Photos by Laurie Edwards

The Smiths had Smith Mountain Dock Building build a dock addition last year to better accommodate visiting friends and family.

Roger Smith said he goes down to the dock every day, sometimes several times, to check on the school of carp that lives beside his Moneta dock.

Roger and Sybil Smith's dock in Riverbay features two boat slips that house their 1952 19-foot Chris-Craft runabout and 1940 17-foot Chris-Craft Deluxe.

Sybil and Roger Smith

Roger and Sybil Smith's grandchildren don't have to travel to Bridgewater Marina or Smith Mountain Dock & Lodge to feed the carp. A school of the fish lives around the Smiths' dock and the couple keeps pellets in its storage shed.

"I try to go down there every day, maybe several times, just to see what the fish are doing," said Roger Smith.

He also goes dockside to check on their restored antique boats. Birmingham Baby, a 1952 19-foot Chris-Craft racing runabout, is a crowd favorite at the SML Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society's annual boat show. Sybil, a 1940 17-foot Chris-Craft Deluxe, made its SML debut last year.

Smith said they modified the dock slips a few years after they bought the house in 2003 to accommodate the wooden boats.

"They had a sailboat lift on the right-hand side where Sybil [the boat] is now," he said. "And they had two jet skis crossways in there. None of that fit with what we wanted, so we had them take all that out."

Smith also built his own planks for the boat lifts. Many lake residents use wooden planks, but Smith knew he'd be spending more time on them than the average boat owner.

"If you have a wooden boat ... you're always tinkering with it, polishing it," he said.

One day when browsing through a catalog, Smith spotted galvanized steel ramps made to drive machinery onto pickup trucks. He said they seemed perfect.

"I modified them and put them end to end with angle iron to hold them together and extend the length," he said.

The steel planks are sturdy and wide. They don't float. And they have quarter-sized holes throughout that allow the water to pass through.

"It worked out really great," said Smith. "In fact, a couple people in the [antique] boat club have done the same thing."

After the couple's Chris-Craft Deluxe was restored, Smith said he realized there wasn't enough dock space on one side of the slip to walk around for a generous chamois wipe down.

"I finally just called Kenny [Ellis] up there at Smith Mountain Dock [Building] and said: 'How about building a little catwalk for me?'" recalled Smith. "While he was measuring for that, Sybil came in and said: 'Why don't we make the dock bigger?'"

They still had unused square footage, according to Shoreline Management Plan specifications, and the Smiths' dock soon was approved for an addition.

In addition to a catwalk along the boat slip, a sitting area was constructed. In total, the addition was 132 square feet, putting the Smiths' dock at 2 feet shy of the maximum size they're allowed.

"It was a great idea because it's much more comfortable down there now," said Smith. "It was kind of crowded."

Aside from a four-top table on the new addition, the Smiths' dock is simple in terms of furnishings. The only other standout is an American flag, flying high over the dock on a flagpole.

"I just liked the look of it there," said Smith. "It shows that you're patriotic, which we are."

Smith served 22 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring at the rank of brigadier general. But the flag also serves a practical purpose, he said.

"When you're bringing your boat into the dock, it indicates which direction the wind is blowing," said Smith. "With a fiberglass boat, you don't have to be really concerned about it, but with these boats, you don't want to be running into the supports of the docks."

He uses the flag as an indicator more often than the weather vane atop the dock because the flag responds to the slightest changes in air movement, said Smith.

"It's gotta be blowing pretty hard for the weather vane to be moving around," he said.

The flag also serves as a landmark when giving friends directions to their dock, said Smith. On warm evenings, the Smiths sometimes join friends from the Antique and Classic Boat Society for an informal cruise around the lake.

When they're not cruising and attracting spectators in their restored antique boats, they may be found sitting on the dock watching the other boats go by.

Roger and Sybil Smith

Home: Riverbay in Moneta, near R27A

Family: three children, seven grandchildren

Dock size: 1,475 square feet

Date built: the late 1980s, addition built in 2009

Amenities: two slips for Birmingham Baby, a 1952 19-foot Chris-Craft racing runabout, and Sybil, a 1940 17-foot Chris-Craft Deluxe