Do you tie your boat to your lift?

[r1pilot]

New to using a lift and wonder if it should be tied up or not? If you're using a vertical lift like a Shoremaster, Shorestation, etc. do you tie your boat to your lift when its out of the water or do you simply rely on the lift to secure it? The boat is secure but in the odd chance the cable were to fail, the boat would bang around and float away....so not sure if it should be tied off.

What are others doing?

Thank you

 

[Murf'n'surf]

I wouldn't worry about it. Such a rare event plus I would rather the boat drop and float free instead of possibly getting caught up crooked by the dock line and end up taking on water and sinking.

 

[grywlfbg]

My boat is loosely tied to the dock at all 4 corners when on the lift. In case the lift starts to leak for whatever reason, I don't want the boat to float away (or bash the sides). First boat. Yes I'm paranoid, but it helps me sleep at night.

 

[gallobg]

It depends on how far you are located from the boat lift and the nature of the body of water you are in. In my case, the boat lift is 1.5 hours away on an inland lake and I usually only go there on the weekends. There have been rare times of very heavy rains where the lake level has risen enough to float the boat off the lift. For me, a simple line attached to a cleat or the bow eye helps me to sleep at night.

 

[r1pilot]

It depends on how far you are located from the boat lift and the nature of the body of water you are in. In my case, the boat lift is 1.5 hours away on an inland lake and I usually only go there on the weekends. There have been rare times of very heavy rains where the lake level has risen enough to float the boat off the lift. For me, a simple line attached to a cleat or the bow eye helps me to sleep at night.

Your scenario is very similar. There will be times when I'm not within 2 hours although the lake level would have to rise a significant amount to float it out. Similar concerns though whether it's water level rising, lift failing, etc.

I think I will go ahead and add a couple lines just in case.

Thank you

 

[r1pilot]

My boat is loosely tied to the dock at all 4 corners when on the lift. In case the lift starts to leak for whatever reason, I don't want the boat to float away (or bash the sides). First boat. Yes I'm paranoid, but it helps me sleep at night.

Beautiful set up!

 

[rrmidden]

Thanks for the reminder!
Last year was our first full summer with the Lakehouse and Boat Lift. I did tie a line between the boat and lift, just in case the boat lift cables were to fail. This year I totally forgot about it, I’m not worried about the lake level rising, just failure of the lift.

I’ll be sure to add a rope next weekend when I’m back up there.

 

[Sugarcharged]

I tie my pontoon to the lift, just one cord for peace of mind. There were cases here where too much rain has caused boats to float out of the lift. Also, in case there is a failure to the lift and it drops, the boat would be tied to the dock.

 

[ctyke]

I loosely tie it to one of the guide, if the cable breaks, the guide along with the rest of the support will fall down. The rope is loose enough not to break or pull the boat down, but will keep it in the lift. I have seen too many boats get floated out because of a big rain to not tie it up.

 

[grywlfbg]

Ok, clearly I'm ignorant about boat docks. Here in Oklahoma, the marina docks have poles sunk into the ground that go up through the docks. The docks can then move up and down these poles as the lake level changes. Last year we had some insane rains. The gangways were flooded so you couldn't walk to the dock but the docks were happily floating on top of the water.

So if the lift is attached to the dock, and the dock is on top of the water, how could the boat float out of the lift?

 

[ctyke]

Up here in Minnie, our docks and lifts sit on the bottom of the lake and are fixed height (not floating). The river docks around here (because the level changes so much) are the floating type and the boats usually float with them. A few summers ago, we got 9" of rain in a huge storm, the lakes around me rose 1.5'. Many boats ended up floating away. A few lucky people had them trapped up under the canopy that kept them in their lifts. Mine was up so high it didn't float, but after that I always tie it up just to be safe.

 

[PeterB]

I always tie a line to the bow and one on the mid cleat so if the lift fails the boat can’t swing into the boat next to us. The lifts at our marina do fail occasionally if a float fitting or a valve leaks. Most of the boats on our docks use at least a bow line as a backup. Most of us leave the lines tied to the dock so it only takes a few seconds to tie up

 

[jsg73]

Just a loose bow rope in case it lost air for some reason and let the boat float off.
Yes it would likely get pretty scratched up if that happened but that is what insurance is for. Very unlikely to happen.

 

[rkluck]

I always tied my boat to the dock when she was on her lift. That way if anything happened the boat stayed. I also had a steel cable wrapped in plastic that I ran across the back through the cleats and handles then I wrapped it around the dock posts and locked it. I did that so it wasn't as easy to steal!

 

[ctyke]

Just remember to leave slack in the rope or bad things could happen. That is why I tie it to the lift guides. Cable breaks, guides and boat fall down with it. Water raises enought to float the boat, I have enough slack to let the boat float until it hits the canopy. A neighbor at the lake got his first boat, well pontoon. He tied it tight to his dock. Came back the next weekend waves lifted the the pontoon which lifted the dock and walked it 90 degrees so it was lined up with the shore. He didn't know to leave slack to account for waves.

 

[Papa]

Had a cable break 3 years after installation. Boat floated out and our neighbor caught it and so now I tie a loose rope to the dock and mid cleat to keep that from ev3er happening again. Papa

 

[BJSelzer]

I'm only at the lakehouse on weekends (typically) and don't want to risk the boat floating away and banging into another moored boat while I'm away. I toss a bungy mooring line on it as an extra precaution to hopefully keep it in the slip.

 

[g2griz]

I have lines on the rear cleats to the lift. This is in case I were to leave the lift remote active when going to the house (despite the big red warning sign not to do this), have the remote control fob in my pocket, somehow activate the down button, and come back to see the boat drifting away. Not that I’ve ever done this...more than once.

 

[Shady28]

I always tied my boat to the dock when she was on her lift. That way if anything happened the boat stayed. I also had a steel cable wrapped in plastic that I ran across the back through the cleats and handles then I wrapped it around the dock posts and locked it. I did that so it wasn't as easy to steal!

I just put a U-bike lock through the winch wheel and cable. Short of cutting the cable you can't lower the boat. Nice piece of mind when you're away for either theft of kids just out messing around at night.

 

[jsg73]

That does not work on floating lifts with no wheel and cable.
My lift control pedestal is locked but it would not be hard to just puncture the air line and watch it sink. I keep the bow eye padlocked on a cable for this reason.