I live on a navigable canal and have a boat on a lift in the back yard. Since the pandemic, both used and new boats and their motors are in short supply everywhere with long lead times and high prices. Even parts can be hard to come by. Although we haven't had any issues in our area, there have been thefts of boats and motors from lifts elsewhere, particularly now that most of the snowbirds have left for the summer. It's very easy to lower a lift and float a boat off and away silently in the dead of night. I have night vision cameras but they're only good for watching what's already happened.
The lift can be operated from a wireless fob or from the control box itself which is located on a piling by one of the lift motors. There's a kill switch by another piling and it's 220v/20a breaker is in the pool equipment sub-panel. Most folks, myself included, rarely turn off the lift power at the breaker because it's inconvenient even though that's the best security solution. Thieves could look for the panel but are more likely to just move along to another target. I decided to automate that.
Looking through my extensive inventory of X10 stuff I came across some old Leviton 6371-1 220v/20a wall switches that I had used back in the 80's to remotely control my hot tub by phone with the X10 Telephone Responder. (I impressed the hell out of my then future wife by turning it on from the giant car phone on the way back to my place after a date. Not only do I still have the switches but I still have the wife!)
I put a 6371-1 in a watertight box directly below the panel, wired it into the lift circuit and was pleased to see it still works. The box is hidden from view and not readily accessible adding some additional security. I added the device to my Smartenit Harmony P2 so I can turn it on with Alexa as needed. I named it "Lift" which was not a good choice. When I told Alexa to "turn off lift" it worked but when I told Alexa to "turn on lift," she told me to go to the companion app to activate my LYFT account! I renamed it "boat lift," ran 'discover devices' again and all is well. As a fail safe for my forgetfulness, I've scheduled the switch to turn off an hour after sunset daily. In the unlikely event that we were to return later than that I can turn it on from the phone while still aboard.
