Do I need fenders?

[durdy]

I have an 18' bowrider which spends all of its non-running time tied up to my floating dock on a smaller (5km long) inland lake. I'm looking for the simplest docking / undocking setup possible in order to minimize the time spent tying up and stowing and unstowing gear and maximize the fun. It'd be quite common for me to use the boat for 15 minutes at a time, many times a day so the time spent docking and leaving again is somewhat more significant to me than if I were out on the water all day long. I want to know what people would recommend I attach to the dock so I can just tie up to it and not deal with fenders.

The lake is generally quite calm with the only real wave action caused by the wakes of other similar boats. This is not an ocean or a slip adjacent to a shipping channel. The dock's mine so I can do whatever I want to it as long as it's aesthetically cool with my lovely wife. No used Goodyears and lag bolts allowed.

My initial attempt at this involved some DockEdge bumpers plus an existing 8' vinyl bumper strip. Worked ok until I noticed the horizontal ridges in the bumpers were starting to chew into the boat with the small waves and dock movement due to fattish people like me walking nearby. Right now I have my existing bumper setup augmented by pieces of cut-up pool noodle to keep the boat off the DockEdge bumpers. I'm back in Goodyear territory here so I need to fix this up.

Would the 'P' shaped vinyl bumper strips alone be ok?
Are fenders an absolute must-have?
Is there something else I should be considering?

Thanks.

 

[danond]

Re: Do I need fenders?

Uhhhhh....fenders are cheap. Get 3 and no more worries.

 

[bhammer]

Re: Do I need fenders?

Mount a couple fenders to the dock instead of the boat. What they do in a slip is to tie each end if the fender to the wood. Works great and you don't have to worry 'bout it.

 

[Nandy]

Re: Do I need fenders?

Hmm, I dont take the fenders off the boat. I flip them inside of the boat or outside. I dont take my tie down lines either, they have loops at both ends and the lines are long enough to reach the cleats but short enough not to get in the motor or in the passenger way.

 

[Boatist]

Re: Do I need fenders?

I agree with both above. Use round fenders tied horziontal to the dock so when the boat rocks the finder roll instead of vertical wher whe the boat rocks the fenders slide.

If you have a dock on both side of the boat use spring lines to both docks to keep the boat centered where it does not touch either dock.
Can also use some fiberglass poles to spring the boat away from the dock if only have a single dock.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Do I need fenders?

Maybe a pair of Mooring whips would work?

http://www.iboats.com/Dock_Edge_Moo...16367448--**********.470036436--view_id.38286

They keep the boat from contacting the dock, yet keep it secured.

 

[craze1cars]

Re: Do I need fenders?

For a private dock? I agree 100% that you should forget the clutter-up-the-boat, PITA fenders. Even when flipped inside the boat, or tied to your own dock, they're in the way...and there's better options. Fenders are nice temporary protection for when you are using OTHER PEOPLE's docks. Here's 6 solid pages pages of far superior permanent options for YOUR private dock that will work much better and be far more convenient than fenders. Compare the following with what you currently have (which sounds not-so-good), and try something completely different this time:

http://www.iboats.com/Dock_Bumpers/...ategory--**********.293159062--view_id.217411

My other time-saving tip is to put a carribeener on your own mooring lines at the perfect length. Clip and go...no knots to mess with.

And yeah, if they're in the budget, I agree whips are awesome.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Do I need fenders?

i can personally recommend these as i use them in the Keys. the boat has never touched the dock, since we installed them. all the line stay on the dock. one person can dock easily. lines have loops, to slip into the cleat, using a 3 point connection. bow, stern and spring lines. 30 seconds and all is secure. the open water in the key can get quite rough in an instant.
http://www.iboats.com/Taylor_Moorin...16386858--**********.684126615--view_id.48052

this is a 23 ft, 4,000 lb deck boat..

 

[arboldt]

Re: Do I need fenders?

You've probably thought of this, but is a shore station in the budget? Or does the lake drop-off make one impractical?

 

[ncs2929]

Re: Do I need fenders?

Poorman's dock bumpers we used ruffled up old firehose from the local firestation. U can sometimes get for free. Now we use a shore station.

 

[DRIFTER_016]

Re: Do I need fenders?

If it's a private dock use old tires attached to the dock and forget about the fenders.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Do I need fenders?

Don't like tires they put black marks on boat, the kids get black whenthey play on them, they hold water and breed mosquitos, they look tacky ect. ect. I like the whips although I have no experience, thats a nice looking set up trashdaddy has, I would like one just like it.

 

[durdy]

Re: Do I need fenders?

Great suggestions, thanks.

Used tires and firehoses would anger my lovely wife who likes things to look nice.
Mooring whips would work but are probably overkill for my smaller application.

My two candidates are both relatively inexpensive. I'm not sure which would be better.

1. The 'P' profile dock edging. Not clear whether this would protect the boat enough given the boat and the edge would slide against each other in both the horizontal and vertical planes. This would look nice and clean though.
2. Fenders mounted sideways. They'd give me the vertical protection needed. Would look a little less nice tied to the dock though... maybe I could be creative in tying them down.

Maybe I'll try both. The fenders would always be reusable and the dock edging would just be nice to have on the dock anyways.

 

[109jb]

Re: Do I need fenders?

My brother-in-law uses a neat setup. When he leaves his boat tied to the dock overnight on fishing trips, he uses some simple standoffs he made to keep it away from the dock. Basically it is a piece of pvc pipe with a tennis ball on the boat end. Each dock line starts at the dock cleat or looped through the dock planks then goes through the pipe, then through the tennis ball that is cut to fit over the end of the pipe. The boat end of the dock line has a loop in and he just threads the loop through the hole in the cleat then flip the loop back over the cleat ears. On one of the boat cleats will be two of these pipe setups to form a triangle to the dock to keep the boat from moving too far fore and aft. This has worked well for him. It unhooks easily and he just leaves the dock line/pipe/tennis ball deal hanging from the dock. The knot for the loop that goes through the boat cleats keeps everything from falling off in the water. The boat can still move a bit, but it keeps it away from the dock.

I never did it with my old boat because quite frankly it is just one 16ft long dock rash anyway. Now that I have just bought a better boat, I will probably give it a try.