A novel watercraft lifting system for raising a watercraft to different positions relative to water and docks at least includes: at least one motorized winch adapted to be coupled via lift cables to a watercraft lift, the watercraft lift adapted to carry the watercraft thereon; a control unit coupled to the motorized winch to control the operation of the motorized winch; a cable tension detector adapted to detect the tension in the lift cables, and coupled to the control unit; and a user control transmitter adapted to transmit user-chosen RF control signals to the control unit. The control unit further at least includes a receiver adapted to receive the RF control signals, and the cable tension detector indicates that a watercraft has reached a buoyant level when the tension in the lift cables fall below a predetermined threshold.