Fender Whips

Fender whips are the ropes that hold a fender in position. They attach to the ends of fenders and allow them to lay against the hull at the appropriate position.

The questions that circulate around fender whips tend to involve length and material.

Length is a rather simple you need enough line to lower the fender into position and tie it to the boat. This may sound like an over simplification, but that is the goal of the length. Each boat is different and therefore needs a different length. Keeping this simple target in mind will take all the guesswork out of selecting your fender whips.

The lowest position you will tie a fender is sea level, so the whip needs to be long enough to lower the fender into the water. The other end of the whip needs to tie to the boat. If you have a toe rail that can serve as an attachment point, this will be your upper mark. If you have a smooth rail or teak rail, you will probably need to attach to the railing or lifelines. Now that we know how far the whip must travel to connect the rail to the waterline, we need to add in enough line for the knot. I personally prefer to have 2 feet for the knot, allowing me flexibility and ease of tying. If the line is too short, the knot can be hard to tighten.

In conclusion, the length of the fender whip should be the distance from the rail to the waterline plus two feet. 

If you have a low freeboard sailboat, this distance might only be 1 or 2 feet; making the whip length 3 to 4 feet respectively. If you have a high freeboard boat, such as a Kadey Krogen 58, you will need a much longer whip for the midship fenders.

Sadly, there is no hard and fast rule for fender whip lengths. They need to be made in accordance to what is needed. A whip that is too short is worthless, and a whip that is too long is cumbersome to deal with. The ideal would be the distance from the attachment point to the waterline plus 2 feet.

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The next decision to make involves fender whip material. Once again, the choices are plentiful and ambiguous. Any rope can serve as a fender whip, even spare line you have lying around. 

The common choices are Three Strand Nylon and Double Braid Polyester. Both of these choices are easy to purchase and widely available in any length. Some "dedicated fender whips" come with eyes spliced into one end, allowing you to easily connect it to the fender. These are nice, but a bowline works just as well if you don't have a spliced line and don't feel confident performing the splice yourself.

Both of these choices are easy to come by, but can be rather bulky when you tie them. This is where another alternative material comes into play. You can remove the core from double braid polyester lines and make your fender whip out of the cover. These whips will be plenty strong to hold a fender in place and will not form bulky knots, allowing you to tie them up through small holes in the toe rail with ease. These whips are easy to splice if you wish to make eyes for the fender end.

Now you know how to select the proper length and material for your fender whips.

Rope Fenders are Finished!

The rope fenders are finally finished! 

1st: I had plenty of rope!
2nd: Still had plenty of rope, but made the gaps a bit larger to consume less rope. Greatly improved the tapers at the ends.
3rd: Had plenty of rope. Perfected the tapers on ends of the fenders.
4th: Running out of rope, so I made the gaps much larger to stretch out the available rope. 

Each fender took about 48 hours to make, most of the time was consumed in making the core. The outer cover only took about 4 hours to wrap! This may seem like it goes by quickly, but when you sit on a bench pulling hundreds of feet of rope through the knots for hours on end, it becomes quite the task.

Maddie went to New York to visit some cousins and I stayed in the boat with no distractions to bang out the fenders and it was a success! By the time she returned, I had finished all the fenders and had them out of the cabin space. 

Each fender consumed approximately 500 feet of rope for the core and 280 feet for the cover. I made 4 large fenders and the lot of them consumed 2000 feet of old running rigging for the core, and 1200 feet of rope for the cover.

If you want to make your own or want me to make a fender for you, the amount of rope will vary based on the size of the fender desired and the thickness of the line used.

This project took me 11 weeks to complete! Towards the end, it felt like I would never finish and would forever be tying the knots for the fender's core and cover, this made it all the more satisfying when it came to a conclusion.

The ends of the fenders taper much more gradually, giving a much better appearance to the end of the fender.

The project progressed quickly at first, and then started to drag out. Making the central line for the core was entertaining, making the first few layers to the core progressed at a satisfying pace, then all progressed seemed to halt. Each layer of rope seemed less impressive and the cover seemed to never end!

Maddie was a trooper, living with these behemoths in the small cabin during their constructions. While she preferred time spent with me, she was tired of them taking up so much space and therefore granted me the time I needed to finish the fenders.

First of Four Fenders Finished!

​I've been working on these fenders for some time now. I have sufficiently bulked up all the cores using the old running rigging and began the very slow and tedious process of wrapping them with half hitches. I spent nearly 2 full days (broken up over 4 days) tying the continuous weave that encompasses this fender. 

The knot is slow progressing, but when the line gets chafed and breaks, it makes it easier to mend the fender and restore it to "like new"condition. Simply tie up the whole and bury the tails of all the lines involved.  

This fender is completed, now I just have to do it three more times to finish building our armamentarium of fenders on board Wisdom.  

Rope Fender: Outer Cover

The cores are completed and now begins the very slow and tedious task of weaving the outer cover.

A chain stitch would finish the job delightfully fast, but if one strand broke, the whole thing would unravel. Being how these fenders are designed to take a beating, wrapping them in an easily unraveled stitch seems ridiculous. For this reason, the much slower, but also much more secure stitch of half hitches was decided upon.

Each loop needs to be passed through the holes and pulled through. For this reason, I cut sections of line off the spool of rope, rather than passing 600 feet of rope through each turn.

The number of half hitches per loop can be tailored depending on the size of the fender. If it is getting a bit tight, simply do two half hitches on the same loop. If it is looking a bit loose, skip one of the loops and bring tighten it up. If you need to add or subtract a significant number of half hitches, it is best to evenly space out the differences. This way the fender will appear more uniform rather than looking like a chunk got cut out of it.

Progress has been slow, but the results make it worthwhile. It has roughly taken me around 1 hour per foot with this stitch. I hope I will pick up speed as the project progresses!

Rope Fenders: Completed Core

The rope fenders are finally bulked up and ready for test fitting. Rope fenders of this size are very time consuming to make but they offer many serious advantages over inflatable fenders. 

They will not pop
They serve the purpose of fender and fender board
They will not fly away in the breeze
They will close the hole in the gate to keep Morty (our boat dog) from sliding out

The core is completed, but the outside covering needs to be tied. The process of tying the cover over the core will continue to bulk up the fender even further. It is easiest to hang the fender from a halyard and work on it standing, but it has been rather cold these past few days; delaying the completion.