Fender whips; how important is the spliced loop?

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

We use pre-sliced fender whips, fed through the center of one of our fender styles. Lets us use the loop on one side, as for hanging on a cleat or whatever, when that's useful... but the lines are also long enough so we can usually tie whatever knots or make any bends that are necessary.

I mis-remembered some details. Our pre-spliced "whips" are actually 15' x ½" double-braided dock lines. After the splice, real length is about 13'.

The ½" diameter is a bit of over-kill, but also adds to the stopper knot bulk for our set of four pass-thru-the-center fenders. The splice at the other end acts as a stopper from that direction.

-Chris

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by SecondBase

The guest experience will be no doubt be enhanced through the use of Stu's clips !!

Not a bad idea. I never ask guests to deploy fenders because one out of five times they tie it on with some rat's nest of something that vaguely approximates a knot and takes five minutes to undo.

One reason I don't like tying onto the lifelines is that I've seen too many bent stanchions from a fender getting stuck under the edge of a dock with a rising tide, or similar. Just today saw a boat at the dock with one bent stanchion and the other with the base pulled up from this. On floating docks I'll do it, but otherwise I'm nervous about it.

[John_Trusty]

Forget the eye-splice and just teach everyone to tie a clove hitch on lifelines or toe-rail. The clove hitch is, beyond doubt, the weakest hitch known to man, but in this one case it is perfect - fast to do and undo. If you must leave for a while, add a single half-hitch. I also favor double-lines for horizontal use, and thicker than the standard 1/4" / 6 mm lines as they're hard on the hands.

I've not thought about injury to the stanchions - happens?