Ranger Tug R27 Docking: Fender Placement, Line Management, and the Lasso Trick

[Submariner]

With boating season about to begin and a lot of new boats out there I thought I'd share this with the community.

The R27 comes with four fenders. We run six, and we deploy both sides before we even know which slip we're getting.
This is our complete fender and line setup: where everything mounts, how it deploys, and the one mistake that will put you in the water.

 

[cliffm]

We also added (2) fenders almost immediately (total of 6) keeping them in the same spots. We store a third white one (leftover from previous boat) with a 2M whip, that has been deployed to deal with additional obstacles and or rafting challenges.

 

[Todd Tugnut]

I learned a long time ago to use a “walking fender” in tight spots. Have your crewman have a fender on a whip handy. If your boat starts to contact something you don’t want it to, put the fender in between. Don’t use your hands or feet to fend off. Fenders fend off.

 

[Jesperjo]

On the front fenders, I tied the fender rope onto the bottom hole on the fender, then I ran the rope up along the fender and through the top hole. There’s plenty of rope to do that and it allows you to use the fender rope as a handle to grab the fender more easily when you lean out of the window to pull it up.