Boat Lifts and Boathouse Service

A boat lift holds several thousand pounds of vessel in the air over water, on cables, in a corrosive environment. It is the piece of equipment on a waterfront property most capable of causing a genuinely bad day, and it is also the one people inspect least.

This page is about keeping lifts and boathouses working: cables, lift servicing, and repairs to existing structures. If you are looking to build a boathouse, that is a different job with different governing constraints — see boathouse construction.

Boat lift cable replacement

Cables are a wear item and a safety item. They work under load, in salt or brackish air, often with water running down them. They deteriorate from the inside as well as the outside, and the failure mode is sudden.

What to look for

• Broken strands anywhere on the cable — individual wires standing proud. This is the clearest signal you get.
• Fraying or birdcaging — the cable’s structure opening up.
• Corrosion or discoloration, particularly where the cable sits in a sheave or where water collects.
• Kinks or flat spots — permanent deformation means permanent capacity loss.
• Cable that has jumped a sheave or is running off-track.
• Uneven lifting, one side rising faster than the other.
• Noise from the motor, gearbox or pulleys that was not there before.

If you see any of these, stop using the lift. A cable that fails under load drops the boat and puts anyone nearby in danger.

When to replace

On condition, not on a date. Deterioration rate depends on the environment, how often the lift cycles, the load, and whether the cables have been maintained. What matters is looking at them regularly and replacing them when their condition says so rather than when they break.

We replace cables on lifts of all makes, including equipment we did not install.

Lift maintenance

Beyond cables:

• Pulleys and sheaves — wear, corrosion, free running. A seized sheave destroys a cable quickly.
• Motor and drive — operation, mounting, electrical condition in a wet environment.
• Mounting hardware and structure — the lift’s connection to the piles and framing, which lives in the same corrosive conditions as everything else.
• Bunks and cradle — the parts in contact with the hull.
• Piles supporting the lift — the structure carrying all of it. Deterioration there is addressed through pile jacketing and restoration.

A lift that gets looked at periodically lasts considerably longer and is far less likely to fail with a boat on it.

Boathouse repairs

Boathouses take weather from every direction and sit over water that works at their supporting structure continuously. Repairing one is mostly about arresting that, and it is a different exercise from building a new one.

What we repair: roof structure and covering, framing and structural members, the piles and foundations carrying the structure, hardware and connections, and storm damage.

The pattern is the same as everywhere else in marine construction — connections and supporting piles fail before the visible structure does. A boathouse with a sound-looking roof can be standing on piles that are substantially reduced below the waterline.

Assessment

Boat lift inspection is part of our marine inspection service, covering lift condition, cables, mounting, and the structure carrying it.

If your lift is making a noise it did not used to make, or you have not looked at the cables in a while, call (904) 327-3931 or get in touch.