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24-03-2015, 07:30
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#16
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 11,004
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
We see lots of variations used. One thing to consider is a means of securing the steps espeically if they are 3 or more tall. We've seen a few nasty falls when the steps tumble off the dock.
At our summer marina last year, they required a nylon strap around the dock (fixed dock) to hold them in place.
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24-03-2015, 07:42
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#17
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 413
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
milk rate with a mahogany veneer plywood top that you seal with epoxy works. you can also look at synthetic deck lumber. if you are handy and have the tools.
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24-03-2015, 08:08
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#18
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 10
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
Try Camper World or other RV supply place, they sell folding steps for around $25. They work just fine
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24-03-2015, 08:12
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#19
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Atlantic ICW 29N/81W
Boat: Beneteau Oceanis 36CC, now sold
Posts: 823
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reefmagnet
X2 on using a milk crate. Bit of rubber attached here and there cut from a car floor mat to prevent slippage and can be used to hold stuff when under way. If that's too redneck for you, hardware stores should sell a plastic step of the kind that is used by vertically challenged people to reach high cupboards in their house at a reasonable price (i.e. without a "marine" price tag attached)
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Initially we had one of those folding kitchen step thingies but then found a simple step stool with 2 steps from Home Depot I think around $8. Then we found a used set of steps on our dock for $100 and bought them. The home Depot ones are stowed in the space underneath the 'proper ones' well of the way and get taken if we go away and are expecting to need something with us.
more expensive now but still available Easy Reach by Gorilla Ladders 2-Step Plastic Project Stool Ladder-PL2-13 - The Home Depot
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24-03-2015, 08:42
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#20
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running down a dream
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Florida
Posts: 3,277
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
like the op said: make sure they are secured to the dock in some way .. also the nice thing about the plastic steps is you can get a nice handrail which is another good thing to have. i once slipped on my steps due to ice so make sure you have non skid on them. needless to say that falling from dock steps could easily be deadly.
__________________
some of the best times of my life were spent on a boat. it just took a long time to realize it.
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24-03-2015, 08:48
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#21
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Senior Cruiser

Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: PORTUGAL
Posts: 31,578
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
__________________

You can't abuse and dispossess a people and have them say.. "I Love You.. ".
"It is better to die standing proud, than to live a lifetime on ones knees under Facism.."
Alleged Self Defence is no justification for Genocide...
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24-03-2015, 08:58
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#22
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Skagit City, WA
Posts: 25,824
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
I see wood ones all the time. nicely done they look fine. Put a little non skid on them.
__________________
"I spent most of my money on Booze, Broads and Boats. The rest I wasted" - Elmore Leonard
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24-03-2015, 08:59
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#23
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Varies - Currently Western Caribbean
Boat: IP 40
Posts: 386
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
Lots of great info here. Boatmap, I've always liked the fender steps particularly since many can be deflated for storage. My concern is the strain on the stantions. Our IP doesn't have the type of toe rail you can tie through, so we'd be forced to use the stantions which worries me about long-term usage problems. I'm also thinking they might be tricky for older parents to use when coming to visit, though granted I've never actually used one.
Any thoughts around those two potential issues?
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24-03-2015, 09:08
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#24
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Quaker Hill, CT (just above the US Coast Guard Academy)
Boat: Silverton 34 Convertible
Posts: 200
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
Wal-Mart has a 2 step ladder (Rubbermaid) for around $20.00...
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24-03-2015, 09:10
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#25
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Cowichan Bay, BC (Maple Bay Marina)
Posts: 9,833
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
Quote:
Originally Posted by ErBrown
... I've always liked the fender steps particularly since many can be deflated for storage. My concern is the strain on the stantions. Our IP doesn't have the type of toe rail you can tie through, so we'd be forced to use the stantions which worries me about long-term usage problems. I'm also thinking they might be tricky for older parents to use when coming to visit, though granted I've never actually used one.
Any thoughts around those two potential issues?
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1. I think you might have gotten the drift by now that your favorite "marine" store should be ACE Hardware, IKEA or Home Depot.  Most of us have learned that years ago, even when new to boating.
2. Stanchion loads with fender steps are not an issue for stanchions, because the load placed on them by wrapping the lines around them is in shear. The lines are pulling sideways against the through bolted stanchion bases, not the top of the stanchions. This is not an issue.
3. Your older parents MIGHT have trouble negotiating a single fender step. That's why there are so many OTHER answers already provided with solid steps, folding steps, wooden steps and others readily available in less expensive varieties.
4. Your IP most likely as all other IPs, has a HUGE distance from dock to deck, because IPs have high freeboards. Get some steps, real ones as suggested, that are high enough to make it easy to board. Get fender steps for yourselves if you want, but maybe not for guests and maybe not for your home dock. They also make fender steps that are not inflatable, but flat plastic, easy to stow and IMHO much, much easier to use, same "hang by line" concept.
Good luck.
Your boat, your choice.
__________________
Stu Jackson
Catalina 34 #224 (1986) C34IA Secretary
Mill Bay, BC, SR/FK, M25, Rocna 10 (22#) (NZ model)
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24-03-2015, 09:21
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#26
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Varies - Currently Western Caribbean
Boat: IP 40
Posts: 386
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stu Jackson
1. I think you might have gotten the drift by now that your favorite "marine" store should be ACE Hardware, IKEA or Home Depot.  Most of us have learned that years ago, even when new to boating.
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Not sure how to take the tone of your message overall but will just take it at face value. You're right and we'll likely go the plastic step stool option to save some $. I was hesitant to go this route due to the ease of them slipping and sliding during boarding which is why I like the wood option. But I guess a strap or other easily removed anchoring option is probably worth the extra hassle due to the major price different.
Just like exploring all the options since part of what I like so much about CF is recommendations from a variety of different perspectives.
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24-03-2015, 09:26
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#27
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Southwestern Yacht Club, San Diego, CA
Boat: Searunner 40 trimaran, WILDERNESS
Posts: 3,175
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
Here's one I built for a friend. The box is a water-tight storage compartment, and the dockstep can be made reversible by simply removing the hand rail and turning it the other direction (only so the carved figurehead would be visible). The steps have a white vinyl nonskid. The owner wanted a nice entry, with plenty of stability. Cost a bit more than $200, though. Sometimes you only get to make a good impression once. The boat's name is AEOLIS, the god of wind, hence the figurehead. I used the biggest blowhard I know as my model (it's hard to hold a mirror and chisel at the same time).
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24-03-2015, 09:31
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#28
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 1,778
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
Quote:
Originally Posted by ErBrown
Not sure how to take the tone of your message overall but will just take it at face value. You're right and we'll likely go the plastic step stool option to save some $. I was hesitant to go this route due to the ease of them slipping and sliding during boarding which is why I like the wood option. But I guess a strap or other easily removed anchoring option is probably worth the extra hassle due to the major price different.
Just like exploring all the options since part of what I like so much about CF is recommendations from a variety of different perspectives.
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I don't like step stools. If you get off balance and cross load them they'll break, if not properly screwed down, they slip they slide. They have a very small foot print. For regular use I recommend proper stairs, either purchased or built.
But of course, you know your usage better than I do.
Sent from my SGH-I547C using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app
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24-03-2015, 09:35
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#29
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Cowichan Bay, BC (Maple Bay Marina)
Posts: 9,833
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
Quote:
Originally Posted by ErBrown
Not sure how to take the tone of your message overall but will just take it at face value.
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There was the  in there. Tone? Hardly. Whenever, as a boat owner, home owner, car shopper or shopper in general, I find anything priced in an exorbitant manner, I do comparison shopping. That's all that was meant.
A majority of the "marine" stuff is way out of whack. You can get stainless fasteners from ACE Hardware at a fraction of the cost of WM, for example. There are TONS of "boaty things" that I find elsewhere. You just have to to look around. That's all.
The different "perspectives" were, essentially, all the same: find steps somewhere else that cost a lot less.
Great ideas, though, all of 'em. Also great ideas can be had just looking around a marina, although if you're in the north, you're probably still snowed in. Hope it melts fast for you.  But you're in Texas, right?
Good luck.
__________________
Stu Jackson
Catalina 34 #224 (1986) C34IA Secretary
Mill Bay, BC, SR/FK, M25, Rocna 10 (22#) (NZ model)
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24-03-2015, 09:39
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#30
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: So Cal
Boat: Catalina 387
Posts: 967
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Re: Dock steps are expensive
I made a set from Home Depot fake trex. (fake fake wood? Whatever the non-trex brand stuff is that HD had in stock.)
Cost all of $30 or so, with $5 going for screws. Even engraved the boat name in it with a router. Looks good, is quite heavy (so it doesn't move around), and is open base. The marina says no storage in steps, they need to be open. We're also required to dock bow-in... Dunno why.
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