I have noticed in looking around at various inland lakes - LOTO in particular - that it seems almost everyone uses (covered) lifts for their boats, even though they are in fresh water. Being on Lake Winni. in NH, we have very few lifts on the lake overall, most people just leave the boats tied to their docks for the season. This would include private homes as well as marinas. Is there a reason for this beyond just keeping the bottoms clean and the sun off of them? Just curious...

kepps the green growth off the bottoms and drives.. i know people at lake of the o that lift there pondtunes

I can't imagine leaving a performance boat sitting in the water for a long period of time. Down here you get a scum line after one day in the water. Gotta be able to keep it clean.

Stuff grows on the boats bottom at LOTO FAST. The water is very warm in summer too. Up in MN, it wasn't much of an issue, but forget about leaving anything in the water here more than a few days.

I would not consider leaving my boat in the water for more than a few days. It takes no time to stain and can also blister causing big problems.

Exactly, I keep my boat on the trailer so I don't have to worry about it but just leaving it in the water for a few days makes a nasty scum line. If i was fortunate enough to live on a lake or canal i wouldn't leave my boat in without a lift, to many potential problems not to mention you'd need bottom paint

Yep, of you are going to leave it in the water you better bottom paint it.

And if you bottom paint a performance boat, we will have to drum you out of the club .

At LOTO people use thier docks a lot. My is covered and has an uncovered 8X20 swim dock attached that isn't covered. The covered part keeps the boat out of the sun as well as makes it tollerable to work on it in the summer rain or shine.

Electrical current in the water will eat your running gear right up!
It's a bigger problem in salt water, but i't most everywhere, in varying degrees.

At loto the wave action is pretty severe too.

At least 2 reasons:

1. Water osmosis causing hull blisters.
2. Wave damage.