Coach B:

A couple of weeks ago I lost my permanent dock out to the island some 80' away. I orginally used 2-45 gal drum (one at each end) to hold and support the 24" wide and 16' length of each dock piece above the water line. Once each section was floating I secured each section together with 2" x 6 " pressure treated wood and drove 2" x 4" lumber into the lake bottom and nailed to docks. Each vertical post had a cross piece to support the weight of the dock and I had these vertical posts into the lake every 10-12' along the 80' span, then removed the drums do to water level going up and down throughout the season. This past fall/winter the lake water level rose to touch the bottom of the dock. The result, once the ice melted and we had a storm out of the north (dock was east to west onto the island) the wave action and wind lifted the dock posts and turned over the entire length of dock. As you can imagine, I'm going to have some trouble building a new one using the same dock system. Therefore from my experience use a floating dock system to allow the dock to move up or down or if using a secured dock system allow at least 24-30" of height above the water level. Some may be able to have less height due to a small sized pond or a FAIRLY STABLE WATER LEVEL THROUGHOUT THE YEAR? Best of luck....

Rowly