GL: Using Fender Boards on the T-Tom and Tennessee

[fred]

Rich,

I've watched lots of folks with all kinds of odd fender arrangements, and 
generally the more complicated they are, the more likely they are to tangle 
and otherwise cause problems.

My question is:  What would be the purpose of a fender board?  Why would 
anyone bother with them?

Fred
Tug 44

----------------------------------------
From: "Rich Gano" <richgano at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 12:18 PM
To: "Great Loop List" <great-loop at lists.samurai.com>
Subject: GL: Using Fender Boards on the T-Tom and Tennessee 

Note that I am restricting my comments to my own experience on the subj
waterways running through 36 locks in 40 days.

We always hung a 2X4 fender board (it was something like 10 or 12 feet 
long)
over our two big inflated fenders amidships along the flat section of the
hull.  The fender boards ended up overlapping the fenders by a couple of
feet.  I tried the idea of binding the fenders to the fender board, but
quickly gave up on it because it was unwieldy, and we didn't want to 
clutter
the decks up with the thing.  Now that I see the idea of fore and aft
steadying lines for the board, I know that would have been an improvement.
The fender board (or for that matter just fenders alone) is not a
"fire-and-forget weapon" - they must be over-watched while vertical 
movement
is occurring.  With the two of us armed with boat hooks at either end of 
the
boat we had little trouble with hang-ups.

A ball fender was hung over the rail forward and above the rub rail to
protect the bulwark and railings.  One additional large fender was hung 
well
aft.  These two prevented contact with the wall when the inevitable yawing
occurred.

Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB-42 #295)
Southport, FL (near Panama City)
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