How To Make a Fender Board to Protect Your Boat

How To Make a Fender Board to Protect Your Boat | BoatUS

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6 жыл бұрын

Fenders on your boat are great, but they don't do much against a piling. For that you need a fender board or fender plank. BoatUS Magazine associate editor Mark Corke shows you how to make a fender board in about half an hour with about $15 of materials. Building a fender board is a simple project but one that will protect your boat hull from dock damage.
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Пікірлер: 43

@zoffinger 5 жыл бұрын

Seldom do you see KZfaq videos so concise and helpful. Very well done, thanks. I'll be using this for sure.

@boatus 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your kind words, zoffinger. It's a simple but very useful project. Glad you found it helpful!

@jsanchex5 3 жыл бұрын

So simple and practical, thanks for taking the time to share.

@boatus 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching, jsanchex5. Glad you found it useful!

@Captdal 6 жыл бұрын

Great info thanks

@boatus 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@SusanATroutman Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much we are going on the Great Loop next year and will have both floating and fixed docks I won’t have to rig the fenders horizontal and then change back to vertical so thank you.

@boatus Жыл бұрын

Awesome, Susan! It's inexpensive, easy to make, and a perfect solution for that. Wishing you all the best on your adventure, and glad we can be a little part of that!

@paterson00 5 жыл бұрын

That's a great tip. I've been boating a good while now and watched a good few info videos but I've never seen this tip. Could also double up as a paddle in dire straits.

@boatus 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching, Paul. I'm not sure about the paddle part, but it is a very useful, inexpensive, and easy DIY project to protect your boat.

@paterson00 5 жыл бұрын

My boat is only 6.2m so could definitely use that if needed.

@markmaugle4599 6 жыл бұрын

What is a good length? Can it be to short?

@boatus 6 жыл бұрын

The one I made in the video is 6 feet, which is a pretty standard size. You can indeed make it too short because it needs to span between two fenders. I would recommend no shorter than about 4 feet.

@webbwebs 6 жыл бұрын

Maybe I’m missing something in your video... but I only see ONE fender beneath the board. If the boat should move relative to the piling (imagine that) then the board could pivot on the fender, in which case the end of the board could cause even more damage to the hull than the piling would have caused to the rubrail. Put a second fender under the board and you’ve got something to do the job. That is, after all, the way a commercial vender board is made. When I do this for hurricane prep, I use a 2”x6”. But I would agree with you that a 1”x6” pressure treated board is plenty for normal situations. I really don’t have enough free space to store larger lumber on my sailboat. But I could surely find space for a couple of 1”x2” boards for this purpose, when heading to the Bahamas for 6 mo. I never stay in a marina on these trips, but the fuel docks in the Bahamas are frequently sub-par. Thanks for the idea.

@boatus 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your comment. There's definitely a second fender there. (Look at the video thumbnail, which was a photo taken from the other side.) You can just see the edge of it behind the piling in the video, but if you didn't know there was supposed to be two fenders supporting it, that would certainly be an issue.

@webbwebs 6 жыл бұрын

Excellent... sorry I missed that. I round the sides and ends with a router, but I do like that you rounded the ends to a half-circle. I'l have to remember that. One more thing that I do in preparation for a hurricane or really heavy weather is to drill four holes in the center of the board... two on either side of the fenders... and run a line through each pair, looping around the two fenders. This prevents the board from sliding off the fender, should things get really rough. Alternately, you can just run the two main lines through the top eye of each fender and tie them off with the fender lines. I made about a dozen sets of these for friends in my marina, when Mathew made its way through Ft Pierce in 2016. Their boats were some the few boats that did NOT sustain serious piling damage when the Mathew passed 30 miles off shore. Good article !!

@boatus 6 жыл бұрын

That's a fantastic tip, Webbwebs! Yes, that will certainly help keep the fenders and board where they belong in rough conditions. If it's a named storm, though, we always recommend hauling your boat if at all possible.

@SethDunbar123 Жыл бұрын

@@webbwebsyou’re talking about 4 holes along the center horizontally? I’m having trouble visualizing this in case you can post a pic. Thanks

@SailingWickedFast 6 жыл бұрын

Sorry it didn’t show the whole completed board; how to position it against fenders so that it doesn’t come off of pole. Thought board was too weak ( thickness ) for task and line through the board was subject to chafe. Could use a version 2 of this video

@boatus 6 жыл бұрын

A 1-inch board is perfectly adequate for my use here at the dock, and it's easier to store. In other situations, you could use a more substantial piece of lumber and run the line through holes in the edge to avoid any chafe issues. Frankly, this is a cheap and easy enough project that should your board become damaged, you can easily make a new one.

@philippecandelier2188 6 жыл бұрын

Having the rope going across the section of the board is not good: as soon as it will hit a hard wall such as in a lock, it will quickly chafe. Rather, drill though the plank edges.

@boatus 6 жыл бұрын

For most purposes, like for protecting my boat at the dock, this setup works perfectly well. But as you mention, you can alternatively use a thicker board and drill the holes through the edge. Feed the line down through and knot the end to secure it.

@portfoliofotoz 2 жыл бұрын

Do NOT get fancy and eye-splice your fender board lines. When you eventually break your fender board, you'll have to trash your pretty lines too.

@boatus 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent advice, John! Sounds like you have some personal experience here?😂

@portfoliofotoz 2 жыл бұрын

@@boatus Mayyybeee . . .

@boatus 2 жыл бұрын

@@portfoliofotoz 😂😂😂😂

@robertsherer8768 6 жыл бұрын

You've bot to be kidding, a 1" thick board? If there are no waves and no wind, it will do fine. Try adding some wave action from the marina entrance and a little breeze (>15 kts with gust) and that board will find pieces of the board left when you return to your boat.

@boatus 6 жыл бұрын

A 1-inch board is adequate for my situation, but if yours requires something more substantial, then by all means, use a thicker piece of wood. If chafe is a concern, you can drill a hole through the edges and run your line that way.

@pmm0107 5 жыл бұрын

Good idea, but the video is terrible - the caption obscures the most important part at the end - you can't see how it is deployed.

@boatus 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your feedback, Peter.

@davfre8000 6 жыл бұрын

Great video, very poor audio.

@boatus 6 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked the video. We'll work on the audio.

@Dorque19 6 жыл бұрын

Great timing......I've been watching "Distant Shores", a show about a sailing couple and as they traveled through the locks of France, they used this exact board method and it saved their boat many times from being hit and scared.

@dang-khoavo4648 4 жыл бұрын

You realize that turning your fenders horizontally achieves the same task right? That will actually save you from the additional work, time, materials, tools, and then having to carry those extra boards on your vessels! Just a thought. Happy boating!

@boatus 4 жыл бұрын

Sometimes placing the fender horizontally works, but in my experience it often fails to give the boat the desired buffering. As the boat rises and then falls with the tide the fender is often “popped” over the edge of the dock then as the tide falls all protection is lost. Also, as the boat surges back and forth in the slip as it surely will, with passing boats and choppy water, the fender is not long enough to account for these movements and the side of the boat will contact the dock, piling or other obstruction. A fender board overcomes these difficulties, plus has the added advantage that dirt and grit is not transferred to the fenders and then onto the boat where it will damage the gelcoat or paint finish. The board in the video took only 15 minutes to make, the cost of materials is minimal, and is in our view, well worth the effort

@dang-khoavo4648 4 жыл бұрын

BoatUS That’s unusual. Perhaps an increase in size of your fenders for your vessel may help? In my experience from john boats to megayachts, boaters often undersize their fenders and/or not have enough for the vessel size. I’ve docked at various docks and piers with different configurations, including tall pilings, short pilings, no pilings. My fenders (either vertical or horizontally oriented) are never more than a few inches above the water surface. This helps tremendously with the rise and fall of tides and to keep the fenders from “rolling” out of place as you say. In addition, properly positioning your vessel so that where you have your fenders tied correspond to the locations of the pilings before you tie your boat to the dock will prevent the “shifting” as you say. If there is wind/current such as passing vessels in your case, adding a couple of spring lines will secure your boat and prevent the slip and sliding while allowing the vessel to easily rise and fall with the changes of tides! Hope some of it may help your situation.

@boatus 4 жыл бұрын

@@dang-khoavo4648 Thanks for your comments. You may be correct about using undersized fenders, but that's not always the solution. Obviously your method works for you, and it probably all depends on where your boat is located and many other factors. We'll still stand by our point that making a fender board is an easy and inexpensive project that can help protect your boat. And it may especially come in handy and reduce hull damage if you cannot haul your boat in a hurricane.

@dang-khoavo4648 4 жыл бұрын

BoatUS agreed! If it floats your boat for you, that’s all that matters. It’s a good idea for certain unique situations/setups...but you also mentioned in your video that fenders alone don’t work in this situation (ie tying off to pilings)...which is simply NOT true (otherwise we’d all be using some fender boards and fender manufacturers would go bankrupt because according to you they’re essentially selling a useless product). I just didn’t want viewers to get the impression they have to go make fender boards if they tie up to pilings.