Does anybody have plans for (or ideas on how to construct) a floating
dock that we can use for entering and exiting our kayaks? We live on
a canal which has a concrete seawall and we have a small dock. The
water at high tide is 6-7 feet and low tide is 2-3 feet less.

On 3 Jul 2004 16:17:06 -0700, (jerryuu) wrote:

Does anybody have plans for (or ideas on how to construct) a floating
dock that we can use for entering and exiting our kayaks? We live on
a canal which has a concrete seawall and we have a small dock. The
water at high tide is 6-7 feet and low tide is 2-3 feet less.


Some very tall pipes sunk in the bottom (PVC pipe will do for a sand
bottom). A couple of old barrels or small pontoon boat tubes. Enough
waterproof wood or plastic that's sturdy enough to support as many of
you and as many 'yaks as will use it at once for a deck. Fasten the
deck to the barrels. About 4 curvey things, (think C with outer edges)
that you can fasten to the float. Should look like the bell curve but
with longer, flatter ends.) Put the C things on the float on one side
and then drive the pipes into the bottom through the Cs. You'll need
4 Cs so you can have ones for each post at top and bottom of the
float. You could even do both sides, using 4 posts and 8 C thingies.
If you have to take it in and out each year, just pull up the posts
and hoist them out of the C thingies, then pull in the float. Store
the whole thing on shore under a tarp. You might want to have a
narrow railed walkway between your regular dock and your float, as
some people have for their pontoon boats, though with that much
change, I'm not clear on how that would work from a dock. I've seen
it from land.

Um, no. A ladder going down between the dock and float. That'd work
much better than the railed walkway. Some kind of hand winch or
pulley device you can raise or lower the kayaks with. And I'd think a
good solid wire rope to some stable point on shore would be nice, just
in case of the pipes pulling out.
--
rbc: vixen Fairly harmless

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Though I'm very slow to respond.
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On 3 Jul 2004 16:17:06 -0700, (jerryuu) wrote:

Does anybody have plans for (or ideas on how to construct) a floating
dock that we can use for entering and exiting our kayaks? We live on
a canal which has a concrete seawall and we have a small dock. The
water at high tide is 6-7 feet and low tide is 2-3 feet less.

One volunteer thing I do is to help with the Head of the Charles
Regatta each October between Boston and Cambridge, MA.

This event draws thousands of scullers and rowers, and many hundreds
of crew shells, and an assortment of support boats.

They set up various temporary docks, made of black plastic hollow
blocks, which interlock to make various larger sections.

A little Googling and I found a webpage for the one I was thinking of:

http://www.jetdock.com/

I'm sure there are other brands, but that should get you started.

HTH,
Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom