How many people know about boat lifts? Just the ones who own a boat, probably. Boat lifts used to be called davits, and while most of us may have heard of those contraptions, we visualize them on large ocean liners.
Before the 1970’s, most boats were lifted with a davit system, or pair of davits that contained a fore and aft (front and rear) cable system that were in turn connected to holes, or eyes, on a boat. The arms of davits were connected to something solid, whether on the deck of a large ship, or on a pier or a mooring dock.
When a winch was turned, the cables, attached to the boat and the davits, lifted the boat from the water. Small majorities of people today still use davits to lift their boats out of the water, but by far, the majority of boaters and those in the boating construction industry use boat lifts for this purpose.
Boat lifts support the boat from underneath, contrary to the cables used on a davit system, which could put strain on the rib construction of smaller boats. With boat lifts, the keel of a boat is cradled with boards that are connected to a lifting platform or other type of cradling system.
Boat lifts...