Aluminum dock for pond

[JasonGraham]

Folks, I’m looking for advice concerning an aluminum dock for a 1-acre pond. The pond is not deep, and I plan to purchase two 8-foot dock sections to create a T shape, mainly just for a place for the grandkids to soak their toes in the water or for relatives to dunk a worm for bluegills. With 4x8 sections in a T, the deepest part would be 10 or so feet out [the walkway will be partially resting on shore] at a depth of 4-5 feet. The pond is around 70 years old, with a fairly clean clay bottom. The maximum variation in depth from spring to late fall is about a foot. Usually fills up near capacity before it ices over, and this year we only had ice for about 2 weeks.

Any advice is welcome, but my main question is whether to go with two fixed dock sections or just a fixed walkway from shore and then a floating, removable section to T off on the end. A neighbor who used to service docks up on Erie suggested the floating dock at the end, but Erie gets a lot more ice and potential water movement than in this small pond. Sectional, pre-fab docks that are sold at places like Home Depot have “platform” type feet that rest on the bottom. Wondering how those would work for a clay bottom, and whether it would be a problem to leave the dock in when it freezes. We might have 6 inches of ice that lasts for 2 months, or hardly any ice at all. Thanks for any input.

[MikeBrooklyn]

I retired from RGC Marine Products a company that manufactures docks and boat lifts. I would suggest aluminum framed docks with legs and wheels on them for the size you are looking for, if you have a nice clay bottom these can be assembled on land and rolled into your pond in the spring and rolled out and stored on shore in the winter.

[Kalisspera]

I ended up talking to the folks at floridaliftsanddocks.com. They explained everything in plain language and helped me figure out which setup made the most sense for my boat and dock combo. Their suggestions actually made launching and storing way less of a headache.