picked it up at Skipper Bill's a couple years ago. I almost didn't put the anchor in the new boat, but you never know when it might become necessary.

[BassCaster]

Phil a friend of mine wants to apply sharkhide to his 20 foot Weldcraft. Can you briefly explain the process. How many quarts will he need? Is one coat enough? Does he need to lift the boat off the trailer? Any info will be greatly appreciated........Cliff

[Anonymous]

I'll let Phil give you the rundown, but I will say that it is really an easy nobrainer process. I just finished getting the hide on my boat tonight and brought it home (Thanks again Phil!). It looks fantastic, and will continue to look that way for years to come.

http://www.sharkhide.com/Videos/Metal%2 ... nt%202.swf

[hewesfisher]

Phil a friend of mine wants to apply sharkhide to his 20 foot Weldcraft. Can you briefly explain the process. How many quarts will he need? Is one coat enough? Does he need to lift the boat off the trailer? Any info will be greatly appreciated........Cliff

Aaron is right, it really is a no brainer, well, not literally. When I spoke with Clint Bland (Sharkhide owner), he recommended 2 qts, but I was able to do mine with less than 1qt, and so was Aaron. However, you can't put too much on, and you should have some left over for touch-ups which are simple.

The most important step is to make sure there is no grease, oil, or wax on the hull. I used Dawn dishwashing soap to wash both my boat and Aaron's. One the boat was clean and dry, I took an extra step and used a water-based wax and grease remover (auto body product) and went over the entire boat again. This way I knew for certain there was nothing on the hull.

Once everything is dry, then you simply saturate a cloth diaper with the protectant and start wiping it on. Do exactly as shown on the video Aaron posted the link to, and have a sharp eye for coverage. Wait 24 hours and repeat using about 1/3 as much protectant on the cloth. Wait another 24 hours and in the water! Clint strongly recommends 2 coats. You would only need to lift the boat off the trailer if you wanted to do the parts that contact the bunks/rollers. It doesn't matter there, you can't see it and the bunks/rollers will remove the Sharkhide from that area anyway. :-)

If your friend's Weldcraft has already been in the water, then he might want to get the Sharkhide cleaner and use that first. It will remove any scum from the almuminum and provide a nice celan surface for applying the protectant. The Sharkhide website has an instructional video on the cleaner process. Since both Aaron's and my boat were new, we didn't need to use the Sharkhide cleaner.

If you have questions, give Clint Bland a call. He is more than happy to talk to anyone about his product!

I just finished getting the hide on my boat tonight and brought it home (Thanks again Phil!).

My pleasure. Wish I could have given you a hand on the second coat last night, but you got it done pretty quickly on your own. Sure looked nice as you pulled out. Did you remember to grab your can of Sharkhide (I haven't been out to the shop)?

[Aaron]

I just finished getting the hide on my boat tonight and brought it home (Thanks again Phil!).

My pleasure. Wish I could have given you a hand on the second coat last night, but you got it done pretty quickly on your own. Sure looked nice as you pulled out. Did you remember to grab your can of Sharkhide (I haven't been out to the shop)?

It sure did! Now it looks nice sitting in front of my house. I'm pretty sure it would look even better sitting in the water somewhere... so I'm going to rectify that problem sometime in the next 72hrs. I have a lot of shopping to do before then. I still need to get the fenders, ropes, extinguisher, throwable life preserver... that kind of stuff. As well, I will be putting on the other hour meter/tach today.

[BassCaster]

Thanks Phil, much appreciated, I hope to meet you at Marshall Lake in June.