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 Previous Item - Sanford Airport - Friday 10/7
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Floating dock advice? |
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Jerry Ratcliffe - Sep 28,2011
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Folks; having sold my Quicksilver Sport 2S and now actively looking for a SeaRey I am <br />pondering how to get a SeaRey on and off my floating dock. The Quicksilver was light and I <br />could easily pull in onto the dock with modest sweat equity. The SeaRey is a tad heavier. <br />Anyone got any photos/videos/advice on how to work with a SeaRey and a floating dock?<br /><br />My current rig is a 14' x 14' wooden platform with a slight slope to the waterline.<br /><br />Yours aye ... Jerry Ratcliffe<br /><br />PS Please don't advise I go to the technical site, as I'm not an owner...just yet! ;-)
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Don Maxwell - Sep 28,2011
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Jerry, your 14' is just barely long enough for a SeaRey. Mine has a stance of approximately about 13.5' roughly. But most of the weight is on the mains--all but about 150 lbs--so you might have to adjust the dock's flotation accordingly. You could probably taxi up a ramp with 1:4 slope, but stopping might be an interesting exercise. And then you'd have to get out without swimming. You could also winch it up tail-first if you keep the tailwheel extended somehow. Or maybe go on the diagonal.
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Jerry Ratcliffe - Sep 29,2011
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Hmm. Thaks Don. What about winching it up onto a floating dock bow first with the wheels <br />down (is it 'bow' or 'nose' when on the water?!)? Is there a reason this would not work?
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Don Maxwell - Sep 29,2011
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The airplane is about 24 feet long. The nose would extend beyond your 14 foot dock by 6 or 8 feet, but with a bigger dock you could probably winch it nose-first. <br /><br />But with a bigger dock it would be much easier just to taxi up. I'd add a ramp about 10 feet long or so, depending on the freeboard of the dock, with ramp flotation arranged so that the outboard edge is submerged by about 2 feet. Get the main wheels above the ramp and throttle up. You could back down the ramp. But with a similar ramp on the other side of the dock, you could just nose down the second ramp bow first.<br /><br />You could probably just add one or two moderately long ramps to your 14 footer and keep your feet dry. If there's room for only one ramp, why not make it in two parts, one horizontal and the other sloped? It should be at least 10 feet wide, but I'd go for the full 14, because it might be hard to hit a 10 footer if there were much wind or current. At least 12, anyway. The main gear track is about 8 feet.<br /><br />I've heard that a SeaRey owner in Maine built a double-ramp floating dock.
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Jerry Ratcliffe - Sep 30,2011
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Alas the Chesapeake Bay rules are no floating docks of more than 200 square feet, so 14 x <br />14 puts me at 196 square feet already... :-(<br />This is going to be a conundrum...
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Don Maxwell - Sep 30,2011
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Jerry, when I wanted a floating dock at our place on the James, it turned out to be much easier to build a barge and license it as a boat. I needed no permission, and the license is something like $27 for three years. The Large Marge Party Barge and Self-Propelled Seaplane Tender is only 8x12, but could be almost any size. It could even be large enough to hold a SeaRey or two.
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David Mazer - Sep 30,2011
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How good an aim are your? If you make the dock 10ft wide it can be 20 ft long. Pretty tight with an 8 ft stance though. I probably wouldn't be comfortable with that small a margin for error.
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Eric Batterman - Sep 30,2011
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Interesting idea. You could make a very wide approach tapering to wheel width - with channels to capture the wheels car wash style.
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Jerry Ratcliffe - Oct 01,2011
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Now there's an idea. Can't see the neighbors being too happy though!<br />Here is what I have at the moment (first and last minute of video):<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrMRcbptzbo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrMRcbptzbo</a><br />
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Don Maxwell - Oct 01,2011
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Jerry, you're going to love having a SeaRey there! <br /><br />The simplest solution is just to leave the SeaRey floating. Just install an automatic bilge pump if it isn't already automatic. The only hazard we know of is snow on the tail surfaces--snow sank the tail of a Canadian SeaRey. But even that is easy enough to counter when you know it's a hazard. It would be especially easy if you cut a 4 foot wide slot into the dock to accommodate the nose of the airplane, at least as far as the landing gear. Then you can get in and out without having to swim or stretch. The Oshkosh seaplane base uses U-shaped docks for that purpose.<br /><br />But if you want to get the airplane completely out of the water, your 14x14 dock ought to work if you can get the on/off side low enough for the wheels. I think it will need to sink to about 20' or 24' below the surface, and you could do that with an air-filled bladder of some sort. <br /><br />Better would be to make it oblong or trapezoidal, as Eric and David have suggested.<br /><br />Another method would be to modify the 14x14, making it U-shaped, with an 8 or 9 foot wide center section hinged at one end, so that its free end could be lowered down by cables until it's low enough for the wheels. You could then enter either nose first or tail first and winch the free end up level with the rest of the dock. <br /><br />It's an interesting problem. And I'll be interested to see how you solve it. Get the SeaRey and the solution will come!
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Kenneth Leonard - Oct 01,2011
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Personally, I wouldn't let a searey float, bilge pump or no. Take a look at the scissor lifts for boats that sit on the bottom of the lake and you taxi up over it. Hit the button and it lifts you out of the water. They aren't that pricey. Or, <br /><a href="http://noprofileboatlifts.com/floater.html">http://noprofileboatlifts.com/floater.html</a><br />Or attach this to your existing dock<br /> <a href="http://www.goldenboatlifts.com/elevator_boat_lifts.htm">http://www.goldenboatlifts.com/elevator_boat_lifts.htm</a> or <a href="http://www.jetdock.com/seaplane-docks.asp">http://www.jetdock.com/seaplane-docks.asp</a>
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Jerry Ratcliffe - Oct 01,2011
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As you say, when I get the plane the answer will most likely <br />come! <br />It is all a bit tricky. I can't let anything rest on the creek <br />bottom because it is silt and because the Chesapeake Bay <br />authorities are really hot on that sort of <br />stuff. I suspect I will just get a winch, a keel protector like <br />Don Maxwell has, and then grit my teeth and see how we <br />go. Necessity is the mother of invention!<br /><br />In unrelated news, I looked at my other posts on this <br />message thread, and my sentences are sometimes <br />truncated with carriage returns appearing in strange <br />places. Anyone know what is going on? Am I doing <br />something wrong? It is not me<br />breaking up<br />my sentences (except in this example!)
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Don Maxwell - Oct 01,2011
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Jerry, to get rid of the unwanted line breaks, don't use an iPhone or iPad (or whatever you've been using), or else edit the message and check 'Advanced (allow HTML). Then if you want paragraph breaks, put them in manually with the <p> or <P> command. Many other HTML commands work, including <I> and</I> to start and stop italics and, similarly, b for bold. It's much harder to insert a link in HTML, though.<br /><br />One caveat about the KeelGuard: it doesn't slide well, even on wet wood.
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Dave Lima - Oct 01,2011
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Nice video, looks like fun!
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Jerry Ratcliffe - Oct 01,2011
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It was a lot of fun, but also a bit hairy at times. The safety envelope with floats on was very <br />narrow. Would only climb at 42 mph and started to stall at about 38mph, so you had to <br />watch the ASI like a hawk. So I'm sad to have sold her, but very excited to be in the market <br />for a SeaRey.
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David Mazer - Oct 01,2011
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After looking at your dock in the video, I can't see why you couldn't make it a little more narrow and a little longer, droop the edge into the water a couple feet, imbed a winch with rollers in the walkway, nose the plane up the dock, get out in ankle deep water or less, hook up to the winch, and just pull it up onto the dock. To get it off, just push and it would slid right into the water.
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Jerry Ratcliffe - Oct 02,2011
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David, that is what I was thinking of doing, well at least 80%. I can't change the dimensions of the dock without getting it past the bureaucrats at the local planning office, and that is a bridge too far for various reasons (ahem...). The creek bottom is soft sinking mud, but I think the winch idea is the best.<!-- >'"><br><font color=red size=6>' or > missing in user HTML. Please fix the HTML.</font> -->
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Jerry Ratcliffe - Oct 02,2011
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Don, thanks for the heads-up about the keel protector not sliding well. That may be an issue. Everyone: Can a SeaRey be winched up onto a dock from the tail? Or is the nose the only reliable winch point?<!-- >'"><br><font color=red size=6>' or > missing in user HTML. Please fix the HTML.</font> -->
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Don Maxwell - Oct 02,2011
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Jerry, I'd roll it up on the wheels because the hull is V-shaped on the bottom. We're getting a bit SeaRey-technical now--but you can winch from the tail. You can lift the entire airplane aloft from the tail if you really want to.
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Eric Batterman - Oct 02,2011
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Don, put away your can opener.
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Don Maxwell - Oct 02,2011
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What?! You don't like worms? Small ones are best because you don't have to clean them--just fry 'em up, and who cares if they're a bit gritty. The fat ones you have to slit open lengthwise and rinse the dirt out first, or your teeth will suffer. They're tastier, though!
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David Mazer - Oct 02,2011
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The rubber keel protector won't slide well but there is an aluminum option that might work. Isn't there?
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Kenneth Leonard - Oct 03,2011
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David - the aluminum one is DIY.
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David Mazer - Oct 03,2011
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So is his dock. They would be a matched set.
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Jerry Ratcliffe - Oct 04,2011
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Ah if only. My dock is old school treated marine timber. You know, the stuff where they <br />compress copper and arsenic into the wood. Very environmentally friendly I'm sure...
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Troy iRMT Heavy Maint. Enriquez - Oct 04,2011
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copper and arsenic are both natural.
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David Mazer - Oct 04,2011
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So are the bubonic and black plagues, malaria, and cholera but I'd rather not have them near me. Copper, maybe. Arsenic, pretty sure not.
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Troy iRMT Heavy Maint. Enriquez - Oct 05,2011
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sorry Doc. your right I was thinking of cyanide.
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Kenneth Leonard - Oct 05,2011
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Jerry - they haven't used those products in years - the modern pressure treated wood is fairly benign - so of course doesn't last as long. If it really is the old stuff, it's already leached out into the water by now. I just wouldn't burn it. I hear the next version of the wood will have cholera & bubonic injected but the black plague tends to stain the wood.
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