Designing a floating boat lift - anyone done it??

[vinalf]

Hi There fellow boaters.

I am in the process of designing and building a floating boat lift (hydrohoist) to park my boat on. Before I head off down that path I thought I would ask if anyone has ever been there and done that or could point me in a suitbale direction so that I don't make too many mistakes en route.

Thanks in advance
Vince Alfonso

[JPOP]

How did the build go?

Our member CDK did such boat lift.

Regards
Richard

[JPOP]

Originally Posted by vinalf

Hi There fellow boaters.

I am in the process of designing and building a floating boat lift (hydrohoist) to park my boat on. Before I head off down that path I thought I would ask if anyone has ever been there and done that or could point me in a suitbale direction so that I don't make too many mistakes en route.

Thanks in advance
Vince Alfonso

ever seen the launch pad lift www.launchpadlift.com

[MatthewDS]

You mean one of these?


How large? If it's just something to mess around with for your personal boat, you could probably work it out, but I wouldn't attempt commercial use on a home-designed ship lift.

Basically, it's just a barge with a wing wall on both of the long sides, that can be flooded or drained using a complex system of pumps. The trick is making sure that it remains stable at all times during the process. My guess would be that the biggest problem would be overcoming the fact that the center of gravity rises dramatically when picking a vessel, making the whole unit want to flip over.

I know people on this forum are always bringing this up, but it's worth repeating, designing something as complicated as a ship lift is a job for a specialist naval architect.

[JPOP]

No....I mean one of these, that can be seen at www.launchpadlift.com

[Knut Sand]

Two large PVC tubes/ pipes, (a "small") opening at the bottom? Compressed air in at the top?

[MatthewDS]

Oh, smaller, I see.

Knut is probabably on to something, although, depending upon how cold it is where you live, I might use HDPE pipe, as it won't get brittle like PVC pipe.

[Stumble]

I bought one... junked it six months later.

The ones I have seen that work use a cradle floated on top of large metal pontoons (in one case from a decomissioned pontoon boat). The one thing I would point out is that the volume of air is more important than the preassure.

All in all it seems to be a nice idea.

And that was it..................

Think deeper and you will forget about it.

Regards
Richard