A ROLLING DOCK
Building a sloping pier for the pond.
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PHOTO BY THE AUTHOR
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By Tim Matson
When designingthe perfect pierfor
your pond,there are anumber ofreasons why youmight want tobuild .
. .
For years, I've had an itch to put a mini wharf in my pond,
but I was stymied by what seemed to be a simple question:
Where should I put it? For example, in a small (one-eighth
acre) body of water like mine, a pier moored in a fixed
spot along a shallow shore might be great for children,
sunbathers, or ice skaters . . . but what about the
structure's disadvantages?
Mounting a dock permanently can be tricky in ponds where
the water level bobs up and down according to the rainfall.
One that's well suited for diving in April may be high and
dry by July! Then too, a dock is a perfect place to lash a
cage full of fish being fattened for the table, since it
offers easy access for stocking, feeding, and harvesting.
Cage culture, however, is also better suited to moderately
deep water, where the temperatures stay cooler and the
habitat is protected against drought. But come winter, when
the harvest is over and it's time for ice hockey, who wants
a dock jutting into the rink? What's more, after a few
years of relentless freezing and thawing wracking the
pilings out of kilter, a conventionally moored dock just
might shove off on its own! And finally, the pond keeper
who anticipates touch up shoreline excavation or dredging
doesn't need a dock in the way when he or she is making
repairs.
A SOLUTION IN SIGHT
Fretting over all these considerations caused me to
continually postpone the construction of my
mini-pier . . . at least, until the day I got a look at the
rolling dock in Donny Prescott's pond over on the other
side of the mountain. It was the first one I'd seen that
was not encumbered by those old-fashioned hang ups:
pilings.
Instead, the shore bound end of Donny's dock perches on his
dam, while the water bound end rests on a pair of old metal
wheels submerged where their height balances out the
basin's slope. The result is a sturdy, level,
portable dock.
Donny told me that he built his unique pier out of a pair
of 12-foot 2 X 6's (to serve as the carrying timbers) . . .
one-inch planking . . . and the axle and wheels from an old
discarded side-delivery hay-rake. After dismantling the
rake, he trucked the axle and wheels to the pond, mounted
one end of each of the carrying timbers to the axle, and
nailed down the planks.
His creation-which can be rolled around to fit the season
(and use), positioned to match water levels, or taken out
of the pond entirely was such a successful solution to my
quandary that I asked him for tips on building a movable
dock for myself.
"I'd try to match the radius of the wheels with the slope
of the pond basin," he told me. "The deeper you want to go,
the bigger the wheels you'll need . . . so locate your axle
and wheels first.
"And remember," he added, "you can roll the dock in only as
deep as the axle. If you need to extend the carrying
timbers beyond the wheels to get out farther into the
water, you might have to stake down or cantilever the shore
end, to prevent the whole thing from acting like a seesaw.
Just keep a lookout for old farm machinery . . . get the
axle and wheels that are suitable for your pond's size . .
. and then build the dock to fit your needs."
Know what? That's exactly what I'm going to do!