Fenders and clove hitches

[Daydream believer]

No attempting to do bouncing around outside the harbour. Go in, look for a berth and then setup in smooth water.

Might be OK up north, if there are less craft to worry about. But in southern waters of the UK the number of movements in harbours can make that tricky to say the least. Even places like Lowestoft or Ramsgate do not leave a lot of space. I find Ramsgate a bit small to get the main up in the harbour & if one faffs for too long one can get a hurry up from port control if wind farm vessels are moving.. Some French ports have mad fishermen who do not care much for UK flagged yachts either.

 

[lustyd]

The biggest fender would go in the middle of the boat, with progressively smaller fenders each side

With most sailing boats this would exacerbate the boat movement so you'd want to do it the other way such that a smaller fender is at the widest part with larger ones either side to give less movement and more contact, thus reducing the pressure on any one fender.
Even better, if in a finger pontoon, tie off such that the line on the end of the finger is balanced against a line diagonally opposite and then none of your fenders ever touch anything. This results in no squeaking, cleaner topsides and fenders, and less jerks in the movement of the boat.

 

[Poignard]

Can you turn downwind (to get weathercocking) and yet motor into wind (in reverse)?

That's a useful technique.

 

[geem]

With most sailing boats this would exacerbate the boat movement so you'd want to do it the other way such that a smaller fender is at the widest part with larger ones either side to give less movement and more contact, thus reducing the pressure on any one fender.
Even better, if in a finger pontoon, tie off such that the line on the end of the finger is balanced against a line diagonally opposite and then none of your fenders ever touch anything. This results in no squeaking, cleaner topsides and fenders, and less jerks in the movement of the boat.

We tried every combination of fender layout. Holyhead is on average, twice as windy as the south coast. It provides a great testing ground for such issues. The combination I described works. You can't lace the bottom of the fenders effectively if you put the shortest fenders in the middle. You end up with those short skinny fenders on the pontoon when the boat has severe gusts on the beam.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

When we used to keep our boat in the long since destroyed Holyhead Marina, we used to tie the lower ends of the fenders together. The biggest fender would go in the middle of the boat, with progressively smaller fenders each side. The last fenders in the 6 or so that we tied, would have a knot then the line went to the tow rail at the ends of the boat. We used to get some severe weather there but the raft of tied fenders would not pull out. Before we did this, fenders would end up on top of the pontoon, and yes, no clove hitches

I can see how this would work, they all get held in place if even only one is jammed hard as the boat rocks and rolls. I double up my mid fenders as I sit beam onto the SW winds and can get quite a force pushing me on.

I use long fenders for relatively low free board and so far in 8 years (IIRC) at my current marina in some F12 winds none have rolled out yet. To be honest, even the high freeboard, high volume, sit on the water boats that heal significantly, fenders of the correct length tend not to pop up either, from what I see.

Where I do see fenders popping out onto the pontoon, and have also experienced it, is too short fenders with associated surging on nylon warps. The fore and aft movement rolls them out in combination with healing. It is why I bought long fenders. A long time ago I used staple spun polypropylene lines for warps and on a pontoon they worked very well having minimum surge in high winds.

 

[dunedin]

Might be OK up north, if there are less craft to worry about. But in southern waters of the UK the number of movements in harbours can make that tricky to say the least. Even places like Lowestoft or Ramsgate do not leave a lot of space. I find Ramsgate a bit small to get the main up in the harbour & if one faffs for too long one can get a hurry up from port control if wind farm vessels are moving.. Some French ports have mad fishermen who do not care much for UK flagged yachts either.

That’s why the reversing / geostationary technique works so well, as can use in tight spaces.

 

[geem]

I can see how this would work, they all get held in place if even only one is jammed hard as the boat rocks and rolls. I double up my mid fenders as I sit beam onto the SW winds and can get quite a force pushing me on.

I use long fenders for relatively low free board and so far in 8 years (IIRC) at my current marina in some F12 winds none have rolled out yet. To be honest, even the high freeboard, high volume, sit on the water boats that heal significantly, fenders of the correct length tend not to pop up either, from what I see.

Where I do see fenders popping out onto the pontoon, and have also experienced it, is too short fenders with associated surging on nylon warps. The fore and aft movement rolls them out in combination with healing. It is why I bought long fenders. A long time ago I used staple spun polypropylene lines for warps and on a pontoon they worked very well having minimum surge in high winds.

We had 55kts gusts beam on whilst we were in Pwllheli. Everybody's fenders were popping out. We went around trying to put them back in. The angle the boats were leaning to pushed some boats toerails under their pontoons and ripped the toerails off. A lot of damage. Extreme weather and very hard to deal with fenders in those conditions. The biggest and longest fenders in the middle really does work best when the boat is healing to 45 degrees

 

[Daydream believer]

That’s why the reversing / geostationary technique works so well, as can use in tight spaces.

If I left my tiller to go on deck whilst in reverse the rudder would flip & the boat would quickly rotate. Even with the autopilot connected (but not live)that would still happen as the power of the rudder moving very slowly in reverse would compress the ram. Also the boat would want to rotate if stationary due to propwash. Then the autopilot would get confused & turn off if initially engaged

 

[Chiara’s slave]

If I left my tiller to go on deck whilst in reverse the rudder would flip & the boat would quickly rotate. Even with the autopilot connected (but not live)that would still happen as the power of the rudder moving very slowly in reverse would compress the ram. Also the boat would want to rotate if stationary due to propwash. Then the autopilot would get confused & turn off if initially engaged

The very thought of letting go the tiller whilst underway in a crowded marina brings me out in a cold sweat. Not sure where we might end up, but it wouldn’t be good.