Third Child 29 Fountain
 

Making this post to have a history of events for us with this boat and to share with the community.

We went to LOTO this weekend picked up our trailer and headed to the boat ramp to get the boat. Once we got down the boat and dropped the lift as far down as it would go, the boat was basically still in the air. one side of the bunks were under water, but the side closest to shore was not. We tried a couple of different things to get the boat off the lift to be able to bring her home, but didnt have any luck. Tried some rather large ratchet straps, tried pulling it off with another boat, soaped up the bunks, but just didnt have any luck. It looks like LOTO has dropped the water level about 2 ft from shootout weekend. We are hoping that they will dump Truman at some point and bring the water level up enough to get it off to bring home for winter, but if not, we will either see if some dock companies have any ideas on how to get this boat off the lift, or it will have to wait until spring. Either way, we got to see some of our LOTO friends and have a nice lunch with them before driving back to KS.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...af504ce997.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...e7f33f49bf.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...cbdfbf8a4b.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...515bdca006.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...bad8f6328e.jpg

Also, if anyone has any other ideas on how we could get this off the lift before winter I am all ears.

I don't know if you have the room in front but I have seen people dredge silted in slips with a tin boat and small o/b.... fairly simple, tie the tin boat in place and let it idle a way in gear - you will be surprised how much sand can moved.

rocky btm, you are SOL with this method

Pump water in slip then drag it??

The person that put the lift in thinks there is more rock than anything down there. They have some sort of box that would blow the dirt out from underneath there, but they are not sure it will do anything.

Assuming you are meaning drop the lift as far as it will go and pull the boat off with another boat? We tried that with a pontoon, but wouldnt even budge it. We didnt have access to any other more powerful boat at the time.

Id get with a lift company, they may be able to plug the air line unbolt the lift and float it to deeper water and then let the air out, wont be cheap some lifts are unstable when not tied down

For that to even conceivably work, you would have to jack the Fountain up off the bunks and lubricate the carpet with soap or ????

Siting high and dry like the pics show, that boat would take an incredible pull (probably more than the rear tie down loops would take) to break the friction from the dry hull and dry carpet bunks before it even started to move.... know anyone with a big towboat (Nautique or the like)

whatever you do, make sure to take lots of video.

That would be my suggestion. Convert the air line to something you can release by hand. Then disconnect the lift from the dock and float it out to gentle deeper water. Just make sure you have the plug in!

Once you release enough air out of the lift, it should settle down enough for the boat to float off; and then IMMEDIATELY cap the air inlet. The lift will have enough buoyancy to float it back to the slip and re-attach.