Side fenders on hire boats

[One day]

Hi All,

 

My first post here but I have found the conversations here both fun and educational (even those about boating!).

 

We have had many enjoyable cruises over the years on lots of different boats and waterways and are hoping for a half-decent bit of weather next week for a trip south on the Oxford aboard the UCC NB Cheviot.

 

One thing I have noted is that hire boats don't seem to come with side fenders any more. When I asked at the Ashby Boat Co last year they said "We don't bother now - they just get or lost caught up". Is it worth asking any more?

 

I do miss them on a breezy night when moored against metal pilings - I'm thinking about bringing my own - it's a start towards boat ownership

[RichardH]

We used to provide them on all boats all of the time but despite always asking people to lift them before cruising the boats would come back with 2/3 fenders missing costing us each time.

 

We now have a policy to provide if asked but emphasise that if they are lost they will be charged for.

[deletedaccount]

We used to provide them on all boats all of the time but despite always asking people to lift them before cruising the boats would come back with 2/3 fenders missing costing us each time.

 

We now have a policy to provide if asked but emphasise that if they are lost they will be charged for.

 

Most of the hireboats round here don't have them and I've had several chats with hireboaters moaning about the banging when they're moored up. Could you make them optional and put a deposit on them? Although it doesn't solve the "getting jammed in the lock" problem.

[Athy]

Welcome, Mr. Day! You obviously are not the person that I first thought you were. North of Cropredy lies a narrowboat with the name "One Day" roughly scrawled on the side - the implication being, I assume, that one day he'll get round to having the signwriting properly done. I thought that might have been your boat, but on reading the text I see that it's not so as you do not yet have a boat.

Never mind, ....one day!

[deletedaccount]

Welcome, Mr. Day! You obviously are not the person that I first thought you were. North of Cropredy lies a narrowboat with the name "One Day" roughly scrawled on the side - the implication being, I assume, that one day he'll get round to having the signwriting properly done. I thought that might have been your boat, but on reading the text I see that it's not so as you do not yet have a boat.

Never mind, ....one day!

 

There's one round here called "still thinking"

[One day]

Yes we will be owners one day - we have been doing at least a week a year (usually early or late season) for a few years and I reckon we are close to spending as much on this as keeping our own narrowboat. Just have to find the purchase money - unlikely before we get a couple of kids through uni. Anyway hiring is great way of seeing lots of different waterways.

 

Until then our boat is an old Enterprise sailing dinghy although I tempted to build a folding, trailable camping punt.

[muddywaters]

Anglo Welsh have side fenders on their boats for when moored against metal pilings.

Well the 2 different Anglo Welsh boats we have hired the last 2 years have anyway

[Chertsey]

We used to provide them on all boats all of the time but despite always asking people to lift them before cruising the boats would come back with 2/3 fenders missing costing us each time.

 

We now have a policy to provide if asked but emphasise that if they are lost they will be charged for.

That sounds very sensible as many people take the lessons theynlearn from hiring into boat ownership. If side fenders, permanently attached, both sides, are presented as 'normal' then people will assume that they are the right thing to have.

Surely there is scope for hire companies to educate people in the correct use of side fenders by supplying two detachable ones with clear instructions that they are only for use when moored.

[NickF]

Hi All,

 

My first post here but I have found the conversations here both fun and educational (even those about boating!).

 

We have had many enjoyable cruises over the years on lots of different boats and waterways and are hoping for a half-decent bit of weather next week for a trip south on the Oxford aboard the UCC NB Cheviot.

 

One thing I have noted is that hire boats don't seem to come with side fenders any more. When I asked at the Ashby Boat Co last year they said "We don't bother now - they just get or lost caught up". Is it worth asking any more?

 

I do miss them on a breezy night when moored against metal pilings - I'm thinking about bringing my own - it's a start towards boat ownership

 

My family laugh at me because I take a pair of side fenders with me when I hire a boat .. (one of them found broken and repaired and one of them bought) ... makes for a much better nights sleep against a metal piling on a windy night ... glad I am not the only one sad enough to travel with his own fenders!

[Athy]

a folding, trailable camping punt.

....as long as you don't try saying it after a few pints of Old Navigation Ale.

[Guest]

Hi All,

 

My first post here but I have found the conversations here both fun and educational (even those about boating!).

 

We have had many enjoyable cruises over the years on lots of different boats and waterways and are hoping for a half-decent bit of weather next week for a trip south on the Oxford aboard the UCC NB Cheviot.

 

One thing I have noted is that hire boats don't seem to come with side fenders any more. When I asked at the Ashby Boat Co last year they said "We don't bother now - they just get or lost caught up". Is it worth asking any more?

 

I do miss them on a breezy night when moored against metal pilings - I'm thinking about bringing my own - it's a start towards boat ownership

 

We used to hire extensively before owning and I can't recall ever hiring a NB with side fenders to be honest. On the Broads was different (and yes we ripped one off a Barnes Brinkcraft boat ).

 

They also risk the whole boat not just a fender if an in-experienced hirer hangs the boat up in a narrow lock on them.

[Darren72]

Hi All,

 

My first post here but I have found the conversations here both fun and educational (even those about boating!).

 

We have had many enjoyable cruises over the years on lots of different boats and waterways and are hoping for a half-decent bit of weather next week for a trip south on the Oxford aboard the UCC NB Cheviot.

 

One thing I have noted is that hire boats don't seem to come with side fenders any more. When I asked at the Ashby Boat Co last year they said "We don't bother now - they just get or lost caught up". Is it worth asking any more?

 

I do miss them on a breezy night when moored against metal pilings - I'm thinking about bringing my own - it's a start towards boat ownership

 

 

As ex hirers and new first time owners for less than a month. Do what I have done recently. Go to your local karting tracking and get 2 old front tyres. They should gladly give them away. Drop them down the side of the boat before you moor up against pilings or uneven banks. Dont forget to tie a small bit of rope around/thru it. Either tie it to the boat or piling

[ditchcrawler]

Welcome, Mr. Day! You obviously are not the person that I first thought you were. North of Cropredy lies a narrowboat with the name "One Day" roughly scrawled on the side - the implication being, I assume, that one day he'll get round to having the signwriting properly done. I thought that might have been your boat, but on reading the text I see that it's not so as you do not yet have a boat.

Never mind, ....one day!

I often wondered about that boat.

 

We used to hire extensively before owning and I can't recall ever hiring a NB with side fenders to be honest. On the Broads was different (and yes we ripped one off a Barnes Brinkcraft boat ).

 

They also risk the whole boat not just a fender if an in-experienced hirer hangs the boat up in a narrow lock on them.

Not many locks on the Broads that you can take a hire boat through. I once met a Canal Time boat where they had been told never to take the slab plastic fenders up. Being experienced they lifted them at every lock

[bottle]

Yes we will be owners one day - we have been doing at least a week a year (usually early or late season) for a few years and I reckon we are close to spending as much on this as keeping our own narrowboat. Just have to find the purchase money - unlikely before we get a couple of kids through uni. Anyway hiring is great way of seeing lots of different waterways.

 

Until then our boat is an old Enterprise sailing dinghy although I tempted to build a folding, trailable camping punt.

 

 

:lol: I doubt it.

 

 

ps. Welcome to the forum

[RichardH]

I doubt it too

 

We had a lovely couple 2 years ago who now hire for 6 weeks per year after owning a boat for many years

 

Why?

 

- It is cheaper than moorings/depreciation/licencing/bss/maintenance etc etc

- If something breaks a chap comes out and sorts it

- Different area each year often on a nice new boat

[alan_fincher]

Wyvern Shipping boats certainly still are sent out with pipe fenders.

 

When I worked there 40 odd years ago, we used to make it very clear they were for mooring only. Any missing on return were deducted from a deposit.

 

I don't know what they tell them now, but I regularly see them boated with them dangling.

[saltysplash]

Wyvern Shipping boats certainly still are sent out with pipe fenders.

 

When I worked there 40 odd years ago, we used to make it very clear they were for mooring only. Any missing on return were deducted from a deposit.

 

I don't know what they tell them now, but I regularly see them boated with them dangling.

 

I can confirm that, Took our first ever canal boat holiday on Amethyst in 1976, during handover my dad asked what the Nuts, cut in half and welded onto the gunnel were for, and they explained to hang the fenders but only for mooring.

[Jus73]

For some reason this season we've got through a huge amount of side fenders. Like the Ashby Boat co we'll also be removing the side fenders from a couple of our boats to see if this makes any difference to the normal wear and tear during the season. I suspect that the removal of the fenders wont make a huge difference - however we'll still supply hanging fenders for mooring to ensure a quiets night sleep more than everything else!

Justin

[IanM]

Anglo Welsh have side fenders on their boats for when moored against metal pilings.

Well the 2 different Anglo Welsh boats we have hired the last 2 years have anyway

 

Probably not consistent over the whole fleet as the two we've had this year haven't

[wannabe]

Just back from a short break on the L&L canal with Snaygill Boats

Ours had rope type fenders

Afraid to say I did forget to lift them a couple of times

Luckily no damage done

And the holiday was a real break

[Minos]

Surely there is scope for hire companies to educate people in the correct use of side fenders by supplying two detachable ones with clear instructions that they are only for use when moored.

There are hire companies that do this: Wyvern, as has already been mentioned.

 

To be perfectly frank, isn't there something important you can worry about?

 

When we bought our boat I saw the mismatched side fenders and thought, "They are going." Five months later and I still havent got round to removing them. Or replacing the knackered button fenders. Why? Because when I'm not mending important things, I'm putting the kettle on and looking for biscuits.

[bizzard]

Frankly the hire boat companies could quite easily make loads of side fenders very very cheaply by the rope and rubber hose method,and suspended them high up so that they are free to roll along say lock walls and escape most of the time anyway from being torn off.I personally wouldn't be too pleased at all banging about against Armco or stone coping without any.

And surely the use of them would save the hire companies the trouble of touching up the paint at change over tine.

Those dopey permanently suspended low down ones i think are a great idea, as i collect them and flog em on cheap.

[Spesh]

No fenders when we hired in early September (the week which had a couple of very windy days). Improvised by half filling a couple of 2L water bottles and putting the caps on and then tying on through the drain holes on the hand rail. Bit noisy when the plastic creaked, but still a lot better than crashing against the concrete/steel.

 

Ironically on the way down to Stratford we were held up by a boat which was jammed in the entrance to a lock because it had fenders down. Our plastic bottles may have looked a bit silly, but at least we knew how to use them!

[regular boater]

We've found rubber pipe fenders suspended from the roof on tough man made fibre lines suspended through small fairleads are fine and rarely part company. In locks they roll up the sides of the boat without undue stretch. Conversely fenders suspended from the gunwhales are on much shorter lines and break more easily in narrow locks. Our fenders are down all the time - they protect the sides and reduce the noise at overnight moorings. The only place we had to raise them was on the Hurleston flight (Llangollen), because the locks are so narrow - the lock keeper insisted.

[FadeToScarlet]

We've found rubber pipe fenders suspended from the roof on tough man made fibre lines suspended through small fairleads are fine and rarely part company.

 

They won't part company at all if you only use them when moored

 

In locks they roll up the sides of the boat without undue stretch. Conversely fenders suspended from the gunwhales are on much shorter lines and break more easily in narrow locks. Our fenders are down all the time - they protect the sides and reduce the noise at overnight moorings. The only place we had to raise them was on the Hurleston flight (Llangollen), because the locks are so narrow - the lock keeper insisted.

 

But if they're rolling up the side of the boat, they're not protecting it anyway. You might as well take them off completely and eliminate the risk of hanging your boat up in the lock entirely.

 

That's not to say that I'm against side fenders in locks completely- it depends on the circumstances. The locks round here on the Ouse and Nene have "safety" chains along the walls, which can catch the edge of the baseplate of a narrowboat and hang it up. A round moped tyre or similar will hold the boat away from the wall so it doesn't get caught- and is wide enough to not get caught behind the chain, unlike pipe fenders.

 

But the locks are mostly 15' wide, and there's no danger of jamming which there would be in a narrow lock, or a wide lock if you're not careful.