The whole reason for this project is to create a place to keep my boat and to have a "day house" for hanging when boating and swimming. The ranch already has a big house but it's 8 miles across the ranch road. The logistics of launching the boat or using existing marina slips are a nightmare that swallows a day in one gulp. We want a place where we can go in the morning, stay all day, get on and off the boat and be able to take a nap or get in out of the 100+ degree heat. That doesn't seem like a big request but it is no easy feat. Thus, the idea of building a "cabin" out of shipping containers was born. By using shipping containers, we will be able to build a lot faster. The nightmare of forgetting a screw or a board and wasting an entire day driving 70 miles round trip to get a critical piece will be greatly reduced if we take everything we need in to the site in components. Modular boat dock, modular "house" components, modular everything.
Also, there exists the possibility that we might just up and decide to move the whole thing to another location someday. With a modular design, everything can be picked up and moved in a day or two.
Therefore, we have chosen a product called EZ Dock. We hate the color but we love everything else about it. Here are photos of how the dock has progressed...
The boat is on a Sunstream Floatlift... Find it here: The coolest thing about it is that is is completely self-contained and uses a battery with a solar charger for power. We actually launched the lift at a boat ramp and I pulled the lift along with the installer to the site using my own boat.
There will be a canpoy over the boat but because I have a wakeboard tower, we have to order extensions for the canopy. "We" means Rick at Advanced Boatlifts www.advancedboatlifts.com
We love Rick. He also designed the arms for the Ez Dock. They move up and down as the lake level shifts. This lake can drop as much as 10' in the summer and rise 6 or 8 feet in a couple of days. Since we are not there all the time, it needs to work without being monitored. In the case of an extreme drought, we could actually un-bolt the whole dock and float it out to deeper water.
The water under the dock is about 20' deep when the lake is full so it would take some major global warming to get us into trouble.
So, this is the raison d'etre for this container thing. In case you were wondering....
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Posted by: Boat Ladder | December 22, 2009 at 12:34 AM