boat lift for rookies

[flyingnugget]

Hey Y'all...

Need your infinite wisdom and insight.

On vacation at a rental house on Lake Martin AL, which is awesome so far, and the house has a double boat lift.
Owners have their pontoon on one and the other is open for use. With our V-hull's what type of bracing/frame that actually touches the hull do i need?

It doesn't look like its designed for a pontoon. The boards/frame, that are in the water are in a "V" shape. if you are standing in the slip looking from bow to stern the wider portion of the "V" is at the stern. I hope this makes sense... I apologize for the incorrect terminology...

Am I safe to put my 242 on it and winch it up? It's a pole and wind up cable type winch.

Thanks for any input guys..

 

[billyb]

Put it on and get it out of the water...if its level, you should be fine...if not, you may not want to use it.

 

[Sacamano]

Put it on and get it out of the water...if its level, you should be fine...if not, you may not want to use it.

X2

 

[Murf'n'surf]

It really depends on the distance between the 2 boards and how tall the boards are to prevent the keel from resting on the cross brace.

Pictures would help.

 

[Evildwarf]

Capacity of the lift, weight wise might be good to know...I would assume a rental property would detail the acceptable use of the lift...it would suck to get your boat in the air and have the entire affair shift sideways or collapse.
Or you could simply crank it up and hope for the best

 

[flyingnugget]

I put it on and it settled nicely... I'll get pix today when we drop it in the water... Didn't lift it very far out of the water. Just enough that it I didn't need the bilge pump on and the other boats wakes didn't rock it while in the slip.

I didn't get a chance to get pix last night ...sorry guys.

 

[flyingnugget]

Got it all figured out guys... V-hull lift and it works great... finally got owner to reply back and my boat is good to go with weight and hull shape being no problem...

Curious....When I was growing up in the 70/80's my friends that had boat slips all had the canvas type straps that floated in/under the water and then the lift would just pull the straps up and around the hull .
Why do I not see those anymore? The rigid structures of beams and boards seems to make things more difficult harder with pressure points on your hul.

Just curiousl

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Got it all figured out guys... V-hull lift and it works great... finally got owner to reply back and my boat is good to go with weight and hull shape being no problem...

Curious....When I was growing up in the 70/80's my friends that had boat slips all had the canvas type straps that floated in/under the water and then the lift would just pull the straps up and around the hull .
Why do I not see those anymore? The rigid structures of beams and boards seems to make things more difficult harder with pressure points on your hul.

Just curiousl

I would think that the strap slings cause rub marks and pinch the hull inwards where they are the weakest. Rigid bunk boards allow the most solid hull structure to sit directly on them the entire length.

 

[flyingnugget]

@Murf'n'surf .... I'll buy that.... I just havent had use of a boat sling/lift in many many years.

 

[jawsf16]

Boards are also more stable than slings and less prone to disastrous user error. There are a handful still around these parts though.

 

[msavold]

One bit I'd throw into the conversation is to keep an eye on the balance. I was told to lift ours with one of the two arms (lifting points) roughly under the engines. Put it too far back of that and you have the weight of two motors cantievered way out there.

As for the boards vs straps, had a friend that had straps in his fancy "boat garage" and got rid of them in favor of an aluminum frame. Stays put and doesn't scratch the hull like the straps do/did. (IMO, also lifts over a larger/longer area than straps that basically lift at two points...)