Protecting your hull in the marina: 4 common mistakes
Hulls rarely get damaged at sea. It’s in the marina, moored and unattended, that they collect scratches, gelcoat crazing and black scuff marks. Four mistakes come up on almost every pontoon — all avoidable.
1. Setting fenders once and for all
The most widespread mistake. The perfect height on arrival is no longer right once the tide has moved the contact point, the wind has shifted, or a neighbour has rafted alongside. A fender is not a setting, it’s a permanent adjustment — one more reason the adjustment should cost two seconds at the cleat rather than a knot-tying session.
2. Letting the fender line saw the gelcoat
A line that crosses the lifeline and runs back down along the hull chafes the same spot thousands of times a day. On gelcoat, that ends as a dull groove. Check the line’s path, not just the fender: it should drop vertically, touching neither hull nor rubbing strake.
3. Ignoring the chafe from the hanger itself
Metal hooks and stainless carabiners scratch the lifeline, wear through its PVC sleeve and squeak all night. If your hanging solution attacks the very support it clips to, it moves the problem instead of solving it. That’s a selection criterion in its own right — FENDLOCK’s engineering polymer scratches neither stainless nor sleeve, and doesn’t squeak.
4. Having no plan against loss
A fender dropped during the manoeuvre is €40 to €80 drifting away — and a bare hull until you replace it. FENDLOCK has loss-proofing built in: simply feed the line back through the hanger’s body, and the fender stays with the boat no matter what.
The departure checklist
- Fenders at the actual contact point (push the boat to check)
- Lines vertical, no chafe on the gelcoat
- Hangers that don’t scratch the lifeline
- Loss-proof lock engaged
Four points, two minutes — and the gelcoat will survive the winter.