Mounting downriggers on a Sportfish.

yjay

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Joined
Sep 28, 2012
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2
I am the proud new owner of a flawless 2002 Crestliner 1850 Sportfish with a 115 Yamaha 4 stroke and matching kicker. I love it and was fortunate enough to get a great deal on more boat than I thought I was going to be able to afford. All it needs now is downriggers but the gunnels are narrower than the swivel bases. I've seen the track systems but there is flotation sprayed on the underside of the gunnels that is about 3/4" thick and the tracks are pretty spendy. Looking for any good solutions people have come up with for this application. I can get the tracks and remove some of the flotation if necessary.
Thanks in advance.
 

yjay

Recruit
Joined
Sep 28, 2012
Messages
2
Re: Mounting downriggers on a Sportfish.

to whom it may concern, this is how I did it. I went with the Cannon 24" tracks and Cannon 4" aluminum swivel bases. All of these systems look the same to me but the Cannons are the least expensive. Prices seem to vary a lot but I paid $320 for the tracks and bases. I mounted Scotty 24" electric downriggers to them. Under the gunnels I used a piece of 3"x1.5"x24" long aluminum channel I found in the remnant pile at a local metal dealer and thru bolted the track and angle with stainless bolts and nylock nuts. You have to remove about 8" of the flotation foam from under the gunnels which is no fun unless you go with shorter tracks.
I found though after i did the installation that the downrigger flexed the gunnel quite a bit. It would probably be fine but I went ahead and reinforced from the inside lip of the gunnel to the deck with an aluminum plate and stainless screws which made me feel better about hanging up the ball on the bottom which I'm good at.

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