Dave's Fish Creek Dock Project
Final Dock Design
My final dock design is well suited for most sites at Fish Creek. With a total dock length of 28ft, the dock will be ideal for water depths of 3ft 6" at maximum depth, which is very common out 28ft from shore on many sites at Fish Creek. Lots of sites are a bit shallower than this, which will provide greater stability for the dock since it isn't resting up so high on the support legs. I ended up with a 2ft dock width which is a comfortable width. The 4x6ft deck pad provides some area for loading, unloading gear into the boat and serves as a nice size for an adirondack chair. It would also support 2 smaller chairs. The 4x6ft deck also adds the much needed stability for a dock of this design and allows me to use the legs with pads, thus eliminating the need to pound supports into the base of the pond. The legs are fully adjustable and each slide inside a sleeve welded onto the dock frame. 2 pressure bolts secure each leg at the desired height. The aluminum frame by the way is 2x2" square tubing.
Initially I planned to stack each section of dock frame on their side inside our boat for storage. This idea turned out to be less than ideal. It would be a tight fit and we didn't want to damage our boat so this idea was scrapped. Instead we planned to store the dock frame above the boat on a home made rack. Considering we only had to drive 10 minutes to our boat storage, we weren't too concerned with this approach. We would later fine a better, more manageable solution.
The Decking
Once the dock builder was done construction the frame, I transported the 4 aluminum sections back home to check things out, as well as prepare and assemble the required 8 sections of decking which I would cut from 1 1/4" X 6" wide cedar planks.
Assembled Dock
Looks pretty good! I think I ended up with 4 - 6ft legs, 2 - 4ft legs and 2 - 3ft legs. This configuration would turn out to be fine. Unlike in the photo below, I would end up using the longer legs for the 4x6ft deck, which would be in deeper water. The tops of the longer legs which would end up rising a good 2 or feet above the decking would later prove to be useful for attaching additional accessories to the dock including an umbrella, a flag pole and a lighting system.
The 4x6ft deck turned out great! I spend the morning cutting cedar for the deck pad and put the whole thing together. Kate and I 'tested' the deck in our driveway. A margarita and beer late and it was working out just fine! We began to ponder the addition of an umbrella, solar lights and a flag pole.
Our first real test of the dock would be on our next trip too Fish Creek, June 16th weekend (2007).
Last updated: June 02, 2011 12:00:00
