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Field and Stream, July 2000 By John Decker | |||
Southerners can leave such a structure in year-round, but those of us that live in cold climates have had to endure two awful jobs: putting the dock in the water in spring and then taking it out before freeze-up. The tasks are about as appealing and as much fun as getting your gums scraped.
But the Field & Stream boat dock can change all that. It's been designed to be strong, stable, and roomy enough for a couple of anglers to fish off the end; best of all, the dock can be easily installed or removed by one person. Although no two bodies of water (or their shorelines) are alike, the design and construction principles of our dock can be applied to virtually any lake, pond, or river across the country. Dock Basics The length of a dock depends on location, water depth, shoreline, and boat length. Our dock is 42 feet long because the warmwater lake it sits in has a gradually sloping, shallow bottom with a water depth of only 3 feet even 40 feet from shore. The straight portion of the dock consists of several 92-inch sections bolted together. You can add or remove sections and shorten or increase leg length to suit the requirements of your location. Our dock has a slightly wider section that takes a left turn at the end to increase overall stability. The L-shape also allows room for two anglers to sit on the 4-foot dock-mounted bench we installed. Because many areas limit a dock's length, consult local zoning ordinances before you start building.How you anchor the dock depends on the shoreline. We mounted our dock to an 8-foot by 12-foot deck, anchored in front by concrete piers. The back of the deck rests on large rocks that were set naturally deep into the shoreline. To make the piers, we dug two 42-inch-deep holes at the water's edge, slipped 8-inch-diameter cardboard construction tubes into the holes, and filled them with concrete. Four 48-inch-long reinforcing rods tapped into the wet concrete, flush with the tops of each pier, added strength. Four-inch-square anchors set into the wet concrete allow the deck stringers to be fastened to the piers with galvanized screws. The Best... Ask For RDS | |||