Canadian Yachting October 2017 - 40

THE
JET
SET

THE PORT HOLE

Bradley Schmidt
National Power and Sail Squadron

It's human nature to celebrate "firsts" - your first date, first
job, first time away from home. Of all these celebrations I
recently learned that the first time tying up to your own dock
holds a special kind of appeal. As I mentioned in a previous
article I did something out of character - rather than pinch
pennies and cobble something together myself, I purchased
an aluminum pipe dock system at the Toronto Boat Show.
This past spring I picked it up from the manufacturer
and a week or so later braved the icy cold waters of Lake
Kashwakamak to get it installed. In total I invested in three
6 ft x 10 ft sections complete with composite decking and
all the bells and whistles. The system was very well engineered and I was able to put it together easily. Each section, without its decking, weighs about 100 lb, so I was able
to carry them down to the shore and into the water singlehandedly. After placing the sections, the legs are adjusted
to get the frame level, then the decking sections slide in as
a final step. I wouldn't recommend installing one yourself
unless you like being in the water. There is simply no way
to get everything adjusted and set without being in the water with a socket wrench in hand. I even had to dive down
to the bottom to get each foot situated the way I wanted.
My water depth at the end of the dock is over nine feet deep.
Most pipe dock systems can't handle this kind of depth, but
40

Canadian Yachting

the system I used, by DockinaBox out of Barrie, Ontario, has
some neat innovations that make this possible: The legs splay
out slightly, giving each section inherent stability versus vertical
pipes. The feet allow the pipes to go right through so that some
of the pipe sticks into the lake bottom below the foot. Also,
custom pipe extrusions are available in heavier material, or
"tri-rib" like I used, which seems like it would be impossible to
bend. Of course I also used a diagonal brace on the end as well.
In a more typical installation you could simply walk the entire length of the dock into the water, then set the leg heights.
Because of my depth, however, this was impossible. I set the
first two sections the normal way, then floated the last section
out on a piece of foam, dropping the legs into position from a
boat. I intend to take it out in the same manner.
I couldn't be happier with the appearance, performance,
and installation of the dock so far. In all honesty my "first
time" tying my boat to the dock has been my only time.
Recent weekends have been so rainy that all I can do is look
at the boat (it sure does look nice). The nice thing about
an investment like this though, is that I literally have years
to enjoy it, so I'm in no rush. Now on to the next "firsts"
- the first time catching a whopper off the dock; the first
time water skiing from the dock; the first time someone
miscalculates and falls off the dock. I can't wait.

October 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Yachting October 2017