Boat lift question

Brien,
Your guy who put the hoist in knew what he was doing. You'll be very happy with having a lift utilizing the lifting rings. That's what they are there for!! No screwing around with centering a boat on a stupid bunked cradle.

It's fine to hang the boat for the summer and some will even do the same for winter storage but I do set my boats down onto beams set across the slip keeping a small load on the lifting rings. The 2 built up beams with the rope handles (makes them easy to move around the boat house) are what I use across the slip. The two on the right are ones I built up to spread the 2 hoist loads across the second floor floor joists.

Hey guys. Thanks for the replies. This is my first boat and my parents have always had theirs on a lift with a bunked cradle so I'm rather ignorant to anything else I'm afraid. But thanks again for the replies they are very reassuring and hopefully I'll get to take it down to our lake house this weekend and put her in the water for the first time since I've owned it.

Lifting straps on a hoist in a boathouse actually preceded the lifting eyes on boats. The lifting eyes started in the late teens and by the mid 20's were pretty standard on all boats. People found out how convenient the eyes were!

I used to lift my boat with the rings. Here is my conclusion:

1. Hooking the bow ring up is a pain and will wear down your bow going up there all of the time.

2. You need to hold some tension on the hook or it can slide sideways and bend the lifting ring.

3. I think that if you have any rot in your stringers using the lifting rings will compound your problem.

4. You need to check your alignment after it has hung for a week or so because the boat does flex.

Tim

BigBM wrote: Tim, Thank you for the advice. I don't have to get on the bow to hook up the ring with the way our boat house is set up so that's good. I'll hopefully be down there this coming weekend and that way I can check out the alignment. -Brian

Another thought... I would get some bungee material and set it up so the hook gets hooked with tension on the bungee....and lifts with the lift cable.

Tim

Brian,
In case you are worried about Tim's (behindthepropeller) concern about hanging a hull and possible hull distortion causing alignment issues, it's thoughtful but unfounded. Thousands of boats hang without problems. As one example, the boat pictured has hung for 30 some years and the alignment is fine (and the stringers condition is questionable!). I hang mine! Reid hangs his! (Reid, how often do you check the alignment? - never mind - you R&R your engines so frequently it's not needed!!)



Tim,
I don't need to get on my deck ether. How wide is your boat slip? You can't reach the bow or stern eye from the pier? If your hoist hook is catching sideways on the lifting eye, then you are lowering the hook/hoist too much.

Jeff,
Covering the boat is a nice attempt to keep it clean but does your boathouse roof leak? Do you cover your cars when you put them in the garage? Keeping the boat uncovered while it's in the boathouse will help to keep it dry and mildew free.

I question the ease and speed (as stated previously) of getting the boat centered on the cradle VS. just snapping on the lift hooks. I have a cradled lift too and prefer the boathouse. Correction: I do have to close the boathouse door so it may take longer.

Why do you have to adjust the cables? BTW, twisting cables is a sign that the wrong type is being used. There are over 20 different "weaves" of cable and each has a specific use.

Brien,
Put some ropes with eyelets on the ends to hook the hoist hooks on. Fasten the other end to the boathouse wall. This will pull them out of the way of the boat when they aren't hooked to the boat.

Brian
The photo above is my boat and its home has always been in that boathouse, summer and winter. When I winterize I have a set of beams similar to the ones Pete showed above I block the boat up on the beams, but keep the chain falls connected so as to spread the load between the falls and the beams. Once I run it for the first time in the spring it hangs on the falls till I winterize again. Years ago I bought a cheap mooring cover and cut two small slits for the lifting eyes to pop thru I use the cover to keep the bat poop off the boat. This fall for the first time I winterized the boat , and am storing it, on Pete B's Tique trailer in another friends garage as we are replacing piling and decking under our boathouse and needed it to be empty. I have never had any noticeable alignment issues and or signs that the boat is deformed from hanging. Tim is correct that you have to pay attention when raising the falls as you can skew the hooks under the elongated lifting eyes

We do hang our from the eyes and have for some time. I just love the simplicity. As for needing to adjust the cable winding on the pipe, you really need a correctly weighted "headache ball" on the cable 18-24" above the hook to maintain tension. Even still with ours, someone from time to time will lift the cable above the weight necessitating a quick adjustment. Our weights are high enough to clear the boat windshield and we just clip the hook above the weight ball when the boat is off the hook. While I don't think hardly anyone will debate that bunks might ultimately support the boat better, these boats are indeed designed with hanging from the hooks an acceptable method. As for speed of hook-up and lifting, our system is rather quick and easy. One other aspect I like about our eye-lift setup is that there's nothing left in the water when the boat is out, leaving the boat slip space open to swimmers and other boats. We call ours a boat "house" but we aren't allowed to have sides on any dock structures, so I'd like to cover ours when I'm not too lazy. We suffer from bird and spider crap falling from the rafters and partial sun exposure.