Bilge Plug in or out on a boat lift

[Granite_33]

Mine is on a Cantilevered Hewitt, when up it is supported by the frame and not the cables. Its also under a canopy. I usually pull the plug though to drain the bilge as much as possible and keep it dry......but only when I am there.

I can live with water in my bilge for a few days if we get heavy rain...........its a boat.
Whether it makes sense or not, I rarely if ever turn my auto bilge on....I have just never gotten that much water in my boat.

A few years ago, the cable actually DID fail during the day, luckily I was there to swim after the boat. The cantilever rocking back into the water served as a launcher that sent the boat floating away rather quickly.

[76S&S]

A friend of mine has a hydrohoist and didn't fully close the valve one evening. The next day when they went to get in the boat it was gone. Luckily the plug was in and it had only floated about a mile down the lake.

[Bob B]

Always have kept mine in but my boat is under good cover and Bilge Pump set on auto.

[jafo9]

lost my pontoon last year when the lift sank overnight. the lift was new to us and i didn't close the valve all the way. i woke up to one of my very nice neighbors towing my pontoon back in the morning.

[davidstan]

Mine stays in due to covered dock lets little wind blown rain into boat thru boat cover.

[epnault]

Guys this is an awesome topic. Being a new cabin and boat lift owner I have been questioning it every time I lift my boat out of the water. After reading this, I am running to the cabin tonight to put my plug in!!!

I noticed the other night when we had around 25mph winds that the winds put a hell of a lot of force (up lift) on a canopy and lift. Couple that with a higher COG with the boat sucked all the way up, I was getting a little nervous.

PLUG IN FROM NOW ON!!

Thanks guys

[DJ 50]

Plug in and dont forget to tie it off too. Like others on here, I too had a boat lift failure, we think the marina guys failed to close the valve all the way after doing work on it, and we had our boat floating freely in the marina. Ever since then we have made sure to tie it off when up on the lift. Until someone said it, I never thought what would happen if we had the plug out when it failed.