Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
The Admiral and I went for a sail yesterday and when we arrived at the dock we were shocked to see one of our cleats that our boat was tied to had completely pulled out. The rope (and cleat) was hanging from the side of the boat. On inspection the two 3 inch lag bolts had pull completely out of the wood.
We are now docked at Mosquito state park in Ohio. The marina is very nice but the dock are starting to get old. The treated wood in some areas is completely soft when it comes to holding power. I thought about running larger bolts all the way through and using washers and a nut on the other side, but I think this should be the responsibility of the park itself. I'm concerned about the other bolts and cleats also.
I will take a visit to the park office today and discuss the issue with them. I did notice they replaced about a tenth of the finger docks wood this spring (not mine). Maybe they could replace the one 2 x 6 that runs in front of my boat to solve the problem.
We are ata municipal marina. Since the folks runnin gth eshow are unionized, any improvements are seen as threatening their positions (or something - I've never worked in a union environment so I really don't understand as well as I should).
Going to the office before doing work yourself is a good idea.
If you go to replace the board, don't be surprised if the top of the stringer it is sitting on is spunky as well. You may want to pick up some 'L' brackets and get below any rot in the stringers for your attachment points.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by JohnP</i> <br />Here's a photo of a pretty small fender board for one piling. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I see. I don't have any pylons though.
I just talked to the office and sure enough, they do not want me to fix it. She filled out a work order and said they would get to it sometime today.
You are taking the right approach. Cleats should be through-bolted with large fender washers on the bottom side. A storm blew through here a year ago. Many lag-bolted cleats pulled out, the bolted ones did not. This is also why cleats on the boat should always be through-bolted as well. There can be tremendous forces on the cleats.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.