Fenders up or down

[sailaboutvic]

I was encourage to start the thread after a conversation last night .
We where at anchor when another yacht ( red duster ) anchored very close ,
Plenty of other room but I guess he like the smell of our cooking .
He wasn't close enough to cause concern although the forecaster was for a blow over night the wind coming from one direction and he was well off to one side , so I didn't say any thing .
Not long after he motor over and told me ( not asked ) to putting my fenders down , my reaction after I stop laughing was , if he tho we that close we may hit best he up his anchor and move .

We always drop use to drop our fenders if anyone was near by ,
but over the years time and time again boat have a habit of hitting anywhere but where the fender are ,
We also found that if a boat drags back it usually the bow they hit followed by running down the top side knocking fenders flying or worst getting twisted and ended up with stanchion damage .
To me now the best of two evil is keep them on board while at anchor .

Going back to last night , 04.30 and I was woken by voice shouting . Quickly went on deck to see two other yacht in a kissing match , this morning as we went by on the dinghy one had two Stanchion at an angle , both boat had fenders out ,

So what's your view , I guess most would still keep them out .
Of cause best cause of action is anchor away from other , the problem is how do you stop them anchoring near you .

 

[Stemar]

That's one reason why I like shallow water to anchor in - it's hard for the big buggers to get at me if I'm aground and smaller ones generally seem to have a rough idea what they're doing or don't stay overnight. If I do think I'm going to need fenders, I'd probably put 'em out on the basis that they might do some good. If not, it's just one more thing to add to the claim on the idiot who didn't anchor properly. If it's windy enough that non-idiots are likely to drag, I probably wouldn't be there anyway.

 

[RichardS]

Brilliant thread Vic.

He anchors so close to you that he's worried that he might hit you ..... and then asks you to put your fenders down! Excellent. That's a new one on me. :encouragement:

But I agree with you. When boats anchor close to us Sally always goes to put the fenders down and I always say that the problem is that dragging boats always collide into your bow as happened to us last year so I doubt whether the fenders will ever do any good ..... but it can't do any harm.

I've never thought that it might actually be better to leave them up rather than risk them getting entangled with the dragging boats fenders but you could well be right.

Richard

 

[[70521]]

Not sure what the colour of the duster has to do with it but would be interested to know.

Clearly the skipper was nervous about his anchoring skills.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Not sure what the colour of the duster has to do with it but would be interested to know.

Clearly the skipper was nervous about his anchoring skills.

The colour as nothing to do with it your quite right ,
I suppose you could also say , discribeing it was a yacht you could also say as nothing to do with it .
Maybe I start a again .( a GRP hull anchored ) mmm maybe GRP not right .
Don't get so touchy , I fly a red dusty myself .

 

[John 32i]

Never had this problem at anchor thankfully however returned from the pub the other night to find out that a yacht had forced their way into the space next to us in the marina and the fenders were so squashed that the top sides were touching...wasn't amused so we moved (no one on the other boat), the next morning the chap said that he knew the space was too small but couldn't be bothered to go further down the pontoon (where there were other spaces) so forced his way in...it was so tight he then didn't feel able to reverse out again! Totally unbelievable and to be honest ruined the last night of our autumn cruise!

 

[[70521]]

The colour as nothing to do with it your quite right ,
I suppose you could also say , discribeing it was a yacht you could also say as nothing to do with it .
Maybe I start a again .( a GRP hull anchored ) mmm maybe GRP not right .
Don't get so touchy , I fly a red dusty myself .

I was not getting touchy, just wondered why you mentioned it.

Being a yacht is the crux of the question, had it been a car there would be no problem as that would have worked as an anchor.

You will need to pop over and ask how the fenders got on with the other boats and what type of anchors they were using

P.S. I also have a red duster that gets placed at the back of the boat when I remember to put it there.

 

[sailaboutvic]

I was not getting touchy, just wondered why you mentioned it.

Being a yacht is the crux of the question, had it been a car there would be no problem as that would have worked as an anchor.

You will need to pop over and ask how the fenders got on with the other boats and what type of anchors they were using

P.S. I also have a red duster that gets placed at the back of the boat when I remember to put it there.

Type of Anchor talk with a neighboring boat .
no way that fighting talk

 

[A1Sailor]

Might one put one's rubber dinghy on the vulnerable side of one's yacht or stinkpot?

 

[sailaboutvic]

Never had this problem at anchor thankfully however returned from the pub the other night to find out that a yacht had forced their way into the space next to us in the marina and the fenders were so squashed that the top sides were touching...wasn't amused so we moved (no one on the other boat), the next morning the chap said that he knew the space was too small but couldn't be bothered to go further down the pontoon (where there were other spaces) so forced his way in...it was so tight he then didn't feel able to reverse out again! Totally unbelievable and to be honest ruined the last night of our autumn cruise!

John that's another time our fenders are brought on board , if we leaving a tight berth . Very easy to get them twisted on a neighbour boat fenders

 

[A1Sailor]

Type of Anchor talk with a neighboring boat .
no way that fighting talk

I'm surprised you didn't ask if he had a W-anchor down.

 

[LadyInBed]

Last year I anchored in Cascais bay, it was very gusty and the bay was quite full. I motored up behind a yacht to about two boat lengths went forward and dropped the anchor (now three boat lengths back). I had just dug the anchor in when another Brit from an adjacent boat about four boat lengths away popped his head up and said he thought I was too close. I obviously didn't think so, but I guess he had squatters rights so upped and moved back a bit, all was now peace with the world.
Re fenders, if I felt the need to deploy them I would string them horizontally rather than vertical, as there is less chance of them getting tangled.

 

[jordanbasset]

We out our fenders down but only because it makes it easier to move around the boat

 

[RupertW]

We always have fenders down when anchoring as we have had times when a boat scraped down the side of us while anchoring badly. If it's their bow on our stern then the Rib our the two big stern bouys should take some of the impact and if it's any part of their boat on our bow then I'm happy for the edges of our anchor to hold them off scrapily.

I do occasionally drop the fenders for show if a boat anchors too close but I mostly just relax these days and let people make their own mistakes and learn how to get out of them while my boat is surrounded by soft things.

 

[Lucky Duck]

Never had this problem at anchor thankfully however returned from the pub the other night to find out that a yacht had forced their way into the space next to us in the marina and the fenders were so squashed that the top sides were touching...wasn't amused so we moved (no one on the other boat), the next morning the chap said that he knew the space was too small but couldn't be bothered to go further down the pontoon (where there were other spaces) so forced his way in...it was so tight he then didn't feel able to reverse out again! Totally unbelievable and to be honest ruined the last night of our autumn cruise!

Where was this?

 

[John 32i]

Where was this?

The Haven, Ipswich

 

[RichardS]

Not sure what the colour of the duster has to do with it but would be interested to know.

Clearly the skipper was nervous about his anchoring skills.

I assumed that it was simply shorthand for "probably not a charterer".

I fly a red duster. What's the big deal?

Richard

 

[RichardS]

Last year I anchored in Cascais bay, it was very gusty and the bay was quite full. I motored up behind a yacht to about two boat lengths went forward and dropped the anchor (now three boat lengths back). I had just dug the anchor in when another Brit from an adjacent boat about four boat lengths away popped his head up and said he thought I was too close. I obviously didn't think so, but I guess he had squatters rights so upped and moved back a bit, all was now peace with the world.
Re fenders, if I felt the need to deploy them I would string them horizontally rather than vertical, as there is less chance of them getting tangled.

Good grief ..... I don't think some of these Guys would survive very long in Croatia before having some kind of anxiety seizure. :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[prv]

I was not getting touchy, just wondered why you mentioned it.

He’s saying the other yacht was British rather than Italian, German, or Croatian.

Pete

 

[Skylark]

I’ve read this thread with interest but now I’m slightly disappointed. I’d always understood that having fenders down while at anchor, particularly among liveaboarders, was secret code for an invitation to an evening of adult entertainment.