I belong to the Albineers of British Columbia. It is a cruising club for owners of Albin boats. I went up to Maple Bay, BC once for a rendevous. I traveled in my van. It was wonderful to see so many 25 ft Albins. It was most interesting to see all the things that the owners had done to make their boats, "special".
The most impressive thing I saw was how they managed raising and lowering their fenders. I immediately incorporated the concept on Shatoosh. It is amazingly clever, simple and allows me not to have to leave the cockpit. All the fenders are tied together from the bottom with one long line which is attached to a cleat or an eyelet. With one quick pull the fenders are up out of the water and when you are ready to dock, you simply release the rope and the fenders fall into the water. This concept is so clever I often wonder why someone didn't think of this before. Kuddos to those Canadians. Aren't they clever?
Another nice aspect to this technique is when you are locking though the locks. Just shorten the upper ropes and as you pull them up them up they will be in a line at the gunnel of the boat. Making a long line of fenders for protection against the lock wall. This came in handy when I was locking through the Willamette locks. Something that we will repeat next year when Shatoosh and Pashmina will be trucked to Clarkston WA/Lewiston ID for our cruise down the Snake and the upper Columbia River.
I'm getting into this labeling aspect using Paint. I see I forgot to select the picture out from the toolbars. Thanks Dan, for all your help and your patience. Thanks Russ and Greg for the wonderful photo.
