Lift slip and drain plug??

[GiddYupJoe]

Boat will be in a lift this season. How the hell do I get to the drain plug after each outing or do I just forget about it?

 

[Julian]

You either take the plug out, or you leave the bilge on. Many lifts have a step that help you accomplish this....mine doesn't, but I have shore power - so I leave the bilge on and connect to battery tender built in.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Not sure how your boat is set up but if you "forget" about removing it make sure you leave the bilge pump powered on for emergency pumping due to rain unless your cover is rub rail to rail and no chance of sagging/pooling.

Some lifts allow for adding a plank along side of the boat and then using a board to temporarily span the gap to work on the rear area. You can also get a cheap rigid row boat to keep around for these times.

Personally, I would pull the plug here in Florida unless I was at that property daily to keep an eye on it.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

The lift is covered, I'm not sure about a step or anything of that sort till I get down there on Sunday. We have power and my tender is all hooked up. Does that change anything?

These are what the slips look like. Chances are I may be able to back the boat in??

http://www.riverrunharbor.com/

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Looks like backing in might work.

Those are well covered slips, don't worry about the plug. Keep the bilge on and battery charger on...shouldn't have any issues at all.

 

[10-8]

We use a slip and I always back it in. Works great for boarding and easy to get to the jets and fins if needed. Another advantage of a jet boat, certainly couldn't back on a stern drive!

 

[BigN8]

I pull straight in, covered slip, stern gets a little water but limited to swim deck in a heavy rain. I have never pulled the bilge drain. Always leave it in. I also turn the battery's off so the bilge really can't run. If my lift had a problem, there is no way the boat could sink, since the bunks at fully lowered position are about 2-4 inches below the hull in the fully floated position. It would take a catastrophic event, and in that situation a bilge pump won't matter anyway.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

@BigN8 what happens to all the water when you pull the clean out plugs. I typically have 6-8 inches of water that just goes out of the drain plug when I pull them. I would assume this water would go into the bilge area, do you just leave it in there? Whats your experiance with this?

 

[Evil Sports]

@GiddYupJoe Dude that is a slick set up. I would love to have that option. With the covering I bet all you would need is your bilge pump on for a just in case. I would be happy to write that check for a set up like that

 

[BigN8]

@BigN8 what happens to all the water when you pull the clean out plugs. I typically have 6-8 inches of water that just goes out of the drain plug when I pull them. I would assume this water would go into the bilge area, do you just leave it in there? Whats your experiance with this?

The clean out plugs are completely isolated from the bilge. When you pull the clean outs the waterdrops stright down out of the clean out ports and runs out the water intake grate. I rarely have any water in the bilge. Plus the bilge pum is always on so as I'm lifting the boat and cleaning it, if there is any water in the bilge it gets pumped out, then just before I cover the boat, i turn the battery's off.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

@Evil Sports thanks! This is the first nice thing they have built on our lake since prolly the 70's!! Gladd I was able to get a spot this year. Figured we will get much more use having it up there ready to go. Thanks to evey one for the info. We will be on the water Sunday. Will bring our jackets if we have to!!

@BigN8 thanks for the clarification. That makes much more sense!

 

[Julian]

The only reason you want to leave the bilge pump on for is in the unlikely event you have so much rain get into your boat that it fills up with water and swamps your engines. It has nothing to do with sinking your boat, it has all to do with turning it into a bath tub. But in a covered slip like this....VERY unlikely to be an issue! Wish my slip was covered like that! You'd have to have 2 failures for your boat to fill up with water....the roof and your cover.

I loved backing into my slip, but with a lift, that isn't as easy and I can no longer back in with my Airdock.

Some people don't think about the bath tub effect and have had this happen when they store their boat outside with the drain plug in. An expensive mistake for sure!

 

[GiddYupJoe]

On a side note for any of you guys that slip your boats... Any good tips you wish you would have known prior to trying to put the premium yamaha cover on while the boat is on the lift? I'm sure I will figure it out, but I'm sure someone had an AH HA moment after a few tries.

 

[BigN8]

Yeah, make sure your phone, keys, and wallet are not on you when putting cover on or taking off.

 

[Julian]

Putting the Yamaha cover on while the boat is in the water isn't that hard. Just remember that you can still be on the swim platform while the cover is on....and ratchet it down while kneeling on the cover on the platform.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

Yeah, make sure your phone, keys, and wallet are not on you when putting cover on or taking off.

AH HA!!! Thats what I'm talking about! I would not have thought about that.

 

[txav8r]

Putting on the cover from inside the boat, unrolling from the bow, having been rolled up starting at the stern, makes it easy on and off. Set up your anti pooling poles first, then unroll and install over cleats and boat as you unroll. The issue is having dock lines and fenders hanging on the boat at the same time, you may need to move them as you cover the cleat. That is a PIA, and some may have some simple suggestions. Mine would be not to hang dock lines or fenders from the cleats. Now that new premium cover has the rubber or plastic covers over the cleat slots, I have not looked at one of those, or installed one, so I do not know if they are slotted and the cleats slip through it the same or not.

One other detail. If you don't use a bilge pump, don't tie your boat to the lift!!! Because if the lift fails, it can take the boat underwater with it. Also a good reason not to remove the transom drain plug, even on the lift. Now what I would do on a lift, is unscrew the drain plug while I was standing there and let it drain, then re-install it. Obviously this won't work if there is any chance of rain getting to the boat at all, then you have to leave the drain plug out. So for all you guys that like multiple layers of protection, your protection is going to have swiss cheese openings in it! You just can't cover all the bases...but were gonna try!

 

[BigN8]

Joe

Your setup looks similar to mine. Don't worry about the drain plug, you will fall in the water trying to reach it from the swim platform anyway. Fenders won't be a problem since they are not needed. You will have 4 ropes tied to the dock or the lift. I think mine are actually tied to the lift. You want to preset the length of the stern ropes so the boat is centered port/starboard on the bunks and you want the boat centered fore and aft when the ropes are as tight as they can go when you push on the bow of the boat.

Here is my routine on docking the boat: Pull in, attach all 4 ropes to fore and aft cleats. Get out of boat and turn on lift, then while standing on the dock I push the bow of the boat back with some pretty good force, this centers the boat port/stbd, and also fore/aft provided you preset your rope length correctly. After about 45 seconds the bunks kind of "catch" the hull and I can remove my foot, the boat really isn't out of the water, but the pontoons have filled enough to bring the bunks in contact with the hull to where the boat won't move around at all.

@txva8r is correct on the cover. when you take it off, you want to stand on the swim deck and roll it up like a big burrito. Then when you are ready to put it on, place it on the bow, hook the nose and attach the 2 front cleats on the cover, and have someone in the boat unroll it from bow to stern. I can get the cover to flip down over the swim deck by leaning out over the stern while standing on the dock and I kind of wrist flip the cover real hard over the stern rub rail. I do this a couple of times and it usually gets over the rub rail all the way across.

 

[BigN8]

Here is an old pic of mine with the old cover. I was curious about the rope placement, you can see they are tied to the lift. This is the prefered way, since it allows you to center the boat in the slip and on the bunks.

 

[billyb]

We use a slip and I always back it in. Works great for boarding and easy to get to the jets and fins if needed. Another advantage of a jet boat, certainly couldn't back on a stern drive!

I just had my lift modified to accommodate my new 242 limited. I asked the lift guy if I could back in or not and he said its one or the other but not both. He said he would have to modify the placement of the float things if I wanted to back in. My lift is a 6800 lb lift, so weight should not be a problem.

So my question for you is...have you specifically had your float things setup for backing in? Or was my lift guy just looking for a few more bucks?

Thanks!!!