Up in the cradle, clear of the bottom

The bottom of the tide is the real number

A lift matters at two moments: when the boat comes up, and when the water is gone. Along the Estero River and the east side of Estero Bay, that second moment does most of the deciding. Shallow is normal here, so the bottom is never far away, and a cradle set to how the water looks at high tide is a cradle that finds mud later the same day.

That changes the setup, not the answer. Beam height, cradle position and how far off the seawall the pilings have to stand all get worked out from the low end of the tide at your dock, so your boat lifts clear and lands back in water that is still water. The same shallowness is the argument for having a lift at all out here. A boat carried up in the air is not collecting the growth this bay is known for, and it is not settling onto anything when the tide walks out from under it.

Sizing is the part that never gets shortcut, in Estero or anywhere else, and the weight that counts is the one you push off the dock with on an ordinary Saturday. The owner settles that number standing at your dock, his crew drives the pilings from the barge inside whatever tide window your water allows, and the lift cycles with your boat in the cradle before anyone calls it finished. Working a shallow, mangrove-lined preserve from the water is slower than working a deep canal. It is also the only sensible way to do it.