Inexpensive boat protection...a fender board.

Keeping your boat from bouncing off a dock piling while moored can be a problem. I have seen some very creative ways of tying boat bumpers to boats and pilings to solve the problem. An easy fix is to use a simple fender board. Two boat bumpers and a board is all that is needed.

Women are more creative when it comes to tying boat bumpers to boats and docks and coming up with things to use as bumpers. Some that I have seen were elaborate and they worked to prevent boat damage.  One of the most impressive bumpers was one made from a large mesh bag filled with capped plastic bottles. There were soda bottles, water bottles, juice bottles, and any plastic bottle she could find. She called it her recycled green boat bumper.  It did work well, but the crackling crunching sound was unreal. It worked so well that the rest of us near her boat gave her bumpers so she would retire her crackling one. She was not so dumb.

To make a bumper set-up that protects the boat from a piling, all you need is two standard boat bumpers and a board.  The bumpers are attached to the boat so they would be on either side of the piling. A board that is longer than the distance between the two bumpers is hung over them so the ends of the board rest against the bumpers and the middle rests the piling. The boat can move a little forward or backward and up and down and the board rubs the piling and the board is kept off the boat by the spaced bumpers.  It is cheap and it works and it is quick to set up.

First find a board to use as a fender.  Drill two holes in the board, one at each end of the board. Tie a line through each of the holes. These lines will be used to tie the fender board to the boat. Next tie two regular boat bumpers to the boat, so they would be on either side of where the piling would rest on the boat. Now tie the fender board to the boat so it is between the piling and the boat bumpers. The boat bumpers keep the fender board away from the boat, and the piling rubs the fender board. This is a cheap and easy way to protect the boat.