Gunwale fendering for a dinghy

[Guest]

Evenin' all.

A question about suitable material for gunwale fendering for a small dinghy.

I have a 13ft 'Maxcraft' dinghy with a little cuddy that I'm restoring. It needs a new gunwale fender strip on the flange between the hull and the top moulding.

It seems to be currently fitted with a 32mm rubber pipe - looks like car radiator hose - that has been split and pushed over the flange. It has worked quite well and looks quite professional, but has cracked with age.

I need something cheap and cheerful to renew the fendering with, as the proprietary stuff is quite expensive. Car rad hose is also expensive, so can anyone suggest a suitable cheap alternative that's easy to work with?

I remember reading that Bounty (and I assume Alpha etc) use agricultural alkathene water pipe, slit with a jigsaw.

Any ideas ladies and gents?

,

James.

[Antares_9]

You may find something suitable from one of the industrial suppliers like Delta Rubber and the like, but if you want something nice I doubt it will be particularly cheap.

[mbird]

I don't know where you are based James, but if local to Norwich, you could try Walker Rubber on the Sweetbriar Industrial Estate. They have all sorts of profiles and do manufacture some of the fendering profiles themselves.