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Do you keep your fenders down in canal locks?


Rambling Boater

Do you keep your fenders down in canal locks?  

106 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you keep your fenders down in canal locks?

    • Yes
      14
    • No
      92


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We've just cut our rubber ones off, which came with the boat. Meant to do it ages ago, and finally got around to it after a Narrowboat Experience video where things went a bit wrong. I see value in the big floaty ones, which you can take on and off. But only for when moored as that is when another boat normally hits us. For cruising I don't see the point, we're not going to be boiling big pots of water whilst moving along...

  • Greenie 1
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Once -upon-a-time it was the perceived wisdom NOT to travel / work locks with fenders down for obvious reasons.

Now even hexperts break the rules / sensible guidance.

 

You jus can't get the right sort of boaters nowadays

 

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Fenders should only be used when mooring and should be stowed at all other times.

23 minutes ago, RichM said:

Only kept them down on wide canals with double locks at least. 

I trust you open both gates to stop them catching ;)

  • Greenie 1
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My are always up whether we are on broad or narrow canals. I saw a boat get completely hung up with rope fenders down at Gailey. The boat was suspended in the lock nowhere near the water!! Fortunately when the lock was refilled the boat refloated - the fenders were then taken off. The guy was lucky - had it been at one of the really narrow locks like Filance he could have been stuck for hours!!

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Always up when cruising for us, i've seen someone wedged in one of the locks on heartbreak hill with those rubber pipe fenders.

 

i blame builders who add those eyelets below the gunwales for encouraging this. seen a few folk cruising with pipe fenders balanced on the gunwales too (briefly)

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1 minute ago, Hudds Lad said:

 

 

i blame builders who add those eyelets below the gunwales for encouraging this. seen a few folk cruising with pipe fenders balanced on the gunwales too (briefly)

That is something else I cant understand, I find I often need to hang the fenders at different places unless moored to a dead straight pontoon like tonight and then they can go anywhere 

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Never when cruising. Apart from serving zero purpose (ok maybe from not having to stow them if you have a bad back), it can hang you up, you look silly ( think furry twin dice dangling from a car rearview mirror) ..... it's a hazard for others if they drop off.

 

 

Edited by mark99
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2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I take mine up before I set off and they don't go down again until the bow and stern ropes are round the bollards or through the rings

methinks you're in a minority of one - or two - guess who the other one is.. Locks may be built/maintained to a standard, but that doesn't allow  for bulging walls, wany sides, or sticky out bricks.

Too often good practice gives way to with what you can get away... (Correct grammar is a pain...) 

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3 minutes ago, mark99 said:

Nb There is nothing stopping anyone when moored dropping a mooring pin and fender  where there is a bulge in the bank if you cannot drop one off the handrail.

 

 

Just what I've done today.

  • Greenie 1
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1 hour ago, OldGoat said:

methinks you're in a minority of one - or two - guess who the other one is.. Locks may be built/maintained to a standard, but that doesn't allow  for bulging walls, wany sides, or sticky out bricks.

Too often good practice gives way to with what you can get away... (Correct grammar is a pain...) 

I thought I was with 95% and a little bit

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6 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Depends on the boat to some extent. I wouldn't have fenders down on a narrowboat but I've never had any problems doing it on my widebeam in broad locks. 

 

It's a mistake to assume we're all on the same type of boat.

Are widebeams more fragile then. Mind you looking at the other post on here with the welding maybe fenders should be used more often.

  • Greenie 1
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