FENDERS

They ain’t buoys, and don’t call ’em bumpers.

Let’s start there. These are fenders, and they should only be used while the boat is moored or rafted with others. It is unsafe to leave them hanging over the side when underway—and it marks an amateur boater. They could slap a boater’s face if a wave slings one back inboard.

You won’t likely need a fender while solitarily on the hook— that’s at anchor, for those of you who might have called any of these a buoy. And then there’s the exception to the nomenclature rule for ball fenders. Polyform and TaylorMade call them ball buoys, but Google finds them when you call them ball fenders. They replace the glass-net floats that Japanese fishermen once used and that still sometimes wash up on beaches—those were called net buoys. Boat terminology is more confusing than the English language. So, if anybody gives you a hard time about this, call ’em ball… never mind.

About half the time, a barrelshaped fender does the job, but when you need something a little different, trying to force a barrel to do the job is just too much trouble. So, here are some cool fenders, along with a comparative look at their uses and some tips on how to get the best service from them.