Make your own from leftover wire
Issue 60 : May/Jun 2008
After i completed some house re-wiring, i had some leftover #6 bare copper wire. I hacksawed a half-dozen pieces, then bent them up using a bench vise and a piece of 1-inch pipe. A friend of mine included them in an order of some parts to be chrome-plated, and the result is shown in the photos. I’m sure they could be fashioned from thinner stainless or bare copper rod. A simple loop of wire provides for easy attachment.
I tested these with bowline knots to get the right length of line, then retied them with a buntline hitch (the bowline knots did work free). The blue tape provides a little encouragement to the knot (see detail in the illustration at right).
Tied to the fender line, a simple twist will attach it to a lifeline. When a higher set is required, the line can be looped over the lifeline and the clip attached to the line splice at the fender head, in effect halving the line.
We have a couple of line-through fenders. For those, we tied a loop on either end of the fender. Clipping to the far loop allows the fender to be deployed horizontally. Vertically, the clip can be attached directly to the lifeline or over the lifeline to the upper loop (as previously described).
A real sailor will just tie his fenders where they’re needed. For the rest of us, these clips are very quick and easy. And they never fail to garner comments from other boaters.
Joe Orinko has sailed the waters of Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie for 26 years, 20 of them in his O’Day 23, and for six seasons on a Catalina 30. Both vessels were named Unicorn.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
