Boat lifts have two understandings: large-scale elevators to move boats between bodies of water and modern portable lifts for small boats. They lift boats out of water for storage, repair, or transport, and come in various designs. Construction and features vary depending on location and intended use.
Two understandings are associated with the term boat lift. Ship lifts, caisson locks, and similar boat lifts have been used on trade routes and deep-water ports since the late 18th century. Locks and similar large-scale elevators are used to move boats between two bodies of water with different levels. Today, the modern understanding of a boat lift, sometimes referred to as a boat lift, is understood to refer to a common piece of mooring equipment used for small boats and personal watercraft. Also known as portable boat lifts because the lift can be removed and reinstalled at another location, these modern mechanisms come in many shapes and designs, including free-standing or floating, as well as manual, electric, or hydraulic.
Modern boat lifts are used to lift and hold a boat out of salt or fresh water. Quite often, a boat is driven on straps, beams, a platform, or other mechanisms that sit at or just below the level of the water. Once in place, the boat lift allows boat owners, maintenance personnel or dock employees to lift a boat out of the water for storage, repair or transfer to a boat trailer for transport. Lifts eliminate the need for boat ramps to launch boats in and out of the water, as the lifting mechanism does the job of a ramp without the need for an additional vehicle with a trailer attached. Certain types of boat lifts, most often seen in floating configurations, do not require an actual lifting mechanism, but instead allow a boat operator to drive a boat up and out of the water directly.
Construction and features vary greatly among dock accessories such as lifts and hoists, depending on the manufacturer’s design and where the equipment will be used. Privately owned docks may have small galvanized metal boat lifts with motorized or manual crank mechanisms with ropes or chains to support the boat around the hull. Commercial docks often have large hydraulic boat lifts with cradles to accommodate larger and heavier boats. Boats hoisted out of the water may remain on the lift for storage at private docks, or in the case of commercial docks, used to lift a boat out of the water and into dry storage.
Regardless of the intended location, free-standing, floating boat lifts are installed along docks or wharves. Proximity to a dock or wharf allows the operator to drive the boat from the water onto the lift and then out of the boat. Freestanding boat lifts attach to legs that are driven into the sea floor, lake bed, or other terrain below the water’s surface. Such lifts are not anchored in any way to the wharf or adjacent wharf. Alternatively, floating boat lifts do not have legs, instead they are tethered to a point on the shoreline, to the adjacent wharf or wharf, or other stable point to prevent drift while allowing an operator to exit the boat on foot. .
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