New Homestead Canal & East Cape Canal Plugs etc.

[yakmaster]

Attended a working group with the rangers, engineers & portage users this morning to discuss portage design for the new plugs that are getting built with the stimulus $$$ to replace the circumvented sheetpile dams that are there now.

At first the park folks & the engineers envisioned a 40' long floating dock so as to facilitate motor boaters. They were expecting 5-15 boats @ a time!

The group consensus was that the estimates of use were way overstated and that there should be no dock or it would become a motorboat crash pad complete with BBQ's & the requisite amount of trash.

They're looking at some type of mooring system for the motor boats on the outside & sloping shores inside & out to facilitate kayak/canoe entry/exit rather than the 18" high floating dock they came to the meeting with.

The plugs will be approx. 100' long and will have a trail through the middle. The group suggested that the trail have some bends so that it isn't obvious, unless you know it's there, so as to discourage the yahoos.

There was quite a bit of hopeful discussion of the reopening of the Homestead Canal & maybe even some camping opportunities north of Ingrahm. Though there was no commitment from the park...

Good news on the new chickees in Florida Bay. The pilings are in & the platforms are under construction. Bad news is they're 6' up. Much discussion ws had as to facilitating loading & unloading. A similar group discussion on chickee design could be productive!

[Keith W]

After Katrina wiped out Kingston Key chickee and closed Carl Ross Key I heard some talk that the replacement chickees would be equipped with floating docks, and I wondered how these would stand up to storms. Maybe an enclosed design, something like the handicapped access at Pearl Bay, only with a floating dock? Another possibility is a series of long steps running the length of one side of the chickee. At minimum, I would push for a cleated ramp along one side. A platform 6' above low water is a stretch even for canoeists. The big problem with steps and ramps is oyster and barnacle fouling. I used to scrape the stuff off the Kingston Key ladder with the blade of my old Mohawk paddle before attempting a climb.

Where are new the Florida Bay chickees being located?

[yakmaster]

One of them is a "replacement" for Carl Ross off Johnson Key. The other one is intended as a "halfway point" between Flamingo & Nest Key and as a replacement for the gound site @ Shark Point.

There's an article about them in the Keys News:

http://keysnews.com/node/16075

And as the article says:

"The park service is contemplating construction of several more chickee platforms in Florida Bay as part of the Everglades general management plan still under development."


Plenty of cross bay options appear to be in our future, and several of the older sites will be renovated in the coming years, so we better try to get our heads (and voices) into the design.

Maybe we should have an online symposium on this site to discuss tweaks that could work. What do we like/not like about the various designs in use today (in the park and outside it as well)? If there's enough interest & input, maybe we could have a sit down with the designers similar to the plug meeting last week. The guys in green & grey are really into promoting paddling, let's give them a hand! When they get it wrong, we're the ones that live with the problems.

[vivian]

I think the biggest problem that most paddlers have with the chickees is how difficult they are to climb up and load gear onto the platforms. The majority of paddlers using the Florida bay chickees will most definately be using kayaks. If these platforms are 3 - 6 feet above the water, how will kayakers and even canoers get on them?

Floating docks are not easy either but do facilitate loading and unloading. But at low tide you still have a problem. A ladder helps get onto the platform but I remember at Kingston how the barnacles made that a painful experience at times. It would be great if we could all come up with some solutions to send to the park. This is the time to speak up or shut up if you don't like the final design.

[Keith W]

How about this: solar-powered boat lifts!
:-)

Seriously, the more voices we can bring to the table the more likely we are to be heard. A new discussion forum is about to go up: Advocacy. Should I move this discussion to the new forum, or should we start fresh?

[Keith W]

Just for grins I Googled the word 'symposium' and here's what Wikipedia has to say:

"Symposium originally referred to a drinking party (the Greek verb sympotein means "to drink together")... "

[yakmaster]

Hey... If Obama can thow a kegger at the White House...I figure Dan Kimball has to be good for at least a 12 pack!

We'll get this chickee thing right or die (of cirrhosis) trying!

[vivian]

"How about this: solar-powered boat lifts!"

That would be great!! Even a pulley system that could lower a ramp from the chickee deck to a floating dock would be helpful.

Yes, go ahead and move the discussion. Will you be sending to park officials when some good ideas are generated?

[Keith W]

I've been researching various solutions: steps, ramps, and floating docks. The problem with steps and ramps is fouling from algae, barnacles and oysters. Anybody who has tried to land or launch from the ramp at Broad River knows how treacherous it is at low tide. My problem with floating docks is that the 'traditional' designs of a wooden dock slung between verticle pilings tend to get wrecked from storms, and there are maintenance issues. Vivian's idea of a pulley system is subject to mechanical failure and abuse. I thnk the best system will be a passive one, with no moving parts that can break down.

I did find a very nice floating dock solution that uses a system of flexible, interlocking plastic modules that can be attached to a simple PVC rail system for tide changes. The rails can either be attached directly to the chickee pilings, or mounted on their own 4x4 pilings alongside the platform to eliminate stress on the chickee structure during storms. The whole thing can be retrofitted to existing chickees with little or no modification of the original structure and looks to be very resilient in bad weather, and are portable, so they can be removed in the face of a really bad storm. I have no idea what these things cost.

The dock system can be found here: http://www.jetdock.com/
The tide management setup is here: http://www.jetdock.com/pdfs/E-Catalogs/Jet_Dock_Tide_Manager_Moorin...

[Rik]

Keith,

Those Jetdocks are nice, I have a buddy who has them at his house. They work great. Out at a chickee, though, I'm not sure how you stop them from being stolen. They can be taken apart easily.

Here's another dock float - http://www.dockbuilders.com/dockfloats1.htm - that is designed to have a wood or other type deck mounted on top. Nuts and bolts at least complicate the theft procedure.

If a ramp was built that hinged up on the chickee and went down to a couple of those dock floats with a deck on top, if would raise and lower with the tide and give a landing area to offload gear.

[vivian]

I am not the most coordinated person in the world but have used the ladders that are supplied to some of the chickees. Even from a touring kayak, I was able to get on and off the platforms easily. When Kingston was still standing, the ladder was (although full of sharp barnacles) a blessing at lower tide stages. The new Harney chickee has a nice ladder on it.

If you take one of these floating docks that had a ladder or steps extending down from the main platform to it would solve the problem. If the design was thought out further, the floating docks could provide a place to bring a couple (per platform) of canoes or kayaks up on and secured instead of leaving them in the water.

[vivian]

Here is a sketch of what I envision for the floating docks:

[Ted]

There is a company (AccuDock) in Broward that makes foating docks that will most likely fit the bill. Below is a link to their website.

http://www.accudock.com/kayaks-docks.html

John had has set up one of this docks at a demo day for Kayak Jeff. It took him about a little over an hour to install the dock that came in three parts that seemlessly fit together.