How to tie boat fenders or boat bumpers - and why we need them!

How to tie a boat bumper or boat fender. Fenders for your boat (or boat bumpers) are something we should all know how to use properly. I show you how to tie a fender knot properly, fender etiquette, and explain times where we need boat bumpers and why we use boat fenders.

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:30 History of boat fenders
02:59 Boat fender etiquette
06:06 How to properly tie a boat fender

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#boatfender #boatbumper #tieboatfender

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[WayneTheBoatGuy]

If you just need to know how to tie the knot on the rail! 06:06

[darrylmcleman]

One old gent here in Western Canada ( Vancouver Island) used to take regular walks along the spit and he would find fenders washed up on the beach.He would take them to local sporting goods store where they hung on the fence for folk to take for free.One more good reason to put them up on board before travelling! Cheers

[rotfan]

Wayne, thanks for the video. Since a lot of us don’t have rails all around our boat or at least at the back, I saw one guy use a piece of PVC in his rod holder with a cap on it so the rope didn’t slip off. I thought it was kind of an ingenious idea but then you have to have that piece of PVC possibly hanging on the inside of your boat when you’re not using it. But if you’re not going fishing that day I guess they could just sit in the rod holders and you can just hang the bumper in or out.

[hideawaysailing]

Another awesome video because I had no clue how to properly tie the fender lines to the boat thanks again Wayne 👍

[ianb]

RYA standard knot method is a "round turn & 2 half hitches" because they resist the mishaps that are common with clove hitch or a cow hitch like the one you've tied (it's a girth hitch if both ends are constantly loaded but you've only loaded one side here). I treating how you point one here how easy it is to adjust the height of a fender with your knot because that's exactly what happens if the fender is set for long and there's loosening/loading of the line due to rolling - and then the fender is free. It's also far more likely to happen when the line diameter is much smaller than the rail diameter as in your example. How do I know? I lost one fender departing Cartegena in Spain that way, where I'd tied that one to the pushpit rail rather than the usual safety rail which is made of ss cable, not thick tubing. I saw it go but it was not safe for me to recover it at the time.

If you have a small, flattish boat which won't roll, the fenders are small and the time involved is short then just maybe. But that comment about "bring the fenders up quickly" might be to avoid losing them rather than about being "embarrassed".

Where I'm coming from here is that my boat is a 38 foot sailing cruiser, weighing about 9 tonnes. I'm currently in Panama on my way to Australia. She's a handful in close quarters with wind around. My fenders are massive compared with your's and the lines are much heavier too. When docked, the main danger is caused by rolling btw, so a clove hitch or a cow hitch works loose inevitably.. I also sail mostly single-handed so there's no way I run about the deck pulling up fenders until I'm safely outside nowhere near other boats; my priority is to the boat, not to the fenders.

But that's why RYA teaches "round turn & 2 half hitches", plus variations because it works on small, light, flat boats but also on bigger, heavier boats that easily roll. Give it a try maybe.

ps. the reason for the edit was that I first wrote "round hitch...", rather than "round turn" - sorry.

[gillesgomez]

Hi Wayne, I know I'm a bit late as this video was published long ago but I discovered your channel recently.
Anyway, this is an interesting way to tie fenders. Much faster and easier than the way I'm using. Quite handy, especially for a temporary mooring.

Anyway, speaking about car fenders, in french we do also call them "wings" (ailes). As for fenders we call them "pare-battage" which means literally "shock preventer".

[andyl]

Thanks, very helpful video and loved the history and etiquette too

[ConchasDad]

Only about 8min too long but the 1 min of actually showing how to tie a finder was awesome.

[sdcofer]

A clove hitch is the preferred knot for tying off a fender.

[AnimalScienceTV]

I call those fenders. Wayne the guitar guy! And I would consider the rub rail the bumper. The drag is why you pull it up, if u had like 4 fenders on 1 side only it would change your steering like dragging an oar. And waste fuel :) oh well my fenders were big enough that they hit the water... do yours?

[ronbaker]

I have seen you tie on motored boats and clove hitch on sailboats. Not sure this means anything other than just observation. As a sailer, I see the benefit of the clove.

[cathygertz]

Hey Wayne, what part of Maryland are you from? I live in Carroll County but grew up in Baltimore County where I spent my summers on the water with my dad. I just bought my first boat in May and finally just finished getting it ready for the water. Plan to launch this weekend. Thanks for the fender guidance and I plan to rope mine up tomorrow. Maybe we'll see one another on the water!!

[Jethr]

What knot should you use to tie the rope to the fender if you dont have a 4’ section of rope with a loop?

[johnsimms]

Hey Wayne love your sign. I am old enough to remember a single lane 301 in charles county . My mother rented rooms to the workers as they were adding the dual lanes to 301 . Love the boat videos as I grew up on an island eryclose to 301.

[player]

weren't you a guitar player in Cheap Trick?

[goateemike]

Maybe change the name of the video. “How to stretch a 10 second video out to 9 minutes and 20 seconds

[rexnicious]

I leave my fenders out when i'm sailing more often than not. I consider myself to be self actualized.

[kirstyjjamieson]

In Australia we call them bumpers on cars

[taylorstock]

Any boat/vessel should pull in bumpers/fenders on board due to the conditions of the water. Not losing them to a large and or continuous waves is a pretty good reason.

[FRDETsdfs]

Need to get to the point sooner - how
to tie the knot.