Cottage Q&A
QUESTIONI'm looking for 45° corner dock bumpers for boat protection. I've found many 90° corners, but no 45° ones. Can you help?
Ken Williamson, via e-mail
ANSWER
You're right - 90° corners are all you'll find in rigid, preformed bumpers. However, several manufacturers offer an alternative: flexible protection strips, which should bend around any angle you need. Dock Edge of Brampton, Ont., makes a 5"-wide PVC strip called Flex Guard, which comes in a 25' coil for $55.
Alternatively, dock builder Brian Umphrey of MacTier, Ont., suggests that you adapt straight lengths of regular vinyl dock bumper by running them along the dock edges and mitring them where they meet at awkward angles. You'll have a seam where the edges meet, and the corner won't be quite as strong as a single preformed piece would be, but Umphrey says it should give you good protection under most conditions.
Jo Currie
* Published in the April/May 2004 issue of Cottage Life
