James, you have to contain the barrels "inside" the platform. As teh people saw that were at the doings at my place, the floating pier has 2x10's/2x12's on the outside, and the barrels are inside. I ran 2x10's as joists between the barrels, narrower than the barrels are wide so they get jammed in there before they want to pop thru the joists. I'd top your barge with plywood.

Or if you are going to be doing this on a semi-regular basis, see about scrounging up an almost trashed pontoon boat and use that for a barge.

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