Shortly after hurricane Irma struck, Joey Clawges was in the Keys helping his in-laws clean up the mess. They noticed a boat for sale, a Hewes Red Fisher 16 with an old early nineties Merc 150. The sign said it ran but it didn’t, so Joey got it for the price he wanted and ran the boat for a couple years before the transom was clearly rotten, and the floor and cap were also in trouble. It was time for a full gut, and Joey proceeded to redo the entire boat but also added a pad to the low deadrise flats boat. The performance increase was incredible. Let’s dig into Joey’s restoration and look at how much performance he added to the classic Hewes flats boat.

I love many flats boats because they are low and sleek, and even though they are truly fishing machines, they look pretty cool. That said, because of the almost flat hull, and heavy overall weight, they tend to not be fast compared to most performance sport boats. But Joey had a great idea when he was redoing it, he added a pad by glassing in two 5” Divinycell strips. But before that, he took everything apart because it needed everything.

The cap was removed and everything was stripped. Joey said “The rear casting deck was able to be reused to retain all of the hatch receivers, but we opened everything up on the inside to make a completely open area for mounting batteries, electrical components and storage. The stringers were all replaced with 1" Divinycell foam core with 2 layers of 1708 overlapping onto the existing hull. They are bedded down with Arjay 7121 structural putty as well. As originally designed, the hull flexed a lot when running side to side. It was obvious why once we removed the deck, there were no transverse bulkheads from the factory.”

Joey added two full length bulkheads and two center bulkheads further forward as space permitted, all bulkheads followed the same lamination schedule as the stringers. He then re-cored the transom with two sheets of 3/4" 26 lb Coosa laminated in between. From Joey, “All 5 stringers were tied into the transom with knees to provide additional support. 2 3" PVC pipes were ran forward for rigging to the console, another for the casting deck wiring chase, and two runs to feed the baitwell, 1" for fill and 1.5" for overflow. The entire area was then filled with closed cell flotation foam to further stiffen the structure, provide sound deadening, and maintain level flotation in case of swamping. The floor was installed with 3/4" Divinycell laminated with two layers of 1708 on the bottom, 2 on top and one layer of 1.5 oz. mat for better finish.”

In addition to that, they built a new forward casting deck, also cored with Divinycell. The console was all redone, reinforced with Coosa for coring and fastened to the deck with screws and 5200. Once everything was prepared and finished, he faired everything with Awlfaire, primed with high build primer, followed by 545 epoxy primer. Joey stuck with Awlgrip products using Awlcraft 2000 in matterhorn white on the deck, then whisper gray on the hull using Awlgrip. He did a trick of using Raptor Liner tintable bed liner and mixed in the Awlcraft to match the color.

On to the pad. Joey did do some work to remove a hook in the hull and then laid out the Divinycell strips to create a pad. At the back, the pad is flat, and Joey started tapering the pad about 6’ in and matched it to the hull. He used a belt sander to shape the pad, tapering until the end where it’s flat at the transom.

Joey explains the hull bottom work, “Once we had the shape we wanted, we ground down the hull to bare glass, layed out a 12" wide sheet of 1.5 oz. mat and stuck the foam pieces to the hull. Once kicked, a little minor shaping to the edges to allow the structural glass to lay flat without bubbles was completed, then two overlapping layers of 1708 laid on top to permanently bond the pad to the hull. Another layer of 1.5 oz. mat was added on top to aid with fairing. Ground down, we faired everything smooth to be ready to spray the High Build and 545 primers to prep for paint.”

Once the boa was ready to rig, it was equipped with a 6” jack plate, he also added a nosecone kit for shallow water running but it did cost him 2 MPH; the longer gearcase when not surfaced can cause more drag then a conventional case at lower speeds. Joey ran the old Hewes with the 2.0L 150 Black Max to a top speed of over 55 MPH post surgery. Originally the boat ran 47 MPH. Getting 8+ MPH gain from the pad addition is great, The lift the pad provides frees it up. A 19” Laser 2 did the work, turning the Merc up to 6,200 RPM. That’s really respectable for a fully loaded fishing boat. The Laser 2 is a small diameter high rake prop that works well on lower HP setups that are more submerged.

You can find Joey running around Big Pine Key sometimes, it does fishing duty and can run through some chop with all the work done. With the pad it gets out fo the water more, and the spray rails do their job keeping it dry. It’s a sweet little flats boat that has a new lease on life. There is even a ported 2.5L engine Joey has that he might run on it for some serious performance. Either way, this is a great resto and the pad is a really interesting part of the build to take the hull to the next level. Thanks Joey for sharing your story.