Last year, Jordan Wilson, a member of the Lummi tribe in Washington, walked into the shop at Full Time Fabrication in Sedro-Woolley with an idea to build a crab boat.
“He’d been thinking about building a boat for a couple of years,” says Full Time Fabrication owner, TJ Lowry. “So, we sat down with him and started talking about what he wanted.”
According to Lowry, Jordan wanted a boat for crabbing in Puget Sound and also for working along the Washington coast. “He is planning on taking it to Westport and fishing out of there too.”
The design they came up with is a 36-foot crabber with a 13-foot beam that draws 21 inches empty. “It’s an in-house design,” says Lowry. “And a collaboration with Tom Drake, who did all the CNC (computer numerical control) files for us.” Using the Orca3D design vessel design software for Rhino, Lowry and his team created a model for Jordan.
While Lowry doesn’t do CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis on the boat, he does like to know how it will sit in the water. “Orca lets us digitally float the boat,” he says. “That requires putting all the pieces together and adding the weight of everything to make sure the boat is balanced. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.”
Because Wilson plans on taking the boat out into the ocean, Lowry put a little more deadrise in the hull design. “Deadrise is the distance of the height between the keel and the chine. Usually, we do 16 inches at the stern, but we gave him a little more, 19 inches, to give him more stability out there. I think the boat will handle the seas fine.”
The Danayle Marie, as it will be called, will be able to carry crab in two 450-gallon tanks. “Originally, we intended to build it as a dry boat, but since then we’ve decided to add recirculating seawater systems in the tanks, so I will probably add a little pacer pump for that,” says Lowry. As designed, the boat will easily be able to load 60 crab pots, but Lowry believes it will be able to handle more. “Maybe 80, or even 90,” he says.
For power, Wilson asked for Honda outboards, and the design is built around a pair of 350-hp Hondas. “A lot of the outboards we’ve built have used Suzukis,” says Lowry. “But Jordan wanted Honda.”
Besides the Hondas, the Danayle Marie will have a MER MH22 diesel Hydraulic Power Unit (HPU) with an Eaton Loadsense pump. “The HPU will power the deck equipment,” says Lowry. “That includes a crab davit and ram, and a bait chopper, all built in-house at Full Time Fabrication, as well as a 17-inch Warren Junes powerblock and line coiler.”
Wilson’s boat will have two bunks forward and a small galley, and will be able to carry 340 gallons of gas for longer trips. Lowry predicts the boat will have a top speed of around 46 mph and be able to cruise at 26 mph.
“The 2026 coastal crab season is expected to start in mid to late January,” says Lowry.
“We’re expecting to have the boat done by January first.”
