skiff lifts

Designing the Ultimate Flats Boat Lift!

If you are a serious angler and have dedicated yourself to fishing the excellent shallows around the coastline, you are probably familiar with microskiffs. They are fast enough to get you wherever you want to go and light enough for one person to drag back into deeper water when you run aground. Most microskiffs have less draft than fishing kayaks, allowing you to explore some very narrow creeks or even navigate the flats during the lowest tides of Florida’s winter. So whether you want to fish the backwaters, or if you simply enjoy finding hidden pools
deep in the mangroves to get away from it all, a microskiff may be a great boat choice for you.

Word has really gotten around about the innovative new Kayak Lift from IMM Quality Boat Lifts. A customer of ours was blown away by how much better our kayak launch was than anything else on the market and asked if we could modify it to accommodate his microskiff. The engineers at IMM Quality Boat Lifts have a rich history of designing innovative products that perfectly meet the needs of our customers. They were able to modify our Kayak Launch into a simple, yet full-featured, lift for microskiffs. This post details the design process.

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift

 

 

The figure above shows the changes our engineers made to the Kayak Lift to accommodate microskiffs. The figures on the right show a side view and top view of the standard Kayak Lift whereas the figures on the left show the same views with the modifications for microskiffs. As you can see, the size of the mounting base was increased by 125% to deal with the greater forces associated with the heavier microskiffs. To fit the larger microskiffs, the bunking area was widened and lengthened. Also, the 1 ½” square tube (1/4” wall thickness) cradle beams on the Kayak Lift were increased to 2” by 3” I-beams to support the microskiffs. Materials stress analysis was performed on the new design using the Autodesk Inventor software package and the structural analysis was examined and confirmed by an outside engineering firm. Finally, we upgraded the lift to an electric winch, housed the battery inside the base and incorporated solar panels into the skin of the base.

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift At Customer's Home

 

The final step was to make sure our lift would work at the customer’s home. Careful measurements were taken of the seawall, pier and shoreline. Water depth measurements and tidal fluctuations at the pier were taken. Then we put together a slip layout for the customer’s approval.

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift Plans

 

Our customer couldn’t wait to get the lift installed.  Here are some pictures of the final result.

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift Completed

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift Gallery

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift On Sea Wall

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift Real Example

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift Touching Water Gallery

Ultimate Flats Boat Lift In Water