Lift for a personal watercraft

Abstract

A lift for docking a personal watercraft from a body of water has a shell with a cradle for supporting the watercraft and an open end for horizontally receiving the watercraft. A buoyant filler within the shell floats it with its open end approximately aligned with the water surface. A replaceable skid plate substantially centered on the open end of the shell engages the tapered bow portion of the watercraft during the docking process and guides the watercraft into substantially a centered position on the shell and raises the watercraft upwardly and drives the shell downwardly as the watercraft is horizontally transferred onto the shell from the body of water. The shell has two pairs of posts, one pair extending forwardly from the front and one pair rearwardly from the back, one proximate each of the sides of the shell. Each post has a flange about its free end. A pair of flat, resiliently elastic members mounted in side-by-side position of adjacent shells assures maximum stability of the multiple lift arrangement. Each elastic member may have at least one distortion aperture so that forces exerted on connected shells will tend to deform the distortion apertures rather than the mounting apertures and reduce the possibility of a lift being separated from its multiple lift arrangement.