So, why would there be a blog topic about choosing the “right” boat on a boat lift website? Well, it turns out that the factors that influence which boat you purchase are often directly connected to whether or not you purchase a boat lift, and which type of lift you buy. Without getting into specifics of any one type of vessel, let me put your mind at ease: whatever boat you choose will be the perfect boat for you. The choice you make is all about who you are and what you desire, not the opinions of salesmen, friends and “experts.” And if you find that you don’t like your decision down the road, you can always change your mind.
Let’s start with some important questions to ask yourself when considering buying a boat:
What do I like about boats?
Do I want to connect with other people while boating or enjoy the solitude of the sea?
Do I enjoy the action of water sport or the relaxation of cocktails?
Am I a minimalist or do I need luxuries?
What is more important in the vessel: function or form?
What is the environment that I will be operating in look like?
Will I be doing my own maintenance or will I hire someone else to keep up the boat?
When you begin to uncover the answers to these questions, your internal compass will point you towards a particular style of boat with certain generalized features. Most of this applies to first time boat owners. If you are a seasoned captain, then you probably already know exactly what you want when buying a boat, with a very specific list of amenities. If you are a longtime boat owner and find your boating activities becoming boring or burdensome, then this exercise might just open up a new perspective for you. Don’t rush the process; come up with your own questions as well and always think outside the box. Just remember, the only perfect boat for you is the one that you choose.
Once you decide on which boat is for you, much of the decision-making process that you went through to choose your boat will directly apply to choosing the right boat lift system to protect your new investment. For example, if you decided on a beautiful Chris Craft inboard wooden restored original masterpiece, you will want to design some type of covered structure to maintain the finish. In this case, a boathouse type lift would be a good consideration. If you were into wakeboarding and making multiple trips onto the water, a high-speed lift might be in order, enabling you to spend more time having fun and less time waiting on the dock. In tight quarters with limited dock access, a lift without a top beam may be your best choice. Whatever your final decision, always choose a service provider (boat dealer, marine contractor, and lift manufacturer) who has a focus on what is best for you as the customer and not what they want to sell you.
If you are enjoying the pleasures of boating in the coastal marine environment, you will most likely have to deal with the threat of severe weather at some point. With sustained high-speed winds and a large coverage area, hurricanes are the most dramatic of these events, often making for a high potential for destruction. The good news is that there is plenty of time to prepare. While the best solution is to relocate the vessel out of the storm area, this may not be practical based on personal safety factors and limited availability of time and resources.
If your only option is to leave your vessel on its boatlift, step one is to secure the vessel. Remove and store canvas, cushions, or any other exposed, loose items that may be caught and destroyed by the wind. If possible you can “bag off” for rain protection any critical gear for example engines, generators, electronics. It may not be a good idea to cover batteries as that may trap escaping gasses and create an explosion hazard.
The most critical factor in hurricane preparation is to create a draining system to prevent water from accumulating in the hull and overloading the lift or flood motors and batteries. It is not wise to rely on bilge pumps for water evacuation since they can be rendered useless in a storm, therefore leaving your vessel vulnerable. Almost all boats are equipped with an external drain plug located at the lowest point of the vessel. This drain plug needs to be removed to allow for gravity drainage. Also, don’t forget to check for potential debris obstruction at the main hull drain and in the bulkheads toward the bow. Water must be able to flow freely.
Once the vessel’s loose items are secured, the next step is to secure the vessel within the lift system. At this point, a judgment call must be made. All mechanical lift systems, pile-mounted lifts, elevators, and davits have maximum lifting height. This is the highest point that you will be able to raise your boat. If you do not know what that height is, please contact your manufacturer or your installing contractor for assistance in determining what that elevation is. If an estimated storm surge height will exceed the limits of the lift, you may want to create an alternate storage method in your hurricane preparation plan.
Ratchet Strap
If we assume that you can raise your lift high enough to keep your boat above the estimated surge height, the goal is then to secure the vessel to an adjacent structure. This will prevent the vessel from moving on the lift system, as well as adding temporary additional bracing to the lift structure. While there are many ways to bolster additional support, the methods that are presented here involve the tie-down approach. This method is easily deployed before a storm and easily removed after the winds have subsided. A set of high capacity ratchet straps may make the task easier but the same goal can be achieved with the vessel’s mooring lines. Look around the lift system for other solid structures – this will commonly be a dock pile, but items such as trees, securely fastened cleats, or even the vessel’s anchor can be used!
When the vessel is secured, the ideal line position will be as far fore and aft as possible, 90˚ to the centerline of the boat and 45˚ down from the horizontal plane of the fastening point on the vessel. If the anchor points on the adjacent structures aren’t in the correct location, just get as close as you can with as many lines as you can.
Trucker’s Knot
Raise the boat within about two feet of its maximum storage height; if you are using ratchet straps you can raise the vessel to its maximum storage height. Tie the mooring lines to a solid structure on the vessel and then to the anchor points selected on land. Use of proper knots (a bowline or clove hitch) will make releasing the lines much easier later. Once the lines are secured, raise the lift and boat to the maximum height to create additional tension in the lines. This process may take some experimentation with the ropes, knots and lift travel needed to get everything secured. During this process, be aware that the additional tension being added to the lines adds load to the lift. Make sure not to make power of the lift cause an induced overload situation. If you are using ratchet straps, the process becomes a bit easier – you simply need to connect the straps and tighten them down. If you are talented with mooring lines, you can utilize a “trucker’s knot” to post-tension the lines while tying the vessel in its maximum height storage position. While there are no guarantees in a storm, at least you can rest assured that you made your best attempt to secure the vessel. That hurricane preparation may come in very handy when discussing your insurance settlement with your adjuster.
Character building. That partly sums up the June 12-14 race weekend in Toronto for all of us.
For Kyle Connery, racing the #91 Hi-Tide/SeaRock Pro Mazda, it meant overcoming an unhappy 15th place qualification result on Friday. It meant dealing with difficult changing weather conditions. It meant avoiding the carnage of a first-lap 6-car wreck on the first lap of Race 1 on Saturday. It meant hanging on with ZERO visibility in Turn 3 of Race 2 on Sunday…..settling down and picking off cars.
For us, character building meant 3700 miles of the new experience of towing a small 18-ft travel trailer. And camping. In rain. In temperatures plummeting below 70 degrees. (We live in Florida, ya know!) It meant 3 of us learning to dance around each other living with less floor space than in our bathroom at home. And mud. This stuff was everywhere! Being a boat guy the only mud you normally have to deal with is on the anchor…..which has a convenient ocean in which to rinse it.
The goal of the trip was to get to the Toronto IndyCar Grand Prix, with everything else on the way up and the way back being catch-as-catch-can experiences. We immediately went to Plan B on the way north when awful weather conditions on the East Coast led us to go inland and up through Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, etc. So the trip basically became Florida, hook around the north shore of Lake Ontario, and return! Not a drop of saltwater in 3700 miles.
All we heard about Toronto was about the horrible traffic. From everyone. And it’s true. But we snagged VIP parking passes for the parking garage right at the race course, and we left early from the campground (Rouge Hill, near the Toronto Zoo) and beat traffic downtown. The traffic IS bad……but seems very polite. (Remember, we live in Florida!) And there is an advantage in heavy traffic downtown for us visitors in that we get to go really slow and better see the sights. And it is a very cool downtown. We could take the train, trams, taxis and ferries to get everywhere we needed, which beat walking during the heavy periods of rain. (Again, we live in Florida so the concept of friendly, clean, convenient mass transit is a bit foreign. But hey, we were in Canada……and to us, that’s foreign, eh?).
So, take a cool downtown on the edge of Lake Ontario, and then plunk a serious race course down at lakeside and the exposition place……and you have one amazing annual event. (St. Pete in Florida is similar but not quite on the same scale.) The drivers seem to love the race course, calling it a “road course” plunked down into a street setting. The turns are more open than St. Pete, with a few more runoff areas, and there are more open zones with passing possibilities. It’s bumpy as all get-out with difficult transitions between asphalt and concrete. But everyone seems to love racing here for the track and the wonderful hosting by the people of Toronto.
On & off rain was a major feature of the weekend, and if it wasn’t raining you still had lots of puddles to deal with ……whether you were walking around or driving a race car at 160 mph. I am glad I was walking.
There were two particular standouts for me in walking around in the rain in Toronto. The first was, no beer lines! Instead, attractive though drenched young ladies brought trays of a variety of beer right to ya! The second was……POUTINE. We knew about this Canadian comfort food from our time living in South Florida……the very best soft serve ice cream we’ve ever had was at Dairy Belle in Dania Beach. Super smooth, rich and creamy. The best!! Dairy Belle is a French-Canadian hangout, and the Quebecois (folks from Quebec) flock there for their poutine. Ready for it??? French fries with fresh cheese curd covered in brown gravy. We had always said we would go there and try it but never got around to it. Well, when in Rome……! It’s pretty good actually, and it certainly hit the spot in the cold pouring rain . Good stuff, eh?
Back to the races. Kyle and his #91 Hi-Tide car started 15th of 18 Pro Mazda cars. BANG….mayhem on the first lap with 6 cars crashing out. Kyle slipped through there, got down to business and had some of the fastest lap times, and ended up picking off a few cars to gain a solid 6th place finish. Then on Sunday, again starting 15th, he learned to stay out of the blinding rooster tails of the cars in front, really went fast, and finished 10th. Two top ten finishes!
These ladder series (USF2000, Pro Mazda, Indy Lights) are driver development series that teach the young drivers what they need to do to be successful race car drivers. And success here can lead to a seat in an IndyCar. This weekend in Toronto was indeed character building particularly with the adverse weather and driving conditions. Kyle gained confidence. And the JDC Motorsports crew resolved a pesky bug in the car that had been affecting shifting and acceleration. Character building indeed! Thank you, adversity! Eh??
Breast? Wings? Thighs? Hey…..I’m looking at the big chicken!!!
PALMETTO, Fla. (June 11, 2015) – Hi-Tide Boat Lifts continues to expand its motorsports presence with today’s announcement that the Ft. Pierce, Fla.-based company will be an Official Partner of the Mazda Road to Indy. The three-year agreement will comprise each level of the premier driver development ladder – Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda – and will kick off with the next rounds of competition for all three series on the streets of Toronto June 12-14.
Hi-Tide Boat Lifts’ initial foray into racing began earlier this year when the company announced title sponsorship of the #91 JDC MotorSports Pro Mazda entry piloted by Kyle Connery, 24, of Vero Beach. The sponsorship is part of the 36-year-old company’s initiative to “lift” communities and encourage them to pursue their dreams.
A leader and pioneer in the boat lift manufacturing industry, Hi-Tide’s partnership will encompass multiple platforms including branding, event title sponsorship and contingency awards through 2017. A key component of its involvement will include the hosting of inspirational activities for local Boys & Girls Club of America children at race events.
“We are very pleased to welcome the Hi-Tide Boat Lifts team to our partnership lineup for all three series,” said Dan Andersen, Owner and CEO of Andersen Promotions. “People are very passionate about boating just like they are about racing so there is already a lot of synergy between our camps. We look forward to growing our new relationship.”
Hi-Tide operates one of the largest boat lift manufacturing facilities in the United States and has a dealer network of 240 professionals covering 21 states as well as Canada and the Caribbean.
“Our mission is to be a safe, passionate, fun part of your boat ownership experience,” said Craig Wood, President of Hi-Tide Boat Lifts. “When we create a great experience for our customers and anyone else who interacts with us, the world becomes a better place. Hi-Tide raises all ships.”
All three levels of the Mazda Road to Indy will be in action on the streets of Toronto with doubleheader rounds on Saturday and Sunday, June 13/14, in support of the Verizon IndyCar Series. Indy Lights will feature same day race coverage on NBCSN at 2:00 pm ET Sunday and live coverage on IMS Radio Network to Sirius XM Satellite Radio, indycar.com, indycarradio.com and the INDYCAR app from Verizon. Live timing and commentary for all three series is available on the Mazda Road to Indy App with behindthe-scenes features on RoadToIndy.TV. The USF2000 Toronto rounds will be featured in one of four NBCSN highlight shows which will include Pro Mazda racing from the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
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About Hi-Tide Boat Lifts: Hi-Tide Boat Lifts is a pioneer in the boat lift industry, as the first manufacturers to design a product entirely of corrosion-resistant aluminum made specifically for the marine environment. As the leaders and innovators in the boat lift industry, the company also developed a patented “Gear Drive” gear box, which guarantees years of low maintenance service. Learn more at: http://www.hi-tide.com.
About Andersen Promotions: Andersen Promotions has a long and successful background in promoting open-wheel championships and has also owned multiple race teams, including an Indy Lights team, in the past. The company relaunched the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda in 2010, which it operated from 1992 through 2001. In December of 2012, Andersen Promotions founded the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires to replace the void left by the Star Mazda Series which ceased operations after 22 years. On July 12, 2013, it was announced that Andersen Promotions would take over the licensing and operation of the Indy Lights Series from INDYCAR and now operates all three levels of the Mazda Road to Indy. For additional information, please visit www.indylights.com, www.promazdachampionship.com and www.usf2000.com.
Contact: Tamy Valkosky, Public Relations Mazda Road to Indy
FT. PIERCE, FL (April 1, 2015) – Hi-Tide Boat Lifts, a leader in the boat lift manufacturing industry, today announces its sponsorship of The Mazda Road to Indy race car driver Kyle Connery in his first full season of competition. The sponsorship is part of the company’s initiative to “lift” the South Florida community and encourage them to pursue their dreams.
Hi-Tide will sponsor Connery throughout the Pro Mazda Championship, which kicked-off this past weekend in St. Petersburg. Currently, Connery ranks fifth out of 17 drivers in the 2015 season standings.
Along with fellow sponsors Connery Concrete and SeaRock, the support that Hi-Tide provides will assist JDC Motorsports and Kyle Connery to pursue their paths of excellence.
“Like boating, car racing is a hobby that is a real passion for people,” said Craig Wood, President of Hi-Tide Boat Lifts. “We see this sponsorship as an opportunity for us to provide a local champion with the support he needs to pursue his passion.”
Connery has already proven himself to be a worthy recipient of the sponsorship, finishing second in the 2013 F 2000 Pro series with seven podium finishes in nine races, including four wins, along with his many achievements and wins in Karting.
Connery’s next race will take place at NOLA Motorsports Park in New Orleans, April 11-12.
About Hi-Tide Boat Lifts
Hi-Tide Boat Lifts is a pioneer in the boat lift industry, as the first manufacturers to design a product entirely of corrosion-resistant aluminum made specifically for the marine environment. As the leaders and innovators in the boat lift industry, the company also developed a patented Gear Drive gear box, which guarantees years of low-maintenance service.
