Boathouses

[Plederman]

Planning to build a 14' cedar strip rowing wherry to simply row about my pond.

Its light weight and given the rain and winds in the mountainous part of the Catskills where I live I am worried about protecting it.

Thought a small boat house would be lovely (unless someone can suggest a simpler project) but can't seem to find any design plans or even building info anywhere on the web. Got one book though: Boathouses (in Muskoka Ontario) apparently home to the very wealthy who build mansions on their land and mini mansions on the water. Most of the pictures are of the interiors while I am trying to look underneath and see how they are foundationed etc...

Any one who could help I would appreciate.

[safewalrus]

Surely a boathouse is a garage with a wet floor ain't it? If you can build the garage you sure are capable of building it over a puddle I guess!

[marshmat]

Cottage Life Magazine, http://www.cottagelife.com/ frequently runs articles on do-it-yourself projects such as this.... there's a lot on their website too, including the free Dock Primer http://www.cottagelife.com/htm/mag/primer/primers.asp that's loaded with excellent info on how to build solid, inexpensive shoreline structures. A boathouse is basically a garage on a dock. The hard part is the dock, and figuring out what type will suit your environment. What works on Lake Muskoka will, guaranteed, not work on Georgian Bay, and Cape Cod requires different techniques again. A small inland pond is, you guessed it, different again. That primer covers everything you'll encounter between small ponds and the Great Lakes (not tidal waters though).
Go to cottagelife, download and read the Dock Primer. The legal issues of shoreline ownership will be different in NY than in Canada, but the techniques and methods carry over just fine.