GL: Using Fender Boards

[fred]

Jeff,

I agree that fender boards are just the ticket for leaning on pilings and 
where no flat surface exists to catch round fenders.

For locking, they are useless and often cause problems.

And as Tommy says, fenders should be HUGE.  The biggest ones you can 
afford.  I use some large ball fenders on the side of my boat and some huge 
ones a little bit around the curve of the bow.  That sort of extends the 
front of my boat, making up for an inconvenient too-far-front location of 
the cleat I use for locking.  Works nice and allows me to single-hand 
without wrecking on lock walls.  And just in case, I also drag a couple of 
tube fenders in the water, for those locks where the wall is very low and 
might cause a ball fender to pop upwards.

Fred
Tug 44

----------------------------------------
From: "Jeffrey Siegel" <jeff at activecaptain.com>
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 2:46 PM
To: fred at tug44.org, great-loop at lists.samurai.com
Subject: RE: GL: Using Fender Boards on the T-Tom and Tennessee 

> What would be the purpose of a fender board? 
> Why would anyone bother with them?

I'm not crazy-in-love with fender boards but I did make up a set and I
have used them.  I think they're pretty helpful if you're in a high tide
area (New England for example) and are coming against a non-floating
dock with pilings.  In that case, using a long fender board against two
vertical fenders gives you, in effect, a very wide wooden fender.  As
the tide comes and goes, the boat will move but the pilings will stay
against the fender board.

The other alternative is to put normal fenders sideways.  But if there's
a good tide swing, the line up with the pilings will quickly become a
miss and you'll be adjusting things all night long.

This isn't a great picture of it but I am using them here:
http://www.activecaptain.com/images/Cuttyhunk.jpg

It was in Cuttyhunk, MA.  I had two set of them out against 4 fenders.
It worked pretty well.

==================================
Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
DeFever 53PH
W1ACA/WDB4350
Castine, Maine

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