Waterfront Projects Done Right
Trent Hollis · July 18, 2026
The best dock ladder for swimming isn’t the one with the most Amazon reviews — it’s the one that actually gets you out of the water safely when you’re tired, cold, or have a kid dangling off the side. I’ve installed close to 150 dock ladders over my career, and I still see the same … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 18, 2026
The summer I lost three cleats and two bumpers to a single tropical storm, I made myself a promise. Never again would I cheap out on dock hardware. I’d spent twenty years as a marine contractor along the Gulf Coast, and I still made the rookie mistake of treating my own dock like an afterthought. … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 17, 2026
Five years ago, I built two nearly identical pergolas on neighboring dock slips in Pensacola Bay — one framed in pressure-treated southern yellow pine, the other in powder-coated aluminum. Same footprint, same basic design, same brutal Gulf Coast exposure. The pine pergola started showing soft spots in the posts by year three — I had … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 17, 2026
A few summers ago, I got a call from a boat owner down in Pensacola who was beside himself. His 26-foot center console had worked loose overnight and kissed a piling hard enough to crack the gunwale. He’d rigged his spring lines with a basic loop and a snap hook — no adjustment, no give, … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 16, 2026
I’ve tied the reef knot square knot boating combination more times than I can count — probably thousands of times across two decades of dock building along the Gulf Coast. It’s one of the first knots most people learn, and that’s exactly what makes it dangerous. Familiarity breeds complacency. I’ve watched experienced boaters reach for … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 16, 2026
Last January, a cold front rolled through the Gulf Coast and dropped temps into the low twenties for four straight nights. I walked my dock the morning after the freeze lifted, coffee in hand, fully expecting to spend the day replacing lights. I had both solar and wired dock lights running on the same structure … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 15, 2026
The first time I watched a client’s dock access path crumble into a tidal creek, I was standing knee-deep in mud trying to explain why a $400 sandbag wall had failed in six months. That was 2006. I’d been contracting for four years at that point, and I thought I understood shoreline erosion. I didn’t … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 15, 2026
I’ve built and torn apart more docks than I can count over twenty years on the Gulf Coast. And the single question I get asked most — from neighbors, clients, and now readers — is floating vs fixed dock which is better. My honest answer: it depends entirely on your water depth, and I can … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 14, 2026
I’ve been tying knots professionally since before most people knew what a cleat hitch was. Over twenty years building and repairing docks along the Gulf Coast, I’ve seen one knot save boats more times than I can count — and I’ve seen the absence of that same knot cost people serious money. If you want … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 14, 2026
I’ve tied thousands of knots over twenty years working the Gulf Coast, and if I had to pick one knot that has never once let me down at the dock, it’s the round turn two half hitches dock knot. That’s not a casual claim. I’ve used it in flat-calm water and in 40-knot squalls, on … Read more