Hewitt Boatports
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Floating boat lifts operate like a submarine's ballast tanks. To lower the lift, you open a valve that releases air trapped in the lake; water enters the tank through a hole in the bottom as air is evacuated through the valve. To raise the lift you close the air evaculation valve and turn on a blower (similar to a shop vacuum motor) which blows air into the tank, this in turn forces water through holes in the bottom of the tank, and lifts the boat (usually 5 minutes up or down). You simply close the air valve to hold the lift and boat in position.
Typical alternative boat lift designs mount to either side of the slip and swing under water (remember that metal left under water will succumb to electrolysis generated by hydropower dams). With this design it is possible to come into the slip too fast and hit the front of the slip or hit one of the four side mounted brackets. With a side mounted lift, you must physically hold the boat in place until it is lifted; this is not an easy task during a lightning storm or high seas. These lifts float freely in the slip and move with every ripple on the lake often times squeaking unmercifully. The vulnerable part of all lifts is the air hose that connects the pump to the tanks; critters like to bite these hoses. If a side mounted tank loses air, it will roll the boat into the dock. If you try to lock a 4000# boat to the side of the dock, something is going to break should the lift lose air. Often, tanks are mounted with bands and bolts which require more maintenance. Most lift companies offer a front mount lift but shy away from selling them since their structure is not strong enough.
Our Hewitt Boatport (formerly Pickwick) lifts are a clever design that has evolved on a lake that typically has six-foot seas during change-of-season storms that occasionally twist steel docks in half. Hewitt’s frame, constructed of 2" x 5" x 3/16" steel tubing, is a unique product which is fabricated in one piece and then hot-dipped galvanized. Lesser strength frames are constructed of lightweight angles or channels and are assembled with hundreds of nuts and bolts, all of which can be potential maintenance headaches. In fact, the lift we offer only has two moving parts; if you could break them, you can readily buy replacements at a commercial hardware supplier.
Our lift mounts to the front of the slip and tilts down at the rear, so the boat floats off as if it were being launched from a trailer at a ramp. The primary benefit of this design is that the forward part of the cradle is clear of the water at all times. This ensures the boat will not drift forward to hit the dock. To launch, you simply lower the lift and back the boat out of the slip. To recover, you drive the boat into the lift and it will stop when it contacts the forward part of the cradle. On contact, you apply engine power slightly and you have just self-centered the boat; you don't have to physically hold it in place like other lifts. Because the cradles stop the boat, you cannot hit the front of the slip and there aren't any side brackets to damage your boat. There is one vertical stabilizer bar aft to ensure the lift cannot torque out of shape. This stabilizer bar, which is covered with a bumper post, slides up and down through a heavy duty galvanized steel bracket bolted to the side of the dock. To secure the boat in the lift you simply operate the air pump. Given the three point connection (two forward hinge points and the aft stabilizer), once the boat lift floats are fully inflated, the lift actually acts as if it were a piece of additional dock flotation. The boat lift and the dock float as one piece.
The Hewitt lift comes with a safety chain that connects to the dock and serves to control the fall of the lift so it doesn't go too deep in the water when the air is let out. Since our lifts mount to the front of the slip and only one side of the dock, they are a perfect application for double-wide slips and/or marina applications. You must have at least two points to mount a boat lift; unlike some side mounted PWC lift configurations, floating boat lifts are designed to operate in a slip dock. Hewitt’s lift provides the option to deck the front of the lift frame for access or additional deck space or to install a lengthwise walk board for easier access to the boat.
Our lockable deck-mounted console is extremely simple to operate having only a two-position switch for the pump and a lever for the air valve. The unit also contains a convenient two-plug, three-wire Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) power outlet.
A word about GFCI’s. GFCI’s are designed to immediately shut off power should a spike or surge in current be detected (as would occur if electrocution was to commence). GFCI’s are installed to protect your life, but too many GFCI’s in line can lead to counteracting effects among them and unexplained shutdown of one or more. Please let a licensed electrician determine the location and placement of GCFI’s between the house, shoreline and dock. You also should ensure you have full 20-amp service to the dock.
Our lifts have adjustable cradles on them so we can configure the cradles to accommodate fins, or a prop shaft, or unusual hull size or design. The cradles can also be adjusted later if you get another boat. Pontoon style lifts are also available.
Think of boat lift air hoses like the radiator hose in your car, if you get a pinhole, you lose all your coolant and bad things can happen. With the lift hose, a hole or lose fitting might cause you to lose your air causing the lift (and boat) to settle in the water. To provide an extra measure of safety and security and piece of mind, we install extra shut off valves on top of each tank for long-term storage. Hewitt’s flotation tanks are oriented front-to-back, so if you do lose air in one tank, the lift will tilt down by the aft. You should always tie a safety line or lock the bow eye of the boat to the hook welded to the front of the lift (remember, the boat can't roll onto the dock like side-mount lifts). Our tanks, like our floats, are rotationally molded with a built-in bolting flange so that we don't have to strap a tank to mount it.
Our standard boat lift is a 6000 lb. capacity which will accommodate almost any boat up to 25'. We offer lifts ranging from 4000 to 10,000 lbs. Boat lifts bolt to any dock and are installed after you have the boat in the slip to fine tune cradle adjustments. Most boat lifts require 5.5 feet of water to operate properly.
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We keep a fiberglass boat in a community slip without power for a boat lift. The boat goes into the water in April and has to come out around July 4th to power wash off the gunk on the bottom which has reduced the top end speed of the boat by 10MPH. Boat lifts keep the hull clean for performance and maintain value of your investment. Homeowners can install a boat lift in less than one day saving about $1,000 off our installed price.