Winter Fender Recommendations? Rough Marina

[IdleHour]

Hi all—
I’m blowing out fenders again as the temps get cooler. (Even the oversized ones).

Same thing happened with my old sailboat in the past.

Any brands/inflation recs you have can help!

Mainship 40DC

 

[C lectric]

If the load is high enough the fenders will give up.
How many fenders are you using and what size fender for what size and weight of boat are you using.

Best plan to me is more fenders to spread the load more among them. Do you have any used marine parts shops nearby or boatyards that sell used fenders?

My moorage is not rough but I have tied up in places that are rough, to me. The best fender for those tie ups, to me, are the round beach balls. They contact the boat as the boat lurches sooner than the tubular units so start to slow the boat sooner than the tubular design. The fender, I think, sees less of a pressure spike as the boat is slowed sooner.

They are awkward to store sometimes but I still carry three. If you don't need them in the boating season they can be stored at home.

 

[Gdavid]

How are they blowing out?, where is the split? I would pump it full of spray foam and see how that holds up, starting with a ruined one. It wouldn't be anywhere near as cushioning but would may last longer. I assume you would have repositioned the boat to decrease relying on fenders it that was an option in your space.

 

[IdleHour]

Ferry wakes are pretty bad, these all happened when the temps came down. Down to 4 good ones, the orange ball is 24” for scale.

Free electric and I work with them here so cheap for NYC, not moving soon.

The boat is 24k lbs & 40’

 

[CharlieO.]

I'd get a bunch of the round ones and maybe bring the boat a little closer to the dock. I made the mistake of buying cheap ones online and they all blew apart the first storm that came through the marina, went back to the old Polyforms that came with the boat.

 

[IdleHour]

If the load is high enough the fenders will give up.
How many fenders are you using and what size fender for what size and weight of boat are you using.

Best plan to me is more fenders to spread the load more among them. Do you have any used marine parts shops nearby or boatyards that sell used fenders?

My moorage is not rough but I have tied up in places that are rough, to me. The best fender for those tie ups, to me, are the round beach balls. They contact the boat as the boat lurches sooner than the tubular units so start to slow the boat sooner than the tubular design. The fender, I think, sees less of a pressure spike as the boat is slowed sooner.

They are awkward to store sometimes but I still carry three. If you don't need them in the boating season they can be stored at home.

I hear you about the round ones. Big thing I have is a rolling shear when the wakes come through. It’s gorgeous at night but rush hour is hurricane strength.

 

[guy with a boat]

Hi all—
I’m blowing out fenders again as the temps get cooler. (Even the oversized ones).

Same thing happened with my old sailboat in the past.

Any brands/inflation recs you have can help!

Mainship 40DC

Look up Polyform F series. They are expensive and fairly heavy, but serious commercial grade. We use F-8s and a large Polyform ball on our 70 ton boat and they hold up. Choose what fits the space but don’t undersize them. We had multiple Taylor mades before and they couldn’t handle a surge at the dock.

Lot of fenders in use out there are undersized for surge conditions. Smaller ones work fine for sheltered marinas but a swell or surge requires serious fenders.

 

[IdleHour]

Look up Polyform F series. They are expensive and fairly heavy, but serious commercial grade. We use F-8s and a large Polyform ball on our 70 ton boat and they hold up. Choose what fits the space but don’t undersize them. We had multiple Taylor mades before and they couldn’t handle a surge at the dock.

Lot of fenders in use out there are undersized for surge conditions. Smaller ones work fine for sheltered marinas but a swell or surge requires serious fenders.

Thanks! It’s tidal (up to 4 kts) plus the wakes.

 

[Portage_Bay]

How tolerant is your marina of user changes? Small rubber tires fastened to the dock won't roll up when your boat rolls. They are much tougher than fenders but need to be covered with something to keep the boat from getting black streaks.



Also, as mentioned up thread, keep the boat tighter to the dock. The more it can move the harder it hits the fenders.

 

[Gdavid]

I can imagine the abuse. I took a ferry from Battery Park terminal to Liberty landing marina and the exposure those ferries had at the terminal while docking was unbelievable to me. Constant 2' chop with plenty of 3' and greater thrown in. Scared the hell out of me just imagining bringing a recreational vessel up to that pier.

 

[C lectric]

Ouch, you do appear to have a problem.
The one round red one seems to be OK. But the ribbed yellow one next to it is blown.
Several others are blown, of course you know.

I am going to suggest that for these conditions you need a far larger orange/red beach ball type. THe larger the ball the more air there is to compress for the same load and the lower the pressure will be that is produced when the boat compresses it.

Think of a truck tire. Yes, they are heavily built but it is also the volume of air inside that really supports the load by supporting the casing. It takes both to support heavy loads, both a thick wall and lots of air and a big fender.

The fenders should be inflated more so they do not flatten out as much when the cold weather hits. Less air means less cushioning and higher pressure.

As suggested also ask about commercial fenders.

 

[Hippocampus]

Think the round ones do better. I don’t make them super firm just firm enough to allow very small indent with a strong thumb. I also used to carry a fender board. Beyond using it for poles found if you set things up so it stays at the max diameter of three rounds and the board was resting exactly on the dock loading it did spread out the load on the fenders a bit. Don’t know exactly why that’s different than having the fenders touching the dock directly but think it is. Usually don’t want the fenders or board resting in the water but when having this concern didn’t worry about that.

 

[Bmarler]

Think a mooring whip might help? These people say they have them for vessels larger than yours.
Mooring Products | Mooring Whips

 

[tpbrady]

I have several round ones, here they are called buoys and used in commercial fishing. They are great for the forward part of the boat as the hull tapers toward the bow for docking and rafting. The biggest one is the only thing to use when springing off a dock.

Tom

 

[Pete Meisinger]

I brought my round fenders home this winter. I want to sew covers for them. I stored them in my unheated garage. It has gotten to 0 Centigrade a few times this week. Yesterday when I went to fetch one from the garage I noticed it was very low on pressure, probably from the cold. The vinyl (or whatever they are made of) was hard as a rock. It is easy to see that an underinflated, frozen fender would blow apart with impact.

I think I would check the pressure in the fenders and add air to make them more firm. You will probably need to release some pressure in the spring.

pete

 

[SteveK]

Two things.
Not enough fenders and tied way too loose.
The fenders have to cushion the boat before it builds up momentum.
Imagine this, a car can drive over your foot without serious injury, but drop that car from 2 feet high and it will crush your foot.

 

[Comodave]

Maybe look at Nomar fenders, they might not collapse.

 

[twistedtree]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the fenders look way too small to me.

 

[O C Diver]

I also use Polyform F8s and lay them horizontally. One issue that you may need to be careful of is boat roll. If the wakes are making the boat roll port to starboard, you may need to let the fenders touch the water to keep the mid point of the fender from coming above the dock.

This is an old picture, in preparation for a near pass hurricane. Three F8 fenders on a floating dock did a great job of protecting the boat. I now have polartech fender covers on all these fenders. It's easier on the paint and easier to clean up the fenders. Covers go in the washing machine annually.



Ted

 

[cardude01]

Would a black polyform fender leave a black mark on whiteish gelcoat? I like black fenders generally so they don’t look so dirty. I have some black Taylormade and they don’t seem to leave marks.

 

[C lectric]

I changed to black fenders about 4 yrs ago and as far as I can tell there are no black marks on my white hull. Before I made that change I looked at LOTS of other vessels with black fenders as I too was leery of marking . Marking is not a problem if you get good units. I went with the Polyform units, HTM 10" x 30".

As far as a fender hung vertically use a weight to hold the fender down. I used to do that when we tied to log booms and yes that was a very common berthing arrangement many years ago when there were lots of booms around.

I saved the 2 litre pop bottles , cut the screw top off so there was a 2" or so hole and filled them with concrete and a piece of chain. When it hardened the chain was captured, and I could add a snap of a size sufficient to clip to the bottom ear of my fender. THe weights were about 5# each.
For the fenders I commonly used for this mooring I would also use a piece of line secured to that bottom ear to make clipping easy.

That weight was enough to partly stand the fender up but far more importantly ensure that the fender never lifted. The weight was needed as many of the logs were low in the water and the fender without the weight would very soon be on top of the log.

This would work with horizontally or vertically hung fender with a bit of thought for the final attachments.

I still carry three of those weights and have used them since even though the boom mooring days are gone. If the moorage is rough they can still be of good use.

 

[twistedtree]

Would a black polyform fender leave a black mark on whiteish gelcoat? I like black fenders generally so they don’t look so dirty. I have some black Taylormade and they don’t seem to leave marks.

I have had black Polyform fenders on the last two boats and they don't mark the hull at all.

 

[Comodave]

I have had black Polyform fenders on the last two boats and they don't mark the hull at all.

Me too, except last 3 boats.

 

[cardude01]

Thanks!

 

[Labrador Coaster]

I have used used ATV tires with a round fishing buoy placed inside. The idea is to blow up the round buoy enough to be pinched on each rim ( the rims can be pulled apart a bit to widen the tire.. this setup means that the rubber is what rubs on the wharf and boat, with the inner buoy providing some flex. And yes you will have some black smears to rub off in the spring [emoji57]

 

[Iggy]

We have winter storge at the yacht club were I am a member. We make the boats spring off using at lest 2 lines. This stops or slows down the boat from hitting the dock.

We make them all the boaters use fenders, but in most cases the boat cant hit the dock. Since the spring lines are pulling the boat off the dock.

This would also depend where the cleats are on the dock.