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Crib Notes

Everything you need to know about repairing and maintaining your crib dock

By Max Burns

Illustrations by Clayton Hanmer

Randy's broken crib dockThe traditional crib dock exudes a comforting appearance of permanence, a stout waterfront fortress consisting of one or more cribs, all linked together to stand proud against the forces of nature. Large, heavy timbers define each crib’s box-like shape, the timbers meeting only at the corners, each slatted box filled to the brim with as many rocks as a healthy group of humans can cram into it. It may come as no surprise then that the crib dock – along with concrete piers and pile docks – is classified as a “permanent dock.” Too bad nature wasn’t on the committee that made that decision.

It may take a while, decades even, but eventually we will all be delivered a rude reminder that permanence is a merely human concept. With wooden crib docks, rot and the pressures of ice are the primary villains, but any dock’s demise is hastened by bad workmanship, unsuitable materials, or faulty design. Fine. Your shoreline masterpiece is collapsing and I’m telling you, hey, it was inevitable. 

So what do you do now? Before lifting a hammer or rock – perhaps to toss in my direction – take a moment to assess if the remains of your dock are worth repairing. Any crib constructed of logs so spindly they look like tree branches (usually with bark still attached, for some reason) and held together by hope, wire, and hardware-store spikes shouldn’t have been built in the first place. Any crib battered into a twisted mess by waves and ice, timbers torn asunder, rocks tossed across the underwater landscape, or even a crib badly bent out of square, is kaput. In such cases, repair is not an option; you need to start anew. The same goes for any floorless crib that the heaving ice has grabbed by the scruff of its timbers and yanked up like an old sweater to leave its rocks spilled on the submerged land. 

Good dock builders install timber floors, forcing the ice to lift the full weight of dock and contained stone. Nothing like the inertia of a few tons of nature’s own to help keep things in place. Yet notice that I said “help.” No matter how heavy, nature can still lift any crib, rock and all, if in a particularly ornery mood. But a crib that can hold its rock will most times re-settle as an intact unit, still looking like the dock it was before experiencing the nasty side of nature.

 

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Originally published in the April/May 2004 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Copyright © 2004, 2008 by Cottage Life. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, photograph, or artwork, for other than personal use, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden.

Photo: Randy Craig

 

 

About the author, Max Burns
Unresolved Connections, a collection of six fictional
stories

For over a quarter of a century, in countless magazine articles appearing in six countries in four languages, and in seven books, Max's writing has taken him many places, geographically, philosophically, and definitely from the perspective of subject matter, the common elements being humour, the human perspective, and the quality. So if you enjoy his writing in one work, you're likely going to enjoy it in the others, regardless of topic or style.

Books to date: The Winged Wheel Patch, Cottage Water Systems, The Dock Manual, On Any Wednesday (Or Tuesday, Or Thursday, or...), Around the Bend (again), These are a few of my favourite roads, Unresolved Connections. For further information about the books, Max, and a list of Word Dust dealers, go to www.worddust.ca. To order the books by phone: 1-888-229-2665