Fenders

Not the metal/plastic things on the front/rear of vehicles, but the dangly
things on the side of boats.

We take holidays, each year, on narrowboats. A hangover from the building
of canals here in the UK some 200 years ago, before the railways.

These boats are peculiar to the (mainly) English narrow canal system. They
are up to 70 feet long, and just under 7 feet wide. The boats are built of
steel and weigh between 10 and 20 tons.

So much for the scene setting, now the problem.

The boats that we use are not supplied with fenders. The fenders serve two
purposes, cutting down on bumping noises when moored up for the night, and
protecting plastic boats from damage. Nothing much hurts a narrowboat. In
the past I have made some up using plastic water pipe, but having seen some
really good rope fenders in a shop during our last trip I have resolved to
try making four rope fenders.

Google, as always, provides thousands of hits, but they mostly want to sell
me stuff. Two sites with instructions gloss over the tricky bits.

http://www.the-iron-dutchess.com/ropefenders/

http://home.tiscali.nl/knotsandknottying/ropefender.htm

So, the big question, can anyone supply further websites please?

Regards to all from sunny Hampshire

Pete