We are delighted you have found your way to the best Jet Boaters Forum on the internet! Please consider Signing Up so that you can enjoy all the features and offers on the forum. We have members with boats from all the major manufacturers including Yamaha, Seadoo, Scarab and Chaparral. We don't email you SPAM, and the site is totally non-commercial. So what's to lose? IT IS FREE!
Membership allows you to ask questions (no matter how mundane), meet up with other jet boaters, see full images (not just thumbnails), browse the member map and qualifies you for members only discounts offered by vendors who run specials for our members only! (It also gets rid of this banner!)
My wife and kids have the hardest time tying the fenders correctly, so I found this stuff to make things easier. This stuff is found at any outdoors store and is intended for backpacking, but I think this will work too. It’s like a rigid wire tie, except there’s no wire inside and it’s made of a soft pliable rubber that won’t harm the boat. Bought this (16.4 ft) for only $7 and there’s plenty left for other projects.
Your solution looks to be just substituting a fender whip with this rubber tie-down. I'm not sure how durable that rubber will be long term in the heat and sun.
On my Yamaha's I used two main ways to attach fenders...I also carry six fenders on the boat in two colors - 3/side as described. As a general rule, fenders are set to match the rub-rail height.
White bow benders have a plain fender whip on them. We attach these to the grab rails in the bow and they are basically tied down by looping the fender whip on itself around the bow rail.
At the stern, I've tied a loop into the fender whip of the other two white fenders and then the end of the whip is wrapped around the tower and then tied off using the loop in the whip. The other option is to use a Fender Tender set at the correct height and clip it to the fender whip once it's wrapped around the tower.
For the mid-ship I use two colored fenders with Fender Tenders set for the correct height. The crew knows to set the fender tender at the seam on the windshield. It took me about 3 seasons to go with colored fenders here as it's just a simple way for the crew to sort the fenders (and for me to check as well.
So, I like to frequent 3 different lakes and lots of different marinas at each lake. Nearly each dock I tie up to requires a different fender height, so I need adjustability. I think this will work well. I played with this new material a bit and it seems durable enough for ~10 trips to the lake this next season. If not, I'll spend another $8 to buy more.
These are fantastic, I have a set on my boat. Works well if you frequently tie up at similar height docks. Takes me 30 seconds to deploy and retrieve 4 fenders.
I have simliar "doo-dads" that I use to organize the dock lines. They're kinda rubber coated and have a hard wire inside that is bendable and holds it's shape. Found them on an end cap at the local Home Depot store. Roll up the lines and wrap one of these doo-dads around it to hold it in place. Works great for keeping the gear organized. They get "bread-tied" around the windshield supports, or tower when the lines are deployed.
My wife and kids have the hardest time tying the fenders correctly, so I found this stuff to make things easier. This stuff is found at any outdoors store and is intended for backpacking, but I think this will work too. It’s like a rigid wire tie, except there’s no wire inside and it’s made of a soft pliable rubber that won’t harm the boat. Bought this (16.4 ft) for only $7 and there’s plenty left for other projects.
