Fenders

Ubergeekian

Ubergeekian

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 Jun 2004
Messages
9,904
Location
Me: Castle Douglas, SW Scotland. Boats: Kirkcudbri
www.drmegaphone.com
Dear Motor Boaters

Could you enlighten a baffled sailing type about why so many motor boats have their fenders dangling out all the time? I've just spent a couple of days in Great Yarmouth and Oulton - for work - and noticed that every single modern motor boat I saw was festooned with fenders. A couple of very pretty classic motor boats, and all the sailing boats I saw, were fenderless.

I've even noticed it in pictures and avatars here - smart and very expensive looking boats with blue (always blue) bobbles all the way round, even when well out at sea.

Is it aesthetics? Lack of stowage space? I'm truly confused.

Yours

Confused.
 
an old quatrain from PBO. Author unknown.


Dingle, dangle, dong.
I wonder what's gone wrong.
Is it fear of a collision
That keeps them in position ?
 
I wonder if it's canal etiquette? Canal boats are constantly going thro locks, bridges & stop gates that are only a few inches wider than the boats are so thin fenders are left permanently in place.

The other possibility is that MoBos only move off their pontoons for fuel or the odd picnic & it is too short a time period to bother stowing them. I must admit most round our way seem to stow them away after a mile or three out of the marina.
 
It's because they don't know the fabled Col Regs, so don't know from which direction and when a saily type thing will unpredictably and completely without logic drive towards them, even in narrow channels Saily type things/ racing saily things/ saily chaps clearly have "right of way" at all times. over powered craft, even if the powered craft are at anchor or drifting, angling ( NOT the same as fishing!).

Graham

PS I remove my fenders ASAP after leaving the berth!
 
Don't know, ours get pulled in and put on the walkround as soon as we leave the marina. We don't stow them away though, can't be bothered to untie them and we'd struggle to find space for them all. Ours are white by the way.
Some mobos are a bit tricky to walk round the foredeck so that might explain why some leave them out.
I'm sure I've seen a fair amount of raggies with fenders permanently over the side though!
 
Once we leave our berth we have to go through a sea lock. Once clear of the sea lock all fenders are raised but not stowed as we don't have space also hassle to untie them. We have White only.
 
Ubergeekian said:
Dear Motor Boaters

Could you enlighten a baffled sailing type about why so many motor boats have their fenders dangling out all the time? I've just spent a couple of days in Great Yarmouth and Oulton - for work - and noticed that every single modern motor boat I saw was festooned with fenders. A couple of very pretty classic motor boats, and all the sailing boats I saw, were fenderless.

I've even noticed it in pictures and avatars here - smart and very expensive looking boats with blue (always blue) bobbles all the way round, even when well out at sea.

Is it aesthetics? Lack of stowage space? I'm truly confused.

Yours

Confused.
Click to expand...

I added 3 sets of clips to ours, high, medium and up.
They seldom find their way back to the fender basket these days
Well for us it started off when we just popped round to the fuel berth and I told swmbo to leave them.
Then just popped to Easthead and just left them.
Then just popped across to Bembridge and just left them
Then as we set off for CI one day swmbo just left them, I didnt notice until Bembridge and sort of thought well we will only see one or two boats from 1/4 mile off so it doesnt really matter...........and just left them :)

I pay equal respect to flag etiquette ;)
 
On the canals everyone leaves their fenders hanging. I passed a boat the other day that had 22 blue fenders dangling. It's clearly a canal culture thing. I've adopted the practice myself, but when I re-convert the boat to a sail boat I'll stop doing it.

At sea I've noticed the dangling fender syndrome is almost exclusive to motor boats - you very rarely see it with sail boats. In mitigation of this lazy and untidy practice (and I speak, although temporarily, as a motor boater myself) I would point out that many motor boats, and narrowboats, have such hazardous deck designs - narrow side decks, bulbous convex shapes, inadequate non-slip - that going forward once underway can be quite daunting. Sending the missus forward to untie and stow fenders under these circumstances would be a worry.
 
I think it's mainly because yotties as a rule don't know how to tie clove hitches so they lose all their fenders overboard and are too tight to buy new ones. I've lost count of the number of times saily boats have tried to raft against us sporting one, maybe two, flaccid p**** sized fenders that are totally inadequate for stopping their grp meeting mine
 
We have got lazy and tend to leave them (3 small white fenders either side) down when on the river. Too many locks to bother lifting them then lowering them every time we approach a lock or mooring. They do however get removed (not just lifted) when we are travelling on the tidal Trent/Ouse or Humber and when we go out to sea. They dont sit on the walkway very well and have a habit of jumping off at high speeds.
 
Deleted User said:
I think it's mainly because yotties as a rule don't know how to tie clove hitches so they lose all their fenders overboard and are too tight to buy new ones. I've lost count of the number of times saily boats have tried to raft against us sporting one, maybe two, flaccid p**** sized fenders that are totally inadequate for stopping their grp meeting mine
Click to expand...
Classic yesterday in Newtown its blowing ESE 4 and one overnight hauls up only to the shouts of STOP STOP by yacht nearby then crunch - very loud impact.

the yacht leaving had picked up the others anchor line and proceeded to come alongside - not a fender in sight on either boat then on the 'hit' boat the smallest ball fender is found and held on deck - not over side whilst both boats keep banging together as the anchor cable is freed off.


SWMBO always stows our fenders underway and at anchor they are always deployed for exactly the reason above.
 
We have three decent sized, white fender each side. Also have a ball fender in the anchor locker and a spare "roaming" fender in the lazarette. The six fenders are always deployed in marinas, locks and anchorages. When underway, the two rearmost fenders are lifted into the cockpit, where they stand neatly in each corner. The two starboard ones are lifted on the side deck , where they are a tight fit, so they don't budge. The two on the port side are untied and stowed in the lazarette.

My "gripe" with fenders isn't that some people leave them in place, that doesn't pose any risks to MY gelcoat. It's the amount of boats that deploy inadequate fenders, or no fenders at all in close quarters situations, such as the marina lock. We regularly get boats come alongside of us in the lock, 2 or 3 feet between the two boats and they only fend the side against the lock. One pratt squeezed past us in the lock Saturday with a dinghy tied to the side of his yacht, dragging it along the side of my boat.
 
We leave our fenders on until we have got out from under Poole bridge as far as Stakes buoy, and deploy them again at the same point on the way back in. I've seen too many comings together while people attempt to hold station while waiting for the bridge to lift to be prepared to take the risk of leaving them aboard during the transit.

We haven't got a decent sized anchor locker, and the only place to stow them is tied to the hand rails and hanging back over the transom. This doesn't look particularly good aesthetically, so a while ago we just started pulling them up and leaving them wedged on the side-deck against a stanchion. Its a lot easier, saves the crew having to tie and untie knots, and from a distance they just look like extra port-holes, so that's where they stay.

I carry 7 large-ish (20x80) fenders - 4 for the side that will be against the finger, two for the "off" side and a smaller spare to act as a rover to protect the bathing platform as we always seem to get allocated a berth up against one of the piles supporting the pontoon.
 
If we are just going across to IOW or somewhere on the Solent the fenders just get lifted over and laid on the gangways, if we are heading further afield they get taken off and put into the anchor locker, they used to get put into fender baskets on the bow but I find these interfered with the view when helming downstairs.

They are always lifted either exiting the marina or heading down the river within the 6 kt limit. Same with lines.
 
I remember some 40 years ago sailing with a friend off the Norfolk coast when a fellow yachtie shouted what sounded like "Your skirts are showing".
My friend was fairly new to the game - I was just a passenger.
We concluded he was referring to our fenders, but I've never come across the term since. If we assumed correctly, maybe sailing etiquette has lowered it's standards in recent years.:confused:
 
Always take ours in but then I am ex-Navy and old habits die hard. The only exception is when we occasionally go into the Broads (where you were working) and then they are all out courtesy of the hire boat fleets - rather look a little unsightly than have a chunk of gel taken out.
 
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