Yacht Lift Explained: Types, How to Choose, and What It Costs

Yacht lift equipment spans a price range from around $18,000 to well over $500,000 — and choosing the wrong type doesn’t just mean overspending, it means buying a machine that legally cannot do the job you need. The four main categories in commercial use — travel lift, boat jib crane, boat lift gantry crane, and shipyard gantry crane — serve fundamentally different tasks, and no amount of budget flexibility makes one a substitute for another.

Marina operators, boatyard managers, and shipyard procurement teams face the same core difficulty: the term “yacht lift” is used loosely across the industry, covering everything from a 20-tonne quayside component crane to a 1,200-tonne superyacht mobile hoist. The equipment that handles full vessel haul-out for routine antifouling works on entirely different principles from the equipment used for engine removal or mast stepping at the dock.

This guide covers every yacht lift type in VOITTO’s range, the selection criteria that matter, what certification to require before signing any purchase order, and realistic 2026 price references for each category.

Quick Reference: Yacht Lift Types at a Glance

Prices are market reference ranges for factory-direct supply. Final cost depends on capacity, span, certification level, drive configuration, and site-specific requirements.

→ Not sure which yacht lift fits your operation? Contact VOITTO’s engineering team — we respond within 24 hours.

The 3 Types of Yacht Lift and What Each One Actually Does

Travel Lift: The Only Option for Full In-Water Haul-Out

A travel lift is the standard equipment for lifting a complete vessel out of the water and transporting it ashore — no other yacht lift type performs this task. The machine straddles the vessel in a purpose-built haul-out slip, positions polyester slings under the hull via a hydraulic lifting system, and drives the vessel on its own rubber-tired chassis at speeds up to 5 km/h to any point in the yard. No fixed rail infrastructure is required, which means yard layout can evolve without decommissioning the machine.

The reason no other equipment is a substitute for haul-out is structural, not commercial: a travel lift lifts from below the hull on continuous slings, distributing load across the full beam. A jib crane or gantry crane lifts from above on fixed hook points — adequate for components and small craft but geometrically incompatible with a 25-metre sailing yacht’s haul-out requirement. If your facility offers bottom painting, antifouling, keel inspection, or propeller shaft work as regular services, a travel lift is operationally mandatory.

VOITTO’s travel lift series covers 30T to 300T in four standard variants: the Compact series (30–80T, span 3–12m) for small single-lane marinas handling boats up to 24m LOA; the Standard series (80–200T, span 10–18m) for mixed recreational and commercial fleets; the Wide series (200–300T, span 16–25m) for large motoryachts and patrol vessels; and the Super series (300–1,200T) for superyacht facilities and naval yards, custom-engineered per project. Drive options include diesel-hydraulic and full-electric; the electric variant reduces operational noise by approximately 12 dB(A) and is increasingly specified for enclosed or marina-adjacent residential environments.

The civil infrastructure cost that buyers consistently underestimate: A travel lift installation requires a reinforced haul-out ramp with a defined slope (typically 1:10 to 1:15 gradient), hardstanding rated for the machine’s wheel loads with vessel suspended, and a turning circle or travel lane wide enough for the machine plus vessel. For new installations, site civil works routinely match or exceed the machine purchase price for smaller yards. Build this into the project budget before any equipment quotation is requested.

Boat Jib Crane: Quayside Component Lifting for Active Boatyards

A Boat Jib Crane is the correct yacht lift type when the task is component or equipment handling at quayside — not the vessel itself. Engine and gearbox removal, mast stepping and unstepping, outboard motor servicing, chandlery pallet handling: these are Boat Jib Crane applications. VOITTO’s range covers 20T to 40T capacity with boom lengths from 9,100mm to 10,300mm and lifting heights up to 7,450mm.

The structural distinction from an industrial jib crane matters operationally: VOITTO’s Boat Jib Crane uses two hydraulic cylinders rather than a wire rope drum lifting system. This eliminates the cable-drum maintenance cycle, but more importantly, it allows the front and rear slings to be operated independently. For a keel-heavy monohull with an asymmetric load distribution, independent sling adjustment is the difference between a controlled, balanced lift and a hull contact incident.

Where this type reaches its limit — and where buyers get this wrong: The most common misapplication of the Boat Jib Crane is specifying it for full vessel lifting when a travel lift or gantry crane is required. A 40T Boat Jib Crane cannot perform haul-out for a 35-tonne sailing yacht because it lifts over the vessel on fixed hook geometry, not under the hull on adjustable slings. The task defines the equipment category; capacity alone does not. Buying a high-capacity jib crane to avoid the civil works cost of a travel lift installation is one of the most expensive procurement errors in the marine lifting sector — the crane arrives, and the haul-out operation still cannot be performed.

Shipyard Gantry Crane: Heavy-Lift Infrastructure for Vessel Construction

A Shipyard Gantry Crane is large-scale fixed lifting infrastructure for commercial shipbuilding, repair, and naval facilities — not recreational marina equipment. VOITTO’s range covers 100T to 1,000T SWL with spans from 50m to 185m and lifting heights up to 78m. Equipment at this scale is engineered per project rather than selected from a standard catalogue, and procurement typically involves a multi-stage specification and structural design process.

This category is included here because procurement teams evaluating large facility expansions sometimes need a clear boundary: if the widest vessel your yard handles exceeds 50T displacement and requires full structural section assembly, you are in Shipyard Gantry Crane territory. If the operation is a marina or boatyard servicing recreational and light commercial vessels, the Travel Lift or Boat Lift Gantry Crane is the correct scope — the Shipyard Gantry Crane is a different product category entirely.

Alan

Especialista em soluções para guindastes · Voitto Crane

10+Anos de experiência.

5,000+Clientes

50+Países

Especializada em soluções de exportação de pontes rolantes, pórticos, gruas, pórticos portuários e pontes rolantes EOT. Mais de 10 anos a ajudar clientes globais com consultoria pré-venda, seleção de capacidade e configurações específicas do local.

+86 136 3963 3287 [email protected] Contactar-nos

How to Choose the Right Yacht Lift: 3 Questions That Determine the Answer

Question 1 — What Is Being Lifted: The Vessel, or a Component?

This single question eliminates two of the four equipment categories before any other analysis is needed. If the lift task requires raising the complete vessel clear of the water, the equipment is a Travel Lift or Boat Lift Gantry Crane. If the task is lifting a component or piece of equipment — an engine, mast, outboard motor, cradle, or cargo load — the Boat Jib Crane handles the application at a fraction of the capital cost and civil works complexity.

The practical test: draw the lift path on a site diagram. If the sling or hook attachment point must go under the hull at any moment, you need a travel lift or gantry. If the hook attaches to a defined lift point on the component and never contacts the hull, a Boat Jib Crane is the right tool. This distinction sounds obvious written down, but it is the source of the most expensive equipment selection errors in the marina sector — driven by budget pressure, not technical ignorance.

Question 2 — What Is the Gross Hook Load, Including All Rigging?

Crane rated capacity is the total weight at the hook — not the bare vessel displacement or component weight. Every sling, shackle, spreader beam, and custom lifting frame adds to the hook load. For a travel lift, this means vessel displacement at the condition of lift plus sling assembly weight; for a Boat Jib Crane, the component weight plus all tackle.

The practical working rule: add 10–15% to the heaviest bare load you will ever lift as a minimum rigging allowance when selecting the capacity class. For multihull vessels or complex multi-point lifts with purpose-built lifting frames, request a detailed rigging weight schedule before confirming the crane specification — the rigging can represent 5–8% of the vessel displacement for large catamaran applications, and undersizing the crane by that margin is a legal compliance failure, not a conservative design choice.

Question 3 — What Does the Site Geometry Allow?

For a travel lift: the machine span must exceed the widest vessel’s beam by at least 800mm on each side for sling positioning clearance. Specifying span based on the current fleet without allowing for the widest vessel likely to be handled during the machine’s 15–20 year service life is a common and expensive error — span cannot be retrofitted without full machine replacement.

For a Boat Jib Crane: the boom reach must place the hook directly over the load pick point at the required operating radius — not approximately over it. Measure from the crane column centre to the farthest required hook position, add 300–500mm clearance margin, then check the manufacturer’s load diagram at that radius. Rated capacity decreases with increasing reach in a non-linear relationship; the headline capacity figure applies at maximum rated reach, and the usable capacity at your actual operating radius may be meaningfully lower.

Certification and Compliance: What to Require Before Signing Any Purchase Order

Certification is a hard procurement checkpoint, not an administrative formality. Missing documentation blocks port authority approval for installation, voids commercial insurance coverage in the event of an incident, and creates personal liability for the facility operator. The time to confirm the required certification package is before ordering — not after delivery, when retrofitting documentation is expensive, time-consuming, and sometimes structurally impossible.

For travel lifts and boat lift gantry cranes in European or internationally traded facilities, the standard documentation package includes four items: CE Declaration of Conformity referencing EN 13001 structural design standards and EN 13135 mechanical equipment requirements; FEM 1.001 duty group classification documented at commissioning and matched to your confirmed annual lift cycle count; factory load test certificate at 125% SWL with third-party witness option; and ISO 9927-3 compliance documentation, which is the product-specific standard applying to mobile boat hoists. VOITTO’s travel lift series ships with this complete package as standard.

For Boat Jib Cranes, the core documentation package is: CE Declaration of Conformity; structural calculation report including base reaction force data (required by your civil engineer for foundation design — no reputable supplier should withhold this); load test certificate at 125% SWL; and FEM duty class documentation matched to your actual lift frequency. For installations on floating structures, an additional coordination step between the crane supplier and the pontoon designer or naval architect is required before the order is placed — the dynamic overturning moments on a floating platform differ significantly from the static quay deck case, and this is not something to resolve post-delivery.

ISO 9001:2015 at factory level is a baseline manufacturing quality indicator separate from product-level CE certification. Request the current certificate, verify its scope covers crane fabrication, and check validity. A factory that cannot produce a current Certificado ISO 9001 is not necessarily manufacturing substandard equipment, but it removes one of the standard verification layers that experienced procurement teams rely on.

How to actually verify — not just request: Ask for documents, not assurances. Specifically: the EC Declaration of Conformity naming the responsible person and listing the applicable directives; the load test certificate showing the test date, witnessed load, test organisation, and crane serial number; and the ISO 9001 certificate showing the issuing body and current validity period. Any supplier that cannot provide these three documents in response to a pre-order request is a procurement risk regardless of quoted price.

Conclusão

Yacht lift selection starts with one question — what is being lifted — and flows from there through gross hook load, site geometry, civil infrastructure budget, and certification requirements. The Travel Lift is the only option for full vessel haul-out; the Boat Jib Crane handles component and equipment lifting at quayside; the Boat Lift Gantry Crane covers in-yard multi-task operations; and the Shipyard Gantry Crane is the right scope for large commercial vessel construction and repair.

Three actions to complete before contacting any supplier for a yacht lift quotation:

1. Write the lift task in precise terms — what is being lifted, gross weight including rigging, pick and set-down point, maximum lift frequency per week
2. Measure site geometry — span or boom reach, available civil works budget for foundation and ramp
3. Confirm the required certification package with your port authority or marine insurer

VOITTO’s engineering team has specified and supplied yacht lift equipment across all four categories to commercial marinas, naval facilities, and shipyards in over 50 countries. Send us your lift task definition and site geometry — we will respond with a specific equipment recommendation and preliminary specification within 24 hours.

Alan

Especialista em soluções para guindastes · Voitto Crane

10+Anos de experiência.

5,000+Clientes

50+Países

Especializada em soluções de exportação de pontes rolantes, pórticos, gruas, pórticos portuários e pontes rolantes EOT. Mais de 10 anos a ajudar clientes globais com consultoria pré-venda, seleção de capacidade e configurações específicas do local.

+86 136 3963 3287 [email protected] Contactar-nos

Author: Alan, Crane Solutions Specialist · VOITTO Crane Last updated: 2026-09 · Recommended review cycle: 12 months (prices and certification standards) Disclaimer: Final equipment selection must be confirmed by a certified engineer and comply with local lifting-equipment regulations.

FAQ

Q1: What is a yacht lift and how does it differ from a boat lift?

A yacht lift is professional marine lifting equipment — travel lifts, boat jib cranes, and gantry cranes — used at marinas, boatyards, and shipyards for vessel handling, maintenance, and launching. “Boat lift” more commonly refers to residential dock-mounted equipment for small recreational craft under 5 tonnes. In commercial and industrial contexts the terms overlap, but the operational scale differs significantly: commercial yacht lift equipment starts at 20–30 tonnes and extends to 1,200 tonnes or more. If the facility is a commercial marina or boatyard regularly servicing vessels over 10 metres LOA, commercial-grade yacht lift equipment is the applicable category.

Q2: How do I choose between a travel lift and a boat lift gantry crane for my marina?

Choose a travel lift when full in-water haul-out is a core service — bottom painting, antifouling, keel inspection, and shaft work all require the vessel to be lifted completely from the water. Choose a boat lift gantry crane when the primary need is in-yard hull handling, cradle loading, or lifting vessels already ashore. The gantry has substantially lower civil infrastructure cost since no haul-out ramp is required, but it cannot match the travel lift’s in-water launch and recovery capability. For most active commercial marinas servicing vessels over 12 metres LOA, both types eventually become necessary as throughput grows — start with the travel lift if haul-out services are the revenue priority.

Q3: What capacity travel lift does a typical yacht marina need?

For a recreational marina handling monohull sailing yachts and motorboats up to 18–20m LOA, the 35T–80T range covers the large majority of the fleet. Marinas regularly servicing large motoryachts, multihulls, or commercial vessels in the 20–30m range should treat 100T as a practical minimum to avoid capacity-limited operations during peak season. Always verify the heaviest vessel in your regular fleet against the SWL — and allow for the heaviest vessel likely to be handled during the machine’s service life. Undersizing a travel lift creates an operational bottleneck that is expensive to resolve without full equipment replacement.

Q4: What does a yacht lift cost in total including installation?

Machine price is only part of the project cost. A compact 30–80T travel lift runs $40,000–$120,000 for the machine; haul-out ramp civil works for a new installation add $30,000–$100,000 or more depending on site conditions. A 20–40T Boat Jib Crane costs $18,000–$65,000 for the equipment, with foundation civil works adding $5,000–$15,000. A 50–300T Boat Lift Gantry Crane costs $60,000–$200,000+ for the machine, with rail foundation civil works adding $20,000–$60,000. Build a fully-loaded project budget — equipment, shipping, civil works, installation, and commissioning — before committing to any purchase.

Q5: What certifications should a commercial yacht lift carry?

For European and internationally traded facilities, require: CE Declaration of Conformity referencing EN 13001 and EN 13135; FEM 1.001 duty group documentation matched to annual lift cycles; load test certificate at 125% SWL; and for travel lifts, ISO 9927-3 mobile boat hoist compliance documentation. ISO 9001:2015 at factory level is a standard baseline quality indicator. For naval, offshore, or classification society-regulated applications, DNV, Lloyd’s, or Bureau Veritas approval may additionally be required — confirm with your port authority and insurer at project inception, not after equipment selection.