Gilbert Park gets creative with fenders and corks

Black balled

The regulations state: ‘A vessel at anchor shall exhibit where it can best be seen in the forepart one (black) ball’. There are a variety of folding black balls but they have to be put together, tied on and hoisted. On a motorboat finding a place to display them can be problematic as

preserving wiper blades

Windscreen wiper blades suffer from being left unprotected during the ravages of winter or degraded by the UV during the bright sunshine of summer. An earlier tip in PBO suggested putting the blades into insulation tubing used in central heating. This works well, protecting against rain, dirt and degradation from UV, but there is still pressure on the blade in the tubing that there is no forward rigging. I have observed this often leads to the day sign not being displayed by vessels at anchor. A much easier way is to have a black ball fender and display this in the forepart of the boat.

It’s quick and easy to fit and remove: if you need a new fender this is the one to buy as it’s dual purpose. can cause it to distort. As well as using the tubing I have been taking the pressure off the blades by using a spacer between the screen and the wiper arm (making sure no windscreen washer tubes are resting on it). The ideal spacers for my boat are corks from fizzy wine.