Buccaneer Dock Builders Tampa Bay FL

Buccaneer Dock Builders Inc. is family owned and operated. We are licensed and insured including USL&H and Jones Act. We are a premier dock builder using the highest grade materials. We can custom design your dock while making sure you meet all required regulations. We also offer creative solutions in state of the art boat lifts, jet ski lifts and seawalls. Our reputation is built on "quality" work at a competitive price.

Our experienced staff delivers the quality and craftsmanship you expect. Pilings are jetted and hammered butt down to insure stability and long life of your dock / boat lift. We can satisfy your needs while offering suggestions gained by our many years of experience.

We are diversified in our skills, services and select only the best manufacturers. We can offer you quality at the right price due to our low overhead and selection of quality suppliers. We use the only best materials so your investment will be secured now and far into the future.

The outdoors offers the beauty and splendor that even we find hard to duplicate. Let us build it so you can enjoy it. Call Buccaneer Dock Builders today at 727-455-4675 for a "free" estimate and start enjoying the great outdoors.

We appreciate you business.

Thank you from all of us at Buccaneer Dock Builders
Phone: (727) 455-4675
Website: www.buccaneerdockbuilders.com 

Composite Docks

Our decks add beauty to homes, businesses and resorts. What's more, composite decking is low maintenance. It's also heat and fade resistant, safe, durable, and can even increase the value of your home.

Low Maintenance

Composite decking by Buccaneers Dock Builders resists sun and water damage, it maintains its color and beauty for years. You do not need to paint, stain or seal it – often burdensome yearly projects with traditional wood decks. And, because it resists weathering and warping, you won't need to replace rotting, uneven or insect-damaged boards. Caring for composite decking is easy and will keep it looking new year after year. Composite decking can even save you money over the life of your deck.

Composite material Minimize Heat Build-Up and Fading

Composite decking planks are made with high-quality raw materials blended with UV-inhibiting pigments to produce products consistent in color. Because of the quality of material used buy Buccaneer Dock Builders, most of our composite products fade less than there decking materials.

The effect that heat has on composite products is similar to the effect it has on a wood deck. We use suppliers who have developed colors with highly reflective, inorganic pigments that minimize heat build-up. Some competitors use organic pigment due to the cost of the reflective, inorganic pigments.

Safety

Unlike traditional wood decks, composite decks are splinter-free. Our composite materials meets or exceeds all Americans with Disabilities Act standards for slip-resistant walking surfaces. At home, you can relax and kick your shoes off. At your business, you'll feel better about doing more to keep your customers safe.

And because Buccaneer Dock Builders composite surfaces resists water damage, it's ideal for pools decks and boat docks.

Durability

Traditional wood decks can be beautiful – but not for long. Wet springs, blistering summers and salt water winters quickly take their toll, leaving your wood deck faded, splintered and warped. Our composite decking is made from a patented process that results in superior, consistent, low-maintenance decking material. We're so confident of its durability may of our composite materials are backed with a Limited 25-Year Residential Warranty. Your deck will look like new for years, resisting weathering and warping

Increase the Value of Your Home

Composite decks not only add value to your lifestyle, they add value to your home. Composite deck – or use it to replace a wood deck – you'll recoup much of your investment when you sell your home. Remodeling Magazine's 2007 Cost vs. Value Report estimates a national average of nearly 80% return on investment for deck additions*. In some areas, the return is close to 100%.

Boat Lifts

Davits have been the most common type of boat lift for many, many years. Basically, they are two steel poles that are called “booms” that are installed either on the sea wall or on pilings. The booms are attached to a base that is bolted down to either the sea wall or the piling. Each boom swings 360 degrees so that should you purchase a bigger boat, most likely the booms can be swung out to still be able to attach to the boat. If not, extensions are available to upgrade, if needed. Each boom has a stainless steel cable (make sure it is stainless steel cable) that attaches to both the boat and the winch.

One boom cable attaches to the front cleat either under or on top of the bow of the boat and the other attaches to the rear. The vast majority of boats require a spreader bar to be attached to the boom pulling up the rear of the boat. The reason for this is twofold; there are two cleats on the rear of the boat to attach and the spreader bar keeps the boat even when lifting and when out of the water on the lift.

As far as whether to attach the davits to pilings or to the sea wall, there are different schools of thought on that. We recommend speaking to the installers about what they recommend, however, we have seen many a lift pull a piling right out of the water while the boat is being lifted. One other maintenance that must be performed yearly is the inspection of your cables. Again, we have seen many a boat lift cable snap and send one end of the boat crashing down into the water. We suggest replacement every four years or so, depending on usage and weather.

One davit alone can also be installed to use as a personal watercraft (Jet Ski) lift. The only additional equipment needed is a sling that attaches to the one boom cable. The sling is a polyester strap with two stainless steel panels that attach to either side of the Jet Ski to lift it out of the water. Again, an electrical or manual winch can be installed and the boom swings 360 degrees.

Final note: There are many different sizes of davits and booms that can be purchased depending on your boat specs.

Piling MountBoat Lifts:

This type of boat lift attaches directly to piling which eliminates all support beams. This type of lift is great for sail boats and boats with towers. They also come in many types of capacities, depending on the weight of your boat.

Drive on Boat Lifts:

This type of boat lift is becoming more and more popular due to the maintenance free nature of the lift. The only determining factor is that you have to live on a waterway that always has water. For example, many types of canals, at low tide, do not have enough water in them to support this type of lift. They are considered very user-friendly, convenient and safe.

They can support ranges from a 12 foot dinghy to a 50 foot offshore boat. The boat lift is drive on and basically goes up and down with the tides. It attaches to the pilings on your dock making boarding and access easy. Its also modular and portable meaning if you move, you can take it with you.

Cradle Boat Lifts:

Currently there are 25 different types of cradle boat lifts available. They can be either steel, aluminum or a combination of both. They have capacities ranging from 4,500 to 30,000 pounds.

Marine Elevator Boat Lifts:

Marine elevator boat lifts are ideal for extreme tidal areas or other unusual docking conditions. The capacity of these lifts is from 2,000 to 14,000 pounds.

Jet Ski Lifts

Looking for the best jet ski or small boat lift? We offer a variety of design Ski Boats or any personal water craft (PWC). From personal lift to floats, we can build you the a devise that can make water entry and exit easy and safe. We have a variety of designs that lifts your small craft up and out of the water and over the dock.

We have models built with all stainless steel and aluminum construction and feature both a custom-designed and manufactured heavy-duty mast, as well as custom made aluminum bunks. The sleek white powder coat finish adds to the appearance of your dock and allows for easy cleaning. We also added refinements such as custom made end-caps for all aluminum bunks, cradle arms, and pipes.

You can raise, lower, and rotate 180° and then lock into place for service. These lifts offer an impressive combination of performance, reliability, ease of operation and installation, and the type of refinement only found in a professionally engineered product. Buccaneer Dock Builders are completely un-submerged, keeping your lift clean and looking new as well as allowing for years of trouble free operation.

PWC's are the new way to enjoy the water. Protect your investment with a PWC lift from Buccaneer Dock Builders.

Sea Walls

A variety of coastal protection measures can be used to enhance or preserve beach amenity and to protect coastal developments at risk of erosion or recession. These include seawalls, groynes, offshore breakwaters, artificial headlands, beach nourishment and dune rehabilitation and management. Structural works are also used to stabilize coastal entrances (training walls).

To be effective, the type of protection must be compatible with coastal processes at the site. Information is required concerning the magnitude and mechanisms of existing longshore sediment transport, together with likely long term shoreline changes from erosion, accretion or recession. A detailed understanding of coastal processes and hazards is essential to the successful design, construction and operation of coastal protection works.

Protection works have the potential to impact on areas outside those being protected. Therefore any proposal for protection works must take account of the wider implications and consider the impact in a whole embayment or region, as well as the marine environment.

Types of Seawalls

Depending upon the type and materials of construction, seawalls can be classified as:

rigid;
flexible; or
semi-flexible.
Rigid seawalls include gravity walls, sheet piling, caissons and concrete revetments. Advantages of rigid seawalls include their compact nature (minimum plan area) and their tendency not to harbour rubbish. However, they can be subject to catastrophic failure by freak waves or toe erosion.

Flexible seawalls are constructed from quarry rock, shingle and from specially manufactured concrete units. Whilst not as compact as rigid seawalls, flexible seawalls can sustain considerable deformation caused by erosion and settlement without total failure occurring. Because of the broken nature of their surface, flexible seawalls tend to harbour rubbish.

Semi-flexible seawalls are constructed from gabions, bitumen, grouted rock, specially designed units of concrete, ("SEABEES", "DOLOSSE", "TRIBARS", etc.), ceramics and geotextiles. They are more compact than flexible seawalls and may not be as susceptible to the catastrophic failure of rigid seawalls.

Rigid Seawalls

Whilst many rigid seawalls have been built along the NSW coastline in the past (often in an apparent attempt to recreate the Victorian beach promenades of England), there is now a general tendency away from this form of construction for the following reasons:

failure can occur from a single freak wave or group of waves;
most rigid structures tend to be highly reflective to incoming waves; and
toe scour at the base of the wall can result in failure by undermining.
Because of their sensitivity to freak waves, more severe design wave conditions are adopted for rigid structures than for flexible and semi-flexible seawalls. The high reflectivity of rigid seawalls can result in accelerated sand loss in front of the wall during a storm, and delay beach rebuilding following a storm. Rock scour blankets, gabions, etc. can be used to protect the foundations of a rigid structure from undermining. Alternatively, this protection can be provided by founding such structures at depth on non-erodible materials.

The performance of rigid seawalls can be improved by incorporating various features such as a curved wave deflection barrier along the crest of the wall, which significantly reduces wave overtopping and enables the crest to be lowered (see Figure D6.2)

Figure D6.2
Curved Wave Deflection Barrier on Crest of Seawall

Flexible and Semi-Flexible Seawalls

In recent years, flexible and semi-flexible seawalls constructed from rock, shingle or proprietary concrete units have been the most common form of construction along the New South Wales coast. A typical conventional two layer armoured seawall is shown in Figure D6.3. Provided design wave conditions are not exceeded, this form of construction has the following advantages:

• settlement can often be accommodated without weakening the overall integrity of the seawall;

• failure is progressive rather than catastrophic; and

• a seawall built of dumped rock or concrete units is less reflective than a rigid structure.

Figure D6.3
A Conventional Two-Layer Armoured Seawall

Note that some of the proprietary concrete units need to be formally interlocked to achieve their strength and protection potential, e.g. "SEABEES". In this case, the resulting seawall may behave more as a rigid than semi-rigid structure, and be subject to the same types of failure as the former.

Because of their permeable nature, flexible and semi-flexible seawalls are susceptible to scour behind the wall caused by wave overtopping or poor seepage control. If extreme, soil loss caused by this scour can lead to the landward collapse of the wall. The risk of scour by wave overtopping can be reduced by incorporating a relatively impermeable blanket of rock, clay, grass, etc. along the crest.

Regular maintenance of the flexible and semi-flexible seawalls is generally required to ensure their structural integrity.

The mass of the armour unit used to protect flexible structures is proportional to the cube of the design wave height. A doubling of the design wave height for long term coastal erosion, recession or increasing sea levels would require an eight fold increase in armour unit mass to provide the same level of protection. For this reason, careful consideration must be given to the effects of long term erosion or increases in sea level on design wave height.

Storm Profile Seawalls

A recent development has been to construct seawalls from rocks of much smaller size than required for conventional design. Provided a sufficient volume of rock is placed, a stable "beach" profile is naturally developed during storm conditions. Physical model tests are usually required to determine this profile. The advantages of this form of construction include:

almost any size of rock can be used provided a sufficient volume is placed;
wave reflection is low enabling lower crest elevations; and
problems of toe scour and beach recovery after storms are reduced.
One disadvantage is that this form of protection may be aesthetically displeasing: the "beach" consists of a mixture of rocks and sand which may reduce amenity. The structure also occupies a larger space than conventional walls.

GROYNES

Groynes are coastal structures built approximately normal to the shoreline. Their purpose is to trap sand and thereby increase the width of the beach. Groynes can be constructed from a similar range of materials as seawalls. When used on the open coast, they must be strong enough to withstand substantial wave forces.

For groynes to be effective, there must be a supply of sand from either longshore transport or from beach nourishment. In a longshore transport situation, sand is trapped on the updrift side of the groyne. As the groyne embayment fills, the alignment of the shoreline changes to become more normal to the wave direction. During this filling process, there is a consequent reduction in sand supply downdrift of the groyne. This results in shoreline erosion at downdrift locations. Dune management measures may be required both up drift and down drift to accommodate changes in the beach and dune systems.

Where groynes are used, it is essential that their effect on the downdrift coastline and the consequences of a changed shoreline alignment be closely examined.

Downdrift erosion can be reduced by artificially filling the groyne embayment under a beach nourishment program. This minimises disruption to the longshore transport process as the embayment fills

Groynes do not significantly affect onshore/offshore movement during storms and are therefore not usually effective as a means of managing short term erosion.

BEACH NOURISHMENT

Where there is insufficient sand on a beach to meet storm erosion or long term sediment loss, additional sand can be placed by mechanical means. This is referred to as beach nourishment. It is a favored means of beach protection for resort and high amenity beaches because it promotes amenity and unlike some other structural measures, does not have adverse effects on adjacent areas of the coastline.

Provided sufficient sand is used, beach nourishment can provide total protection. However, it may be an expensive means of control, and it is often used in conjunction with other control measures such as seawalls and groynes. Dune management measures would be needed to accommodate the increased sand volume.

To prevent excessive offshore losses of the placed material, the nourishment sand should be similar in size or preferably slightly coarser than the natural beach material. Common sources of nourishment sand include dunes, coastal inlets and offshore areas. When the source material is borrowed from offshore areas it is important to ensure that the dredged area does not alter the existing wave refraction patterns to the detriment of the adjacent coastline. Many potential nourishment sources are being removed or sterilized through coastal development and dredging operations, which will hinder future nourishment programs should they be necessary. Local authorities should consider setting aside reserves for future use. Some local authorities require sand excavated during the construction of coastal developments to be returned to the beach. Where there is long term sediment loss it is desirable that the source of material is outside that particular active beach system.

In a beach nourishment program, the volume and frequency of placement of sand depend upon the rates of offshore and onshore losses. Offshore loss depends upon the wave exposure of the site and the size of the sand. Onshore loss is by sand drift.

SAND BYPASSING

"Sand bypassing" is a special form of beach nourishment used to alleviate the downdrift erosion caused by training walls. Training walls are typically constructed at the entrances of coastal inlets for flood mitigation purposes or to improve navigation. They can act as groynes, trapping sand on the updrift side and causing shoreline erosion on the downdrift side. Training walls often project much further out to sea than ordinary groynes. Hence, the associated downdrift erosion can be extensive. To limit this erosion, sand can be pumped from the updrift embayment or from other sources to the downdrift shoreline, thereby bypassing the training walls. Sand bypassing, like beach nourishment, is a relatively expensive and continuing operation.

OFFSHORE BREAKWATERS

Offshore breakwaters are structures built approximately parallel to the beach but some distance offshore. They may protrude above water level or be submerged; they may be continuous or consist of a series of segments. The purpose of offshore breakwaters is to reduce the intensity of wave action in inshore waters and thereby reduce coastal erosion. Offshore breakwaters are normally constructed from the same materials as seawalls. A particular form of the offshore breakwater is the "T-groyne" in which the offshore structure is connected to the shore for ease of construction, maintenance or for subsequent use.

Fully submerged breakwaters consisting of underwater mounds or artificial reefs of sand and small rocks have been used for coastal protection purposes overseas, e.g. at Durban in South Africa. Under normal conditions, waves pass over the mound or reef with little modification. Under storm conditions, the larger waves break on the mound thereby dissipating energy and reducing shoreline erosion.

Unlike groynes, offshore breakwaters can be used to reduce erosion at a beach which has no net longshore transport. However, if longshore transport exists, an offshore breakwater will act like a groyne and cause downdrift erosion.

Offshore breakwaters are not a common form of coastal protection along the shoreline of New South Wales. They are costly to construct because of the prevailing wave climate and their use is generally limited to the protection of sheltered areas not exposed to full wave attack.

ARTIFICIAL HEADLANDS

The natural headlands of a pocket beach restrict longshore sand transport. Such headlands act as groynes, but on a much larger scale. Artificial headlands can be constructed to achieve a similar effect, e.g. large groynes that extend into deep water, or offshore breakwaters connected to shore (T-groynes). On the open coast, this form of protection requires large and expensive structures. Consequently, their use has been restricted to more protected shallow areas with less severe wave conditions.

CONFIGURATION DREDGING

Configuration dredging is dredging to a pattern such that wave refraction limits the effects of wave action on a stretch of coastline. Its usefulness on the open coast is restricted by the variety of wave directions possible and the scale and cost of works required. It is more applicable to sheltered bays and could only be considered in an environment where there was great confidence in the understanding of coastal processes.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

Design Wave Height

Coastal protection structures are generally located within the surf zone and are therefore subject to forces associated with "depth limited broken waves".