how many fenders?

Birdseye

Birdseye

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My 29ft sailing boat is on the hard so I have emptied the lockers and brought the fenders home to clean. How many - they total 14 of which two are smallish and one is a ball.

I dont know how this has happened. But hey ho - how many would you think appropriate for a boat of this size given that I have to fender both sides when going into the sea lock.
 
At least 10 of reasonable size, I near bows, 1 near stern and 3 spread along midships bulge per side. Any more is a bonus.
 
I have 8 regular cylindrical fenders and two ball fenders normally in use in a lock or at the home berth.
There is a spare small fender that I can use to protect the stern when moored if required at one or two locations that I visit.
And one spare ball fender which is a spare only because I acquired two new ball fenders recently. I may get rid of that or better still tie it to the home berth pontoon as extra defence.
so that's 12 in total on the boat. at the moment As said its better to have too many than too few.
The boat is 33ft.
 
Birdseye said:
interesting. my reaction after counting them was that I had a ridiculous number.
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Guess it depends on things like where you moor your boat and use of locks
We are regularly on a pontoon or against a wall or going through locks and feel the need for defences both sides.
 
We manage with seven. Miships and towards front and rear quarter where the hull turns away from the mid section, then when going into pontoon the same on other side making six

Once leaned out on a drying wall some far side fenders can go tween wall and boat and we may want one right at stern as that kicks in as we leave berth. The ones near the bows never did anything and actual bows is behind bobstay so no where to fit anyway

We did have a ball for use when fenderboard may not quite cover the situation if boat turns into or out of the wharf as she rises, but now have one overlarge fender instead which ties to stern rail when not in use. Our cockpit and lockers are full enough without carrying more
 
9 for my 32ft Fulmar. 6 large fenders - 3 per side. 1 substantial on the berthing side. 2 ball for bow and stern. They all stow in my sail locker whilst sailing, along with my inflateable, warps, fender plank, ladder, warps, buckets, brushes, spare anchor, etc.
 
We make do with a bare minimum of six, plus a large flat Plastimo one. This is generally enough. On dodgy approaches we can put four or five on the side at risk and move them around later. In the cockpit locker I have had a dinghy, liferaft, loads of ropes and a bike or two, so five fenders go in the anchor well and one in the cockpit locker, with the flat one hidden inside. Of course I would like more, but I’m not prepared to shove them on the stern, and thus far, in 23 seasons we have not had a hull scratch that could be attributed to shortage of fenders. I’m not suggesting that this is ideal, but over the years I have learned a bit about defensive sailing.
 
I tend to really only use 4 or 5 medium size fenders. However the boat has several other large fenders and some big round ones and what I can only describe as a mini torpedo. I was tempted to throw these out until I went through the Crinan. Ive since placed all the spare ones under the v berth bunks. Better to keep them on board but out the way.

Steveeasy
 
The more the merrier on a windward visitor berth and unexpected storm coming. Worst place I have been is Portland with an strong easterly.........
 
On Jissel, it was one per stanchion + the pushpit, four along one side, plus a couple of spares. Jazzcat is basically a rectangle, so we again have one per stanchion, total six newish grey ones, plus 3 or 4 big ones for the other side when needed. Weight isn't a problem, but they do take up a lot of locker space.
 
Friend had a 42foot Jeneteau and they numbered the fenders and had a sheet saying where each should be placed on the boat. She took some home and said she wondered if they had too many when she looked at it and it was 22A.
 
Stemar said:
On Jissel, it was one per stanchion + the pushpit, four along one side, plus a couple of spares. Jazzcat is basically a rectangle, so we again have one per stanchion, total six newish grey ones, plus 3 or 4 big ones for the other side when needed. Weight isn't a problem, but they do take up a lot of locker space.
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Which means that the lockers can't be filled up with heavy items !
 
We have six fenders in total as this is what came with the boat. It's worked fine for us, so long as the forward fender is well towards the bow if we are being blown on when berthing. Darn, make that seven. I have a step fender but it usually stays in the locker when we are berthing.
 
Funnily enough, until recently I had 14 fenders in my 28ft-er.
Post boat show I’ve now upgraded to 6 matching long ones, 2 balls and a slightly larger ‘roving’ fender.

As a single hander I tend to prep boats sides of the boat when arriving in a new marina, so that’s 4 fenders on each side which makes it very easy to decide which side to I want to go, if I need to change.
 
Sailing boats and motor boats are completely different in this regard as motor boats have flat sides rather than rounded like a sailing boat.

Therefore I use just 2 fenders on my 46 ft mobo for coming alongside. One on the quarter and a ball placed just as the boat narrows toward the bow.

3 if going stern to (1 over the stern)

4 if going into a lock or if there is risk of touching the boat next to me in a marina. (2 each side)

I may add more if rafting or other special circumstances but I only have 7 onboard total.
 
I think if in a marina it’s very useful to have a large ball fender on the stern to protect from unexpected stern hits from visitors who get too close -they can then at least roll along the stern hopefully as they depart.
 
I think it was 8 on a 34 foot boat plus two Avon inflatable fenders picked up brand new at a boat jumble, they were never needed I often thought about a ball fender but never bothered. Despite being on some hairy pontoons and rafting we never needed more. As the capn says too many is better than too few though but you just need to review your use and storage.

Plus a fender board
 
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On my 25 foot i have more than 10, they are a pain in the arse to stow, but allways needed when rafting up with other boaters and granite walls etc!!
 
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