Give your fenders a smart new pair of socks
Issue 27: Nov/Dec 2002
BOAT FENDERS ARE FUNCTIONAL. They are not meant to be fashionable. We remove them the instant we leave the dock, don’t we? And yet . . .
Our boat spends a great deal of time wearing her fenders at the dock while awaiting our return. I was uncomfortable with the appearance of our ugly tar- and mildew-stained fenders. After we painted the topsides a couple of seasons ago I covered the fenders with terrycloth to protect the paint job. That navy blue terrycloth faded within a month and was drab indeed by the end of the first season.
Naturally my ears perked up when I learned of a new material called BoatBlanket from Sailrite’s Connie Grant. “It’s immune to mildew, and it’s colorfast,” she said. “Velcro fastens it together. There’s no hemming.”
I ordered a yard of navy-blue material. The sewing project took part of one day. I cut four rectangles to size, sewed Velcro teeth down the long end, sewed darts at the top and bottom of each, and “zipped” a cover on each fender using the Velcro hooks and the woolly side of the BoatBlanket.
Cost of the project? Less than buying new fenders. And less than buying fender covers. The BoatBlanket costs $18.95 a yard and comes in 6-foot widths. The job took a yard. Another 10 feet of Velcro material cost another $10.64. So for $29.59 (and some shipping costs), I created four fender covers.
We’ve used the fenders for a season, and they have not faded. The material looks as good as the day it arrived in the box. (By the way, Sailrite is amazing when it comes to delivery; I’d hardly hung up the phone, when the box arrived at my door. It couldn’t have been more than two days at the most.)
One thing to be aware of: because it is like the woolly side of Velcro, the material is very good at picking up splinters from docks, but these aren’t hard to remove and haven’t been a problem for the boat finish or the good looks of the fenders.
What else is BoatBlanket good for? It can be wrapped around pilings to keep them from marring a boat. It could pad docksides, sling straps, trailer pads, and ladder ends that are propped against a boat on stands. The list is as long as your ingenuity will allow.
Come to think of it, I’ve got a few scraps left over.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
