Hewes 21 Redfisher restoration.

[George Seither]

Trials and tribulations are over and she's perfect! Great looking ride!

[jim33042]

Man, what a clean console without the switch panel.

Josh, excited for you to get her splash tested!!

[redzone1]

Josh,

This is without question the best rebuild job I’ve ever seen.  A few adjectives that come to mind that describes your final outcome; incredible, outstanding, top-shelf, insane, detailed, and just flat out amazing!  Well done sir.  I’ve enjoyed your documentation of the process.

[16bayfisher]

Wow! Very nice, I really like how clean the console turned out. Kinda like a wire tuck in an engine bay. Enjoy!

[fishmanjj]

On 6/6/2023 at 2:57 PM, Josh B said:

Got some work done the last few nights... burning the candle at both ends. 

• Steering is installed, tilt-helm, wheel, new fluid, bled out, etc.
• New Taco Rubrail installed. 
• Console is fastened in place. 
• Shifter/Binnacle in place, but not connected at motor. 
• Power-Pole brackets installed & One pole installed but not connected. 

I'm trying to get all my stuff laid out first to make sure I have enough slack to run the lines properly. I want to have all my electrical in either the console or the storage under the seat. I do not want anything electronic in the rear hatches. Even with new hatch seals and properly adjusted latches I know those rear compartments are susceptible to water intrusion and I'd like to keep them free for wet storage when needed. 

I'm fishing another overnight tournament this weekend, so trying to get some evening work in the meantime. Rigging is fun, mostly, and I'm excited to feel like i'm close to getting this thing wet! 

Josh B.

Best rebuild I’ve ever seen….JJ

[Mrmojorisan]

Wow... you've got way more patience than I do... awesome job, especially on the electrical... but everything looks extremely clean and well done.  That's a lot of talent you have to the various trades on this rebuild.,...

 

 

Wanna sell it?  LMAO

[HewesYourDaddy]

Josh B, I love the hatch that you added to the front of the console. Can you tell us what size and manufacturer?

[RacerxV6]

MBG should use this boat to represent their line... Absolutely amazing!!!!! That has to be the cleanest console I have ever seen.  The black out is just pure bad ***.  Do you have a name for her yet?  You could open that up here on the forum.  I would be interested what members come up with...Just d@mn fine job Josh....

[whichwaysup]

Josh, its been a heck of a ride and part of me is sad you finished her.  One of those threads that makes you get excited when you see it go bold with unread updates!

[Josh B]

On 8/12/2023 at 10:28 AM, HewesYourDaddy said:

Josh B, I love the hatch that you added to the front of the console. Can you tell us what size and manufacturer?

Thanks dude. I can get you dimensions, but i built it myself while building the console... so it's a custom one-off piece.

Josh B.

[Josh B]

Thank you everyone for all the compliments and kind words. I'm still not 100% done, but I did get the boat in the water finally. Once I get everything buttoned up and the seats/cushions made I'll post a final (complete) set of pictures. 

I had a few issues right off the bat. The first was leaks in the bilge. One thing I never really thought of and I'm disappointed in all of you fine folks here who didn't say anything either... but on this boat all of the rear compartments the drain is well below the waterline. So as soon as I put the boat in the water all three of the rear compartments filled with water. You can certainly keep them plugged, but I now realize I should have put shutoff valves on all the drains as well. I had them on the intakes for the livewell pumps, but nothing on the drains. The thought of leaving the boat in the water over night (Keys trips, Scalloping, etc.) and having a hose or fitting come loose or break and sinking the boat is scary. The bilge pump would probably keep up, but what if it didn't or blew a fuse? Not worth the risk for me. So I purchased 1.5" stainless valves and I'm in the process of installing them. Let me tell you, massive pain. There's not a ton of room to begin with, much less adding all these valves in a horizontal position to keep them lower than the drains. I had previously sealed and clamped the hoses, so just getting them off has been a job. 

Ultimately, I like the idea of valves on the drains. Unless I'm using bait (i do a lot of artificial) I can keep the drains closed the entire time and I don't have to worry about any water entry to the bilge. 

I did run the boat a little bit and while I had this boat before, it's been a few years and I didn't quite recall it being so sensitive to tabs. Some of that is jackplate & prop i'm sure... but I definitely had to use tabs to keep the front down. I'm running a Fury 4 blade right now in 26p. I don't have a top speed yet, but this thing just leaps out of the hole so fast. Like instantly on plane and holds plane at pretty low speed as well. I ran it up to 50ish very easy. I'm planning on dropping it in again this week and hopefully get some more time to figure things out. I only spent about 10-15 minutes in the water this first time to see what stuff I might need to fix. 

More to come... 

Josh B.

 

[whichwaysup]

Josh - curious about this.   You state "but on this boat all of the rear compartments the drain is well below the waterline."  My MA is obviously a different layout, but my release well is in the stern (and below the waterline), but my crustacean well (just behind the bench seat) is above the waterline.  Those are the only two rear compartments that drain into the water.   Do all of your compartments in the rear have external drains?   

 

I've always wondered how to keep that release well from filling up, but it never occurred to me that the issue is the DRAIN line, not the intake line (where I do have shutoff valves).  I tried putting a standpipe in it when it was empty, but it still filled up . . . then I had a full well instead of an empty one!   I may look into installing shut offs on the drain line - like you, I rarely use it and that sucker holds a LOT of water! 

[Josh B]

On 8/21/2023 at 11:23 AM, whichwaysup said:

Josh - curious about this.   You state "but on this boat all of the rear compartments the drain is well below the waterline."  My MA is obviously a different layout, but my release well is in the stern (and below the waterline), but my crustacean well (just behind the bench seat) is above the waterline.  Those are the only two rear compartments that drain into the water.   Do all of your compartments in the rear have external drains?   

 

I've always wondered how to keep that release well from filling up, but it never occurred to me that the issue is the DRAIN line, not the intake line (where I do have shutoff valves).  I tried putting a standpipe in it when it was empty, but it still filled up . . . then I had a full well instead of an empty one!   I may look into installing shut offs on the drain line - like you, I rarely use it and that sucker holds a LOT of water! 

Did your well fill up when the intake shutoff valves were closed? If so, it could only be coming from the drain line... but it should only fill up to the level of the exterior waterline. 

On my boat, I have 5 thru-hull drains. Three of the Five drains have shared access... mostly from deck hatch drains and compartment drains that tie together with Y-Fittings. I do have three livewells; rear-center baitwell, rear-port release well and forward center pitch-well. In my case, the port and starboard hatches in the rear would fill up about 6 inches of water. The rear-center baitwell would fill about an inch or so. 

Like I said before, I could simply plug the wells drains from the inside... but I like the fact that I can shut the valves and know that my chances of having a leak somewhere are minimized. I will say however, that my bilge is much more crowded now and it was a real PITA to get it done. But I can shut off all the drains and all the intakes and I know it's all sealed up tight. 

I had someone PM me asking about the valves & fittings... so here's what I bought. I was fairly skeptical because the prices is considerably less than many other brands. However, they appear to be of solid construction and have SS 316 stamped on them. The valves look perfect, but I did buy 8 of the threaded/barbed adapters and I would say half of them had nicks or marks in the threads. I was able to clean them up easily enough, wrapped with teflon tape and they tighten down good and zero leaks on them. 

When I went back to look, it currently doesn't show the adapter fittings that I used... so maybe I bought them all? Not sure... but they are available from other sellers as well. 

Josh B. 

 

[Josh B]

So I got a chance to drop the boat in the water this afternoon... just to do some more testing and make sure my new valves weren't leaking any. All good there and I got to run it for about 20 minutes or so. 

When I was searching for a Bravo FS 26p prop I came across a good deal on a new Fury 4 blade in 26p. I thought maybe it might be a little too much, but figured I could sell it for what I paid and might as well give it a try. Well overall, I love how this prop performs... it's super responsive out of the hole and the grip on tight turns is amazing. I think it's just a pitch or two too big. 

I got it to 71 mph, but my RPM's were only at 5500. To be honest, 71 mph is plenty fast for me... but for the economy factor I think i should have it running WOT at 6000-6200. Curious if anyone has run both the Fury 4 blade and the Bravo FS, how do they compare... should I still look for a Bravo FS in 26p or go a pitch smaller? 

Josh B. 

[George Seither]

71 is moving right along!

[fishmanjj]

71 mph is hauling butt for sure. My Pathfinder 24’ with Yamaha F250 never got above 61 mph @ 6200 rpm…. However, the weight of the F250 was too much and it squatted , so I put a Power Tech OFX4-21 on it and that slowed her down to 56 mph @ 5800 but the boat had good stern lift and handled very nice.  It definitely needed the stern lift, it was the V model and not the XL which was designed for the heavy four strokes. Funny how 15 years later I have a 22 Pathfinder with F150 and enjoy 43 mph and good fuel economy. 
that’s a great job you did on the refurbishment, one of the best I’ve seen.  🎣👍

[Josh B]

Got to fish her this morning for the first time. Very happy with how everything turned out. Had to snap a few more pics, it was glossy out. 

Josh B. 
 

 

 

[George Seither]

That is one great looking ride! 

[fishmanjj]

I have many hours of fishing a 21 MA…it’s a great boat….yours is absolutely the best  refurbished 21 that I’ve seen. It looks amazing. Congratulations 👍🥃🎣

[Wanaflatsfish]

Well done....71 mph...that's moving along.....but, can you (like ALL EGRETS) run WOT into a 3 foot chop ?  (LOL)

you won't be the last to those tournament spots.

dc

 

[Josh B]

11 minutes ago, Wanaflatsfish said:

Well done....71 mph...that's moving along.....but, can you (like ALL EGRETS) run WOT into a 3 foot chop ?  (LOL)

you won't be the last to those tournament spots.

dc

 

Thanks guys! 

DC, hopefully those days are behind me of running WOT into a 3' chop... been there, done that... have the lower back pain to prove it! ha ha 

I don't care about being the fastest, there's too many folks out there running way faster in these tournaments. But I was running back to the ramp Saturday morning and a buddy of mine was next to me running about 40 mph. I dropped the hammer and had my boat on the trailer when he got to the ramp! ha ha  

Josh B.

[linesider 159]

On 8/23/2023 at 6:03 PM, Josh B said:

So I got a chance to drop the boat in the water this afternoon... just to do some more testing and make sure my new valves weren't leaking any. All good there and I got to run it for about 20 minutes or so. 

When I was searching for a Bravo FS 26p prop I came across a good deal on a new Fury 4 blade in 26p. I thought maybe it might be a little too much, but figured I could sell it for what I paid and might as well give it a try. Well overall, I love how this prop performs... it's super responsive out of the hole and the grip on tight turns is amazing. I think it's just a pitch or two too big. 

I got it to 71 mph, but my RPM's were only at 5500. To be honest, 71 mph is plenty fast for me... but for the economy factor I think i should have it running WOT at 6000-6200. Curious if anyone has run both the Fury 4 blade and the Bravo FS, how do they compare... should I still look for a Bravo FS in 26p or go a pitch smaller? 

Josh B. 

I ran a fury 4 and a bravo fs on a pathfinder 21 fusion with a flashed sho. They were within .5 mph of each other. Fury liked running low,  bravo liked running high. Bravo was a 26.5 and did 73.4 mph light with one person. I think it may have had a little more but who knows. Boat was all over the place from 68-71 mph and then smoothed back out above that

[RacerxV6]

Holy smokes that's fly'n Josh.....I have to say though. That is probably the sexist 21 MA I have ever seen.......

[Fsu11]

On 4/10/2023 at 1:38 PM, Josh B said:

Okay fellas, made some progress this weekend. 

The console is primed and ready for paint and the remainder of the hatch seals were installed. 

Then I started on the non-skid. I spent about 6 hours masking the boat off. After it was all masked off I had to sand everything that would get sprayed with non-skid. I should have used the DA sander, but was worried about going too aggressive or hitting the tape, so I did it all by hand (i shouldn't have). After all sanding, I went through another round of the 2 rag method of cleaning, that alone normally takes an hour or so. 

I decided to roll the topcoat paint as I felt like this would be an easier method for getting a nice thick coat of wet paint for the non-skid to stick to. It dries fairly fast, so doing it by myself I had to do 3-4 feet at a time, sprinkle in non-skid particles, and then continue... this ended up causing me some grief, more on that later. So after I got the entire boat painted and the non-skid particles applied I had to let it set up for 12 hours. 

I had to get creative with a way to reach all the center areas... I first tried leaning over standing on the ladder and almost fell a couple times... so I found a 2x12 and moved the ladders back and forth as needed. 

The next day I cleaned up the non-skid, brushing off the excess first and then vacuuming. Then I started painting over the top. I applied three coats of paint over the top of the non-skid. This is when I noticed the first issue. Everywhere I had stopped/started my original rolling there was a visible line. Ugghhh... it's not terrible and actually one of those things that you can only see in certain light from certain angles, but still bothers me. It could be fixed... or I could make it worse trying to fix it, so I think i'll just live with it. 

 

 

 

Anyways, I'm satisfied with the outcome. All of my lines are nice, texture is nice, color is nice. I started running low on paint on the last coat on the inside floor... so the third coat is very thin and I really would like to get another coat on that since it's the most high-traffic area. I'll have to figure a way to scuff it all up though, tbd. 

I learned several important things that I would do differently in the future. First... get someone to help you. The method I used for sprinkling in soft-sand non-skid particles is great, but it should have been all done in one fluid motion. One person paints, the other person sprinkles. Second, being cheap costs me time and money. The soft-sand is pretty pricey. I found a guy on THT forum that had some for sale, about 60% off regular price. Nothing wrong with it, however it was grey (not white) and that took some additional paint to get good coverage. With white particles I probably could have been done with two coats of paint. Third, I used 3m masking tapes for everything... the high dollar vinyl fine line tape is awesome for bending and doing corners. However, it does not hold the line nearly as well as the green "paper" tape that is also pretty flexible. I thought I was doing right buying the more expensive vinyl tape, but when you remove it the tape will bend/give way more than the green and I had to manually clean up a bunch of the lines on the corners. Not a terrible amount of work, but still something to note. Lastly, make sure you have plenty of time reserved. Depending on the products you use you have to account for pot-life, overcoat variances, dry times, etc. Like most things, it took longer than I thought and I ended up working wayyyy late into the night to get it done within the recoat window. 

Next, get the console painted and start installing some gemlux hardware. More to come... 

Josh B.

 

@Josh B Loved following this build, I know its been awhile since you completed this but hoping to ask a few questions. As I need to redo the nonskid on my Redfisher 18 in the cockpit area only. This doesnt appear to be that difficult of a job so tempted to try and do it on my cockpit as the nonskid is worn down after 23 years and its almost smooth in areas making it slippery.

 

1. Do you know which grade Soft-Sand Non Skid particles you used? Soft, Medium, or Coarse?

2. What paint did you use for the non skid?

3. Would you have done anything different after a year of use?

[Josh B]

53 minutes ago, Fsu11 said:

@Josh B Loved following this build, I know its been awhile since you completed this but hoping to ask a few questions. As I need to redo the nonskid on my Redfisher 18 in the cockpit area only. This doesnt appear to be that difficult of a job so tempted to try and do it on my cockpit as the nonskid is worn down after 23 years and its almost smooth in areas making it slippery.

 

1. Do you know which grade Soft-Sand Non Skid particles you used? Soft, Medium, or Coarse?

2. What paint did you use for the non skid?

3. Would you have done anything different after a year of use?

Thank you.

I think the non-skid job is very doable for most folks. Doing the cockpit only you can probably get away with doing it by yourself. The biggest mistake I made was trying to do the entire deck alone without any help. You have to keep the paint wet while you shake out the non-skid. It's very important to do the entire area in one-go so you're not stopping and restarting. You don't want to have any overlaps, you want one steady, consistent layer of non-skid throughout. The cockpit area should be small enough that you can roll it all out and get the non-skid applied before it dries. Especially since you can work from the deck. When I was doing the deck I had a make-shift scaffolding setup using a 2x12 and two ladders. I had to move it front to back as I went and it just took too much time to get setup and moved, etc. I ended up with a few lines in my non-skid where I had to start-stop-start and it definitely aggravates me that it wasn't perfect. Although, to be honest like most things after a few trips you don't really notice it anymore.

1. I used Medium particles. Make sure you order more than you think you'll need. You want to put it on super heavy and then 3/4 of it you will recover after it dries. 

2. I used the same AlexSeal paint that I used on the hull, obviously in white. If your boat is factory gelcoat, I would recommend doing that to match. 

3. So in my case I actually used 50% Soft-Sand and 50% Fine Pummice. Because I was being cheap and I already had the Fine Pummice on hand and didn't want to pay the crazy cost for more Soft-Sand. That was probably a mistake. I should have done 100% Soft-Sand. You can definitely tell a difference and the Soft-Sand particles are soft and squishy, the Pummice I used, even being "fine" is very rough. It's not a problem, but if I had over to do I would have not used it. 

Good luck. Prep is everything, sand, clean, clean again, mask it off, clean again, roll gelcoat, sprinkle non-skid heavy and evenly, let dry over night... brush off excess, top coat, remove tape, enjoy. 

Josh B.