Fenders

[Biggles Wader]

That's the Bridge of the Americas. isn't it?
Which would make that the Miraflores Locks.

I've been under the Bridge of the Americas at Balboa and surely it is one of those hefty girder jobs so common in the USA like the one knocked down by that container ship last year?

 

[newtothis]

I've been under the Bridge of the Americas at Balboa and surely it is one of those hefty girder jobs so common in the USA like the one knocked down by that container ship last year?

You're right... the one in the pic is the Atlantic Bridge. My mistake.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

To me it s the opposite, probably because you have very low freeboard on your amas. Over here many small/medium size leisure motorboats have a lot of flare on their sides, they often have fenders hanging from the rail which oscillate freely as they do not even touch the hull, which is a nightmare for other people stanchions at say 1-2m above water level. If their hulls are low on the water ok, otherwise their deck line is usually uncomfortably near our stanchions level, even a Polyform A4-A5 ball risks not being enough Or raft with a RIB, fender included

That is not our experience, we’d look for a circa y2k 30-50ft motorboat every time. We have no stanchions, and in any case, their sides are near vertical except at the bows. We’re also less likely to encounter negativity, the nantucket red clad skipper asking us how many times we’ve capsised, that we might get from your ‘traditional’ yacht. The motor boats generally appreciate our abundance of fenders and delicate approach, We can’t afford an unpleasant incident miles from home.

 

[Muddy32]

I had plans to do the Britanny canals, but chickened out when I realised the narrowest lock was about 8 cm wider than Jazzcat. Cutting boards as fenders might just make it possible. Hmm, have to think about that.

With such narrow spaces in the Locks, we put thick carpet on the inside of the boards to spread and soften the load to our sides.
Worked for us for 20+ years.