love me fender

I need fenders to protect Eve's sides, particularly when sliding in and out of locks. The bottom plates of the hull stick out slightly from the sides, and a welded seam runs along the join. The part that sticks out is called the chine. It protects the weld. In time, that chine wears away through abrasion; if it wears deeply enough, the weld might be chafed away, and then the hull will leak. Fenders help reduce the amount of contact that the hull undergoes.

So I looked on Ebay, and found that the best deal I could get was for some produced by Avon Tyres, not a mile from where I'm moored, in Melksham. I cycled past the old RAF base there a while back, and saw that the hangars were full of tyres, and great racks of them on the tarmac where once the roar of the Merlin would have been heard).

But I couldn't just go and buy them over the counter (or perimeter fence). So Jan in Holt kindly took delivery of them, and I cycled over and picked them up. This morning I started putting them in place.

For the low hitching point, the rope that came with the fender was too long; so I spliced the surplus onto the one destined for a higher hitch.

Two done, four to go.