Our creek is mucky. Do not want to get out in the water. New boat is 14.5’ long. Need idea for some kind of (hopefully) inexpensive dock system. Any suggestions?
What works well will depend entirely on the nature of the creek.
Can you have the dock stand on legs with “platform feet”, or do you need to drive the supports into the bottom?
Can it be a floating dock?
Do you need to contend with major flooding and associated fast water or drifting parts of fallen trees? How about seasonal changes in water level?
Plenty of cheap and easy docks start off working well enough and then are ruined by the first flood, but it could be you can keep it simple. For what it’s worth, small plastic barrels make good floats for a floating platform. Also, for what it’s worth, a narrow platform that sits lengthwise against the shore will be far more safe from damage during high water than one that extends out from shore in the typical way.
Creek is on a dammed reservoir, so the level doesn’t change dramatically. Depending on where I put it the water could be anywhere from a few inches to a few feet deep (we have 280’ of waterfront)… But if you stand up in the creek you can sink up to a foot or so due to muck.
At the W Pennsy Solo Canoe Rendezvous Cooper Lake is the water body. Its got body sucking mud that will mire you in to your knees. So the canoe dealers fashion small docks that sit along the shore length wise parallel to the ground. No more than four feet long and two feet wide. The legs are wood the feet are six x six ( inches) pieces of wood… For long term use you might want to have metal legs and feet…
We are about to install an Acudock floating kayak dock onto our dock system for kayak use. If you are kayaking get the 8" floats. Canoes work well with 8" but can handle the standard 18" float.