Best tender sheerstrake padding products?

[JimConlin]

It seems that Taylor Made has changed their product and is now selling the Perimeter product mentioned above.
533205-polyester-gunnel-guard-dock-guard-three-quarter-round_0.jpg
It’s made from a tube of polyester canvas surrounding a 3/4 rod of a soft plastic foam. The kind pool noodles are made from. The foam is enclosed in the canvas sleeve but is not stuck to it in any way, so if it gets bumped the wrong way, it doesn’t stay in position. Just looks lumpy, kinda like a skinny woman whose corset is two sizes too large. Doesn’t maintain the desired effect. I’d used this product on a boat many years ago and will not again.

The earlier product, which was a firmer rubber foam securely vulcanized to a polyester canvas I can now find only at Hamilton Marine. They told me that they found another manufacturer for it. This looks like the right stuff.

Price is $11.99.ft.
9CC6BF3E-9223-4711-9687-57E6AE6313BB.png
I’m fitting out a skiff which a neighbor gave me and using the good stuff from Hamilton will more than double my investment in the boat, but I don’t know of another good alternative. Does anyone know more?
Jim

[rbgarr]

Jim, Hamilton's 3/4 and 1/2 round canvas or dacron covered guard sometimes goes on sale in the spring. Get on their mailing list for sale notifications. And if you're a Seatow member you get 10% off anyway except for really $$ items like electronics.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

I used the same "heavy Duty" outdoor carpet I use on my boat's trailer bunks, nail fastened with copper ring-shank nails. Aesthetic value is "good" (not "best" perhaps) but it's lasted almost ten yrs on our Eastport Pram.

[Garret]

Wow! Hasn't that gone up! 3/4 round is 10.59/ft @ Hamilton's right now. Guess the new dinghy will be getting something else.

[rbgarr]

The CLC fender kit for the Eastport pram is $13/ft plus shipping....

[AndanteEd]

I once heard of someone using an old canvas fire hose for this. If memory serves me right it had a rope threaded through it and it was then wired to the gunwhale as if it was a rope fender.

Hose.jpg

A quick google found this 1" double-jacket hose. About $ 70 for 50'.

I reckon it'd be considerably cheaper if your local fire department is having a bit of a clean-out...

[Paul Schweiss]

I once heard of someone using an old canvas fire hose for this. If memory serves me right it had a rope threaded through it and it was then wired to the gunwhale as if it was a rope fender.

Hose.jpg

A quick google found this 1" double-jacket hose. About $ 70 for 50'.

I reckon it'd be considerably cheaper if your local fire department is having a bit of a clean-out...

Real fire hose was the original product used to cover dinghy gunwales and swimstep edges to protect from scuffing.

[JimConlin]

I once heard of someone using an old canvas fire hose for this. If memory serves me right it had a rope threaded through it and it was then wired to the gunwhale as if it was a rope fender.

Hose.jpg

A quick google found this 1" double-jacket hose. About $ 70 for 50'.

I reckon it'd be considerably cheaper if your local fire department is having a bit of a clean-out...

Has anyone seen fore hose installed in a way that provided effective cushioning both outward and upward and wasn’t a complete PITA to install?
The stuff made with rubber foam vulcanized to canvas flaps was introduced in the 1970’s and I’ve only seen a few attempts as using fire hose for dinghy rail since.

[Breakaway]

^Typically--or, at least how I have seen firehose used--was for a dock bumper not a gunwale guard. The he hose was looped every foot and fastened between the loops. The hose loops provided the cushion. Imagine:

U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U


Kevin

[Bill Perkins]

A freind is thinking about the rope route but I understand Ben's discription of the desireability of padding the top of the rail as well as well as the side when aproaching finely finniished yauchts . I've come apon an interesting 5 strand Plat Sinnet in ABOK , #2988 : "as this requires no tucking under and over , it builds very rapidly".
https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1649609305

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/render...&ts=1649467847



You could start in the middle and work both ways with ,say, 10 feet of line on each for a big pram . The stems of biggger wooden boats also form a natural break point half way .Or a seperate bow fender can placed over the joint . Ashley shows a couple of 5 strand knob knots that might be placed just overlapping the transom , with a screw into it .

The sinnet is unique in that it forms a U shape .For Ashly this was an irrelevance . He expected the user to flatten the sinnet out to be used as any French Sinnet would be ,but for our current purpose the u shape is an advantage . I've made up a piece with some 5/16ths inch line . The braid is centered on the corner of the sheer strake and covers 5/8ths inch on either side . This leaves plenty of edge distance between a screw sent through an outer bight of the braid and the corner . I used # 4 flat hd screws 3 inch on center and the braid is really stuck on there . I'd look for brass or bronze truss heads for the real thing I think .

Posh spun polyester comes in some nice colors . Black ,hemp,navy blue, red, and grey I like . Black nylon is cheaper.

[wizbang 13]

I lam a piece of soft wood, AYC usually ,to the outside and disc it roundish.
Then leave it un painted/varnished, BARE WOOD.
Soft bare wood will not ding up others topsides, and it does its' job without adding 15 pounds of rot causing crap and screw holes.
That stuff can backfire on you, getting hung up on docks, other boats, catching stuff on deck.

[JimConlin]

I’ve just gotten some gunwale guard from Hamilton Marine.
The good stuff. Their SKU 134053. It’s an excellent product. And I don’t that it’s available elsewhere.
For small boats that need effective gunwale cushioning, I don’t think there’s another effective solution.

[Bill Perkins]

My freind got rid of his inflatable and got a pretty sail and oar boat for his tender .He's now fallen in love with it and hates to spoil her sheerline with the store bought stuff .He could go either way .

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

This is what Des Pawson taught me to do:

1. Measure round the gunwales at the point where the rope will go. It is important that the length is round the gunwales but an inch clear of them and finishes with a gap of about four inches between start and finish on the transom.

2. Get that much three inch diameter coir rope. Note the coir rope - it’s very light and very durable.

3. Make a length of small 1x19 stainless wire - say 3mm diameter - of exactly the right length - this is crucial - and make small hard eyes in each end.

4. The clever bit: get the wire rope into the middle of the coir rope, with the two hard eyes just protruding.

5. Point the ends of the coir down to the wire eyes. Allow about six inches or so so that the coir turns the corners of the transom before the pointing starts.

6. Stretch the fender round the boat in the right place and lash the two ends with a lashing between the wire eyes.

7. With a very small drill bit and either some heavy copper wire or Monel seizing wire seize the fender to the gunwale once a foot or so, passing the wire through the voir but round the wire core of the fender.

The clever bit is that the hidden wire rope keeps the fender taut.

The dinghy in the picture is forty years old and this is her second fender.

[Bill Perkins]

Thanks Andrew ;that's very interesting .We need big Coir and Des Pawson over here .We do have large diameter polypropylene .

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Thanks Andrew ;that's very interesting .We need big Coir and Des Pawlson over here .We do have large diameter polypropylene .

Bill - someone somewhere will have big coir rope. I don’t need to tell you not to use polypropylene under any circumstances - it is much less durable than coconut husk and you just end up putting microplastics in the sea!

[Bob Cleek]

The canvas over foam stuff works very well, but it does have its aesthetic limitations. I've come to prefer the "Full Hornblower" treatment. It's a lot less expensive, too!

[JimConlin]

If a tender visits a bigger boat that has significant flare or overhang in its topsides, the tender’s gunwales need to cushion contact from the side and FROM ABOVE. I have yet to see a rope or coir based gunwale cushion that effectively deals with contact from above. They may look pretty, but for some boats, they don’t work.
A boat like this certainly needs a gunwale treatment that cushions from above.