C-DORY 16 Roof Mounted downrigger + pot puller opinions

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georgewindsor

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C Dory Year
2005
C Dory Model
16 Cruiser
Limited space on boat, but that roof looks like i could mount gear with some backing board. Anyone done this? Pros/Cons?

* I would be getting the scotty downrigger and a crane style pot puller, both of which will be able to pivot and have a good distance
(scotty pot puller extends to 6 ft, crane can extend to 4...
 
Con: Hooking something big and turning the boat over trying to haul it up.
 
Don't mount it on the roof. You only need 33" between the back edge of the pot puller and the front edge of your scotty base to pull a 30" pot over the side. It's 33" because the scotty motor hangs over the base a bit. You should be able to get the 33". If you can't, then you could pull the hinge pin to remove the down rigger motor when pulling pots. You might want to consider building your own pot puller with a davit and a wheel chair motor. With a 8" wheel on it, and 24 volts ( 2 batteries) you will be able to pull a 30 lb. shrimp pot up 400 ft. in less than 2 minutes. The davit , block, motor and misc. parts should cost you less than $300. I will try and get a picture up this weekend.
The hard part will be where to stack your shrimp pots and line.
 
ssobol":1t25s71b said:
Con: Hooking something big and turning the boat over trying to haul it up.
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Definitely a "con"...

We had one shrimp pot that I could not pull up in 2018; west side of Shaw Island. Don't know what it was hung up on but the only way I finally freed it was to tie off to a cleat and have The Admiral just put the boat in gear and go in a slow circle. I stood by with a sharp knife just in case. It finally broke free and we recovered it. We then moved and will never go near that spot again. We marked it on the plotter.
 
I have seen boats get the back end pulled down close to the water line when a downrigger ball hangs up. If it was on the roof you could pull the boat over. We lost a really nice guy that worked at the mini mart next to us 6 years ago. Hung up a shrimp pot out of everett. 24 ft weld aluminum fishing boat with deep sides. Got hung up and ass facing into the chop. Boat got swamped and 4 went into the water. Him his two boys ( 30s) and his grandson. Guy had a heart attack while the grand kid , 10, was holding on to him. This family lived on the water dam near. Fish ,hunt, crab and shrimp for 50 years in this area. Point is you got to be careful. Mounting downriggers on the roof is helping the sea kill you. It does not need your help...
 
d...... is helping the sea kill you. It does not need your help...
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Very well said Tom! In fact this applies to many foolish things that people do in small boats! I love it. Need to have a plaque made with this!

We have seen several 25 foot, 8 1/2" beam boats capsize with just too much static weight (half tower with two good sized men sitting in it). A lot of leverage, and no safety~
 
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