Exposed water shortens cable life. That is the single most useful thing to know about lifts on this side.
A lift on open water is subject to continuous small movement even with the boat raised. That motion works the cable across the sheaves in tiny increments all season. The result is that cable intervals which are generous on a protected cove are optimistic here.
A roof over a lift is a large surface for wind to push on. On this shoreline that push is routine rather than occasional, and it transfers into the posts and the lift frame beneath. Roof fastenings deserve inspection on the same schedule as the lift itself.
Regardless of exposure, the diagnosis pattern holds: silence points at supply or controls, humming points at a capacitor, turning without lifting points at the drive, and crooked lifting points at rigging or alignment.
More often than the general guidance suggests, because exposure adds cycles that a sheltered installation never sees. Inspection is inexpensive; a cable failure under load is not.