Please tell me again why year after year we still insist on maintaining the ability to put a hole in the other guy's boat.

Bumper. The good: No more boats with holes in the hull. I defy anyone to spear a boat and cut a hole in the hull with one of these on your bow. Has it ever happened? Could it possibly happen?

The terrible expense: $10 and another 3.5 cents (or whatever) to make it never be a sea anchor.

The downside: Giving up the power of intimidation, I guess. Tradition? They take away from the beauty of the boat?

The excuse: “We are careful.” The guy who wrote that here several years ago finally hit and holed one at Charleston a few years ago and was a gentleman about it to his credit. But it does not need to happen. Careful is not good enough.

It only happens about once a year that we know of? It does not need to happen at all.

I do not get it. Big problem. Easy solution. Why no interest in a kinder and gentler EC-12?

Scott

Scott, right on. Have used one almost forever. Kinder and gentle as well to those Ec12's out there on the pond. Dick

That bumper is a joke. You can't really be thinking it is going to stop 24 lbs of EC-12 from doing what it's going to do. It will just make a bigger hole. How about duck taping a tennis ball on your bow?

Down under where it blows a bit more than you lot are used to we ALL use these bumpers.

Having myself gone through the side of someone a few years back I know the damage we can do. We have found that even with some fairly hefty thumps there has been ZERO impalement's since.

The do work and once the boat is out on the water you don't even see them.

This was a couple of weeks back. The only reason it is visible is the white sticky back holding it together as they do split after time.

I have holed a boat because of a sudden gust heading the boat up and been hit and deck delaminated, and holed on several occasions. Most all of those would not have happened if there was a bumper on the boats. I do see the aesthetics of the issue but..... I now have a bumper and think they are a good idea.

I checked with Hans Berger. He now has bumpers for many classes of boat. EC12, US12, Seawind, Soling One Meter, V32, Independence, Laser and Canterbury J . $6.00 each and shipping of $5.95. Order 15 of them and shipping is free. See his info on the class Suppliers page.

Thank you Dick. Thank you Reichard for giving the thread legs, Chris for real world experiences with bumpers and Tom's info. Opposing views and discussion are good things.
I experienced a tear in the side of this bumper last time out. The bumper does not fit the 95 standard nose perfectly. There is normally a gap between the nose of the boat and the bumper. It will bend sideways in an off center hit and can tear.
I split it at the bottom and cut out a 1/8 inch back to front slice there at the bottom, so I could move the bumper aft slightly and narrow that gap. Then I wrapped a lot of electrical tape around it.

Scott