New Tender Lift and Stern Thruster

I wanted to post some pictures of just finished project of adding a new tender lift, stern thruster and swim platform. Did the work at CSR Marine Ballard yard.

Kennet Westby
Nostra Casa
1979 Puget Trawler 44'
Seattle, WA

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/members/12747-albums516.html

Nice! Looks like a new boat back there. Keep at it!

Very well done! Now of course, you have no excuse when docking....

Thanks for the nice comments. Totally agree no excuses for anything but a perfect landing. We have had her for more than 17 years and it only takes a few new toys to make her feel like a new boat to us.

That's a very interesting project. Could you post details of the lifting gear (model/brand/source etc)?

The lift is from a company Freedom Lift. We have had a number of different tender solutions over the years (weaver, lifting davits and a winch/tow cable) and really looked at a lot of solutions out their (and talked with owners of them) and the Freedom Lift was a hands down winner.

Beyond design and function the main selling points for me was that they were a marine design team that know the correct materials and loads that must be part of the design (many others just seemed to be playing with design concepts without real world marine expertise) and secondly that they stood behind their product and provided real owners we could talk with about long term experience. Additionally we got good feedback from a few of the yards we spoke with for the installation. I would not recommend this as a DIY project unless you have marine architectural experience (there is a lot of load on the transom).

They only make a single product but they customize the build based on your boat/tender (mostly based on transom angle/height and weight of tender). Our model was the 4485 HD Gen 3. They are really helpful and took the time to work with me and the yard (CSR) to plan out the installation. I had it shipped to the yard and they then did some reinforcement of the transom and angled tabs for mounting.

Pretty awesome to pull up in the tender, get out stably on the swim step and push a remote to lift the tender into place, secure and be underway.

The lift is not cheap, about $25K (we negotiated some discounts to about $20K) and the install was easily another $10-15K (some of the work was part of the stern thruster and swim platform fiberglass work)

Anyway, more info than you probably wanted but if you choose this approach hit me up for some other lessons and tricks we learned through the process. Here is one of the owners contact info for Freedom Lift:

Robert C. Zwiers | Partner
927 Alpine Commerce Park NW STE 800 | Grand Rapids MI 49544-8231

Direct 616.784.8759 or 866.543.8669
Cell 616.560.8145 | Fax 616.784.0349
bob@FreedomLift.com

The ULTIMATE Tender Lift Solution
www.FreedomLift.com

That's some serious hardware!

Wow! A super addition to your boat.

I have a 44 C & L, so a close cousin. One further improvement that I did was to move the lower transom step so that it is outboard of the upper step. Huge improvement to access when the dinghy is on the davits. I also extended my original swimgrid, made it far more useful. I can't tell how deep yours is from your photos, but if you remove the old davit supports you may already have enough room.

I have been interested in these since seeing a big Carver with one last year up in B.C. So it adds some LOA to the boat. Maybe takes a "bit" out of the lines of the boat? But what utility! Getting in/out of the dinghy will be a challenge for my wife. This seems like a huge amount of comfort factor.

Love to have one of these "remotes" on my boat too!

You're gonna need a bigger boat! Just kidding. That is a very nice looking setup and a nice install job.

Have friends with an Eastbay 38 who installed a Freedom Lift. They like it. But they do caution that they are experiencing some corrosion issues.

Concur on the corrosion. When we bought our boat it had a Freedom lift. Great lift for sure but ours was severely corroded. Need to have zincs inspected monthly and make sure that you do not have any dissimilar metals touching each other. Inspection and maintenance is the key. Of course that is true with anything on the boat. Even with the severe corrosion it worked great but needed to be replaced.

Yea, that was the feedback we received as well. Basically stay on top of any corrosion to maintain the lift and have the hydraulic on your service schedule. We were recommended by the company to use an aluminum anti-foul paint and the yard installed some extra zincs. Other than our cruising we are moored in fresh water of lake Union and our marina has historically been pretty cool with any ungrounded charges in the water. I will post an update after the year cruising on wear and corrosion experience.

I just learned about the FreedomLift and now am now considering it for our Selene. Looks like it solves a lot of the issues that come with deck mounted cranes or old style transom davits. The $20k price tag plus installation is discouraging, but thank you for sharing this info. I heard that a Seattle company has a developed a prototype (Sunstream), so I will contact them about their product. I was concerned that our stern thruster would be in the way but apparently not after looking at your photos of the install...good to know. Thanks!

This is an old thread, but I wanted to resurrect it for two reasons:

1. When I purchased my current boat in 2018, I had to have the freedom lift completely cleaned and painted with proper anti-fouling paint for aluminum. Fast forward 19 months, and the aluminum structure is covered with barnacles and a fine crop of seaweed. It was an Interlux product designed for Al. I hadn’t planned to get the bottom redone quite yet... any suggestions for a better paint??

2. The tie down system is a pain. It would be great to hear from other owners about how they tie down their tenders on the Freedom Lift.

Thanks!

Spinner said:

This is an old thread, but I wanted to resurrect it for two reasons:

1. When I purchased my current boat in 2018, I had to have the freedom lift completely cleaned and painted with proper anti-fouling paint for aluminum. Fast forward 19 months, and the aluminum structure is covered with barnacles and a fine crop of seaweed. It was an Interlux product designed for Al. I hadn’t planned to get the bottom redone quite yet... any suggestions for a better paint??

Click to expand...

I have a diver clean the bottom of my boat and the running gear every 3 months. It avoids significant growth keeps me from having to haul the boat as frequently.

Thanks! In the PNW, we don’t typically get that level of marine growth, do that schedule would be pretty excessive.

Do you have any recommendations for a good anti fouling paint for aluminum??

Spinner said:

Thanks! In the PNW, we don’t typically get that level of marine growth, do that schedule would be pretty excessive.

Do you have any recommendations for a good anti fouling paint for aluminum??

Click to expand...

No idea on the anti-fouling paint. I'll point out that I'm only about 30 miles South of you. Many boaters in Puget Sound use a dive service on a quarterly basis to keep their bottom's and running gear clean. They also check anodes each time and replace as needed.

Thanks Dhays! I previously kept boats at Elliott Bay Marina and had a diver twice a year. Now at Cap Sante, the bottom and gear stays cleaner.... I misread your post as every month, lol!

I may need to up my schedule. And get that aluminum structure cleaned and revisited, sigh....

By my eye, it looks like the performance or effectivness of the stern thruster would be severely sacrificed by the thrust water hitting the lift structure on either side. There would be more thrust gained by accelerating the water to either side but would be largely cancelled by that water hitting the lift structure on either side. The difference is still positive but not nearly what it could be if it were unimpeded. I'm looking at the original posted pictures, when I see this.