Hewes Craft Boats in Colville

I got the opportunity to tour one of Colville's largest employer, Hewes Craft boats. With just 134 worker, putting out 18 boats a week...this is a pretty steady job.

 

I had a girl named Debra give me a tour while all the workers were out to lunch because it's very noisy when in production.

Debra also said that because of the intellectual property, I was only allowed one photo.

Hewes Craft, started by Bob and Ralph Hewes, shortly after WWII because Bob wanted a fishing boat and there was an abundance of aluminum after the war. Today it is run by the second generation of Hewes, Bill and Dave Hewes.

This was my one photo and the end of the line with a finished craft in the background. I will tell you that it is a complicated process and they only make fishing boats, but some folks use them in other recreation.

All the next few photos were taken at a dealer here in town. Hewes Craft does not sell to the public, only to about 45 dealers here in the West and they are not cheap...this 21 foot hardtop with a single 200 Yamaha was $56,000. Hewes Craft sells the boats to the dealer with all accessories minus the outboard engines, the dealer must put this on. The only model they sell with the engine, is the 18' and 20' jet boats. The boats come lengths from 16' to 26'.

Here is a soft top model. Hewes makes everything from the v-beam up, including the fabric tops. Each top is hand made because all the boats are hand welded for strength, but because of that, each cabin may be off by a 1/4 inch or so...and just that little of a difference requires each boat have its own custom hand made top.

I did not see one bolt or rivet anywhere on this boat...a tremendous amount of welding...nearly all of it by hand.

I took this from their website...apparently at one time they used rivets. It was an interesting tour and after seeing the amount of work going into the process of making these boats, I can see why they would be out of my league.