To lift or not to lift? - That...

[Buckeye_Bob]

To lift or not to lift? - That is my question.  We’ll be getting a new SLX 400 bow rider delivered to Lake Lanier next spring and I’m contemplating keeping it on a lift.  The boat is 12 x 39.5 feet and weighs 17K pounds dry.  Our slip is sized fine for a lift at 16 x 46 feet, and multiple, reputable dealers have viable lift products for that size/weight of boat.  While I know it’s a much less expensive alternative, I’m not a fan of bottom paint from an aesthetics and ongoing maintenance standpoint and I’m not overly concerned about the cost of the lift.  What I am concerned about is not being able to run the A/C when the boat is up and if we’ll live to regret that.  We’ve not had a boat with a cabin before, so I don’t know if having to ”prime” the chiller each time we put the boat in the water (which is most weekends for us from April to October) will be overly troubling.  Sure could use some council from folks who’ve maybe been there and done that. - Thanks!

[Captain_Steve]

Hi Bob, I went through a similar process this past summer when I bought a new Sundancer 350 Coupe with stern drives. You may have stern drives or outboards (not sure from your description), but I would never bottom paint your particular boat. Definitely buy a lift as you will enjoy the security from wakes/tides/people, ability to keep it cleaner and to be able to flush the stern drives and engines. I never had a problem with the lower cabin being too hot on the lift and I'm in a deadly humid area in Southwest Florida. Besides, you don't want to hang out on the boat while it is on the lift except for servicing it. Lastly, you don't need to prime your A/C system - just make sure you don't start it ever out of the water and it will work perfectly fine like mine did. Enjoy the new boat!

[Buckeye_Bob]

Thanks, Captain Steve! That’s precisely the council I was looking (and hoping) for. BTW, our boat will have stern drives as well. Again, I surely appreciate the advice!

[Peteatthebeach]

They sell tops for raw water strainers that allow you to attach a fresh water hose to flush out the ac system. Use it to cool your ac.

[Woods]

My ac from time to time lost prime from going up and down on the lift. We simply installed a back flow preventer. Problem solved. We would simply dip the boat half way with the lift dawn on the weekends when we used the boat. This helps stabilize the boat at the dock also. I would recommend the lift.

[Seaclusion]

I say lift the boat. Use a household dehumidifier from a big box store to keep the cabin dry. I keep my 410 on a lift and don't have any problems. My neighbor is jealous as he just had to spend 5k to clean and repaint the bottom on his 44.

[Buckeye_Bob]

Thanks Pete, Woods & Seaclusion! You folks are making me smart enough on this topic to be dangerous. 😉

[JILL]

We've been contemplating the same thing. But the bottom paint every 1 1 1/2 years and having a diver come monthly is not big deal. It's easy. Bottom paint in our area is no where near $5K, it's about $1,800. We are in SouthEast Florida so our boat is in the water full time. Boaters up north where you are the bottom paint would last alot longer, i'm guessing 3-5 years because you all take your boats out for the winter. We leave our AC on dehumidifer mode so keep the cabin cool and the other nice thing of it being in the water full time is that if we wanted to sleep on it overnight at our dock we could. We are still contemplating a lift because it will add value to our property. I like that the diver's are coming monthly to clean and check the bottom of the boat. If it was on a lift we wouldn't be having them coming to check and alerting us of anything that could be wrong.