Leave docks in the water?

[rcspencer1]

I was at Lake Placid over New Years and was astounded to see that most cottage owners at both Mirror Lake and Lake Placid had left their docks in the water! We have always taken ours out of Blackey Cove with the fear that the ice would destroy it. Obviously this year is an anomaly, but has anyone ever tried this?

[BlackCatIslander]

Last year the ice bent the structural steel support between a very large rock and our wooden platform where our dock is hinged. And, the steel support is bolted to the rock just above the high water mark. Ice when it expands or is pushed by the wind can cause a lot of damage. I certainly wouldn't leave a dock in the water in the lakes region.

[EllyPoinster]

We leave our wooden dock in the water because we have no other choice - it was constructed in two sections that are too large to remove. The most dangerous time is when the ice melts and breaks up. Large ice floes pushed by the wind will crush anything in their path. As a precaution, we remove some of the carriage bolts that attach the supports so they can pivot rather than break should the ice come our way. That said, we have had years when we returned to find the dock exactly as we left it and others where it needed a come-a-long and 5 or 6 strapping lads to get it back on its feet and into proper position. Last year we faced a new problem - we found the dock starting to float away after the Mother's Day floods. Had to lasso it and tie it to shore trees but it only took a couple of hours with the aforementioned resources to get it back in operation once the lake level dropped.

[Steveo]

We have a crib dock that we have estimated weighs on the order of 50 tons (big dock). Therefore we don't need to do anything to it (removal or bubblers) since it has been there 80 years and hasn't moved.

A couple years back though, in the spring I found one of the corners had been lifted about 2 feet by the ice flows being pushed up against it. It was an amazing force. Nothing I could do to fix it but it did settle back down over the next 2 years.

So I have to agreed, you're crazy to leave a pole dock in the water without at least a bubbler.