Eliminating Bumpers at Your Home Berth

[scareygary]

My boat is only 26', but I"ve tried an experiment that, so far, is working out..... I bought 6 four foot long 'swim noodles' from the Dollar Store for $1 apiece, and slipped them over some 4' pieces of PVC pipe that is 3/4" in diameter. I hung those over the edge of my dock space months ago and tied them against my floating finger....They are NOT in the water like fenders would be. They seem to be protecting my boat just great! And the whole bit cost me about $20. A much larger boat would need something much larger, of course, but, for me, these contraptions seem to be just the ticket!

[swordds]

I carry two inflatable dingy beach rollers. Each is approximately 5’ long so placing two horizontally along the side of my 30’ boat covers the whole side when tying up to most docks. They are very rugged as they are intended for use on pebble beaches, easily inflated and deflated, take up almost no space when deflated, are very light weight and because they are long when laid out horizontally fender boards are not needed when tied against pilings. Plus they have the dual use as beach rollers.

[scareygary]

Not familiar with inflatable dinghy rollers. I'll try a search...but do you have pics?
Thanks....

[swordds]

My inflatable dingy rollers are made by Aere and sold by Duckworks which can also provide a glue-on D ring patch for the inflation valve side, not absolutely necessary but does make them easier to adjust along the side of the boat. I have no association with either company.

[djhsailor]

I've got a 34' sloop with a 11' 3" beam trying to fit into a 13' x 24' finger dock that 's only 12' wide because of misplacement of the pelican pole at its entrance. My fenders would catch and ride up on the end of the dock and on the pelican pole.

I installed Taylor vinyl dock edging on the floating dock, which gives me 6-8" of extra room as compared to my fenders. I put a 9" Taylor inflatable corner mount wheel on the end corner of my floating dock. The pelican pole is still a problem unless the wind is light or head on.

[djhsailor]

My 34' sloop is for sale since I bought the Tartan 40' last May. Fortunately, I have a bigger slip for the Tartan that makes docking a breeze!