Crab Davit install

Hello boat owners
Thought I would document the install of a crab davit on a 20’ grady white .
West coast means crabbing , we crab out of Astoria Oregon and in front of my sister’s house north of Shilshole marina in Seattle WA. Regional differences exist on how to rig boats, but this is how I did it on my west coast boat. Some sites suggest mounting the davit to the starboard side of the boat so the operator can see and navigate to the the crab buoy. I elected to install it on the Port side. I used the removable davit mounts available from ezpull dot net. They are out of Shelton WA. I talked with their fabricator Buck at the boat show about his mounts. He has done installs on G/W boats and told me there was no way to mount the davit system without installing a new 6” inspection plate to get to the back of the fasteners on the gunnel mount, so that is what I did. I installed the gunnel mount with large SS fender washers. I was able to use 2 bolts and nuts with washers on 2 of the deck mount fasteners of the boat but the other 2, I used threaded screws. The backing sealant was 3M 4200 sealant.

I selected the upgraded Schedule 80 Aluminum davit and taller davit for my boat. I consider every component I drill into my boat carefully and figured if I am going to pay the $$, go with the upgrade. The top of the davit is 74” from the floor of the boat. First trip out 10-8-2011we harvested 44 dungeness crab

Enjoy the pics:

I went though similar thought process.

I looked at the Brutis/Ace line hauler system------thought it sat too low on the gunnel to swing a pot onto the deck. I was unsure of the strength of the Scotty/downrigger mounting system (it did not look strong enough to me), and the powder coated steel will rust eventually.

I thought about getting an electric version of what I have -------but $1250 was more than I wanted to spend.

Regarding the an anchor lift systems. I have one that we use for anchoring on the Columbia River for salmon fishing( we drop a 40# river anchor) . Unfortunately, our crabbing locations can be somewhat congested. Astoria especially there are always other boats/traps/ buoys and hazards to watch out for, so backing down on a anchor ball safely would not be possible.

So for me this was a good choice. I can always add the electric motor to this davit down the line.

David E.