Are you having trouble with your boat fenders ?

[DONTW8]

There has been a little discusion about how nifty that the blow up Hoppity - Hops are for rafting up.

I totally agree. I have my boat wired for an electric air pump because I have owned it a long time. That would allow one to blow up a hippity hop as necessary.

I have found a solution for keeping conventional boat fenders from rolling around.

My boat is old but I treat it like it was a brand new hangar queen, which it is to me.

" My boat fender is bigger than your boat fender "

Feature this: What if the rope from your boat fender was attached to one side of the fender near the shoulder . Instead of being hung from the top fender Eye you can prepare your fender to hang from one side near the shoulder.

Do you know what a half - hitch knot is ? This is necessary to perform this trick.

I have 2 of the G 4 Polyform fenders and one G 5 Polyform fender.

These are necessary to tie up at our small bouncing ski dock at the Sundance ski course. That lightweight dock bounces around a lot because it is free floating in the middle of the channel aligned with the ski course on a public lake. We use this setup for the three regular boats we use there.

I bought 3 of the 1 /2" x 15 foot long soft nylon mooring lines with the permanent loop in one end of the line.

The loop end I stuck through the bottom fender Eye and pulled it through itself.

I then took the line and ran it along the fender to the top fender Eye.

From there I tied a series of half hitches around that line going back toward the bottom fender eye.

I tied enough of those, maybe 15 half- hitches so that my standing end of the line would then be suspending the fender from the top shoulder of the fender.

No more rolling. Adequate protection when your boat gunnel was not the same height as the dock or neighboring vessel.

Plus you have 10 feet or so of extra line coming from the cleat ( or bow rail , etc) to use to tie up to a dock cleat.

Works good for tying a fender from the ski pylon, also.

For temporary use, you only have to make one cleat hitch to install your fender and have a dock line. Same thing on the release.

Very quick on and off. And they still stow nicely in your hinged compartment.

I would post pictures but my computer crashed and I lost the photos of this setup.

I know you young guys hate this stuff, but try to humour the old codger.

Who knows, one day there might be a thread " Whatever happened to _______________ ? "

Edited June 22, 2011 by DONTW8

[REW]

There has been a little discusion about how nifty that the blow up Hoppity - Hops are for rafting up.

I totally agree. I have my boat wired for an electric air pump because I have owned it a long time. That would allow one to blow up a hippity hop as necessary.

I have found a solution for keeping conventional boat fenders from rolling around.

My boat is old but I treat it like it was a brand new hangar queen, which it is to me.

" My boat fender is bigger than your boat fender "

Feature this: What if the rope from your boat fender was attached to one side of the fender near the shoulder . Instead of being hung from the top fender Eye you can prepare your fender to hang from one side near the shoulder.

Do you know what a half - hitch knot is ? This is necessary to perform this trick.

I have 2 of the G 4 Polyform fenders and one G 5 Polyform fender.

These are necessary to tie up at our small bouncing ski dock at the Sundance ski course. That lightweight dock bounces around a lot because it is free floating in the middle of the channel aligned with the ski course on a public lake. We use this setup for the three regular boats we use there.

I bought 3 of the 1 /2" x 15 foot long soft nylon mooring lines with the permanent loop in one end of the line.

The loop end I stuck through the bottom fender Eye and pulled it through itself.

I then took the line and ran it along the fender to the top fender Eye.

From there I tied a series of half hitches around that line going back toward the bottom fender eye.

I tied enough of those, maybe 15 half- hitches so that my standing end of the line would then be suspending the fender from the top shoulder of the fender.

No more rolling. Adequate protection when your boat gunnel was not the same height as the dock or neighboring vessel.

Plus you have 10 feet or so of extra line coming from the cleat ( or bow rail , etc) to use to tie up to a dock cleat.

Works good for tying a fender from the ski pylon, also.

For temporary use, you only have to make one cleat hitch to install your fender and have a dock line. Same thing on the release.

Very quick on and off. And they still stow nicely in your hinged compartment.

I would post pictures but my computer crashed and I lost the photos of this setup.

I know you young guys hate this stuff, but try to humour the old codger.

Who knows, one day there might be a thread " Whatever happened to _______________ ? "

I kind of like your idea, My fix is(was) a little bit simplier but not as pretty or as useful for all occasions.