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Many
aspects of yacht ownership are bound to change in this new century, and
one is the fact that boat lifts are no longer just for runabouts. Waterfront
residents owning pontoon boats and open-fishermen have long been able
to hoist their boats clear of the water, but the hardware now exists to
elevate motoryachts—and in some instances even megayachts—on
custom cradles at private docks. Owners of vessels from 35 to 95 feet
are taking a closer look at a technology that not too long ago was limited
to lifting jonboats out of the water with a crank handle. And they’re
discovering that the advantages, pardon the pun, outweigh the costs.
Most
owners say the primary reason to purchase a boat lift is to avoid external
damage. Keeping a yacht docked adjacent to a home on the Intracoastal
Waterway, for example, would be unimaginable for many owners due to the
destructive lashing by wakes. Likewise, the threat of severe weather,
including high winds and waves, can be at least partially eliminated via
a lift, and some Northern yacht owners say they also want to be able to
protect their hulls from the destructive effects of water-born ice.
Coming
in a strong second reason to invest in a boat lift is security, both from
theft and an insecure mooring. With the yacht perched above the water,
an owner can obviously be less concerned about things like chaffed dock
lines and dragged moorings and with the prospect of someone climbing aboard
his vessel and quickly motoring away.
The
list of advantages is even longer, including savings in time and money
on routine maintenance. Indeed, this is the reason most owners say they
love their lifts after they are installed. The elimination of slime growth
on his vessel’s hull caused one owner to claim that he was making
more headway at idle speed, an observation that indicates improved efficiency.
The savings in zinc replacements, haul-out fees, bottom paint, and drive
train maintenance can be dramatic.
The
increased awareness of and subsequent demand for high-capacity lifts is
evident to no one more than the lift manufacturers. Hi-Tide Sales in Fort
Pierce, Florida, manufactures lifts with capacities ranging to 120,000
pounds, and vice president Bill Caldwell estimates that his company sends
out an average of one 40,000-pound lift a week and one 60,000-pound lift
a month. Hi-Tide has just installed one of its largest lifts ever, a 120,000-pounder
intended for a 95-foot yacht, in Miami. Caldwell says that such large
lifts now constitute 25 percent of its sales, which while mainly in the
south, also include installations in New York, the Great Lakes, St. Martin,
and the Bahamas.
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Boat Lifts continued > Page 1, 2
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