Rents out Yokohama fenders in all sizes

Text: Sveinung W. Jensen, Tellus Kommunikasjon

- We have bought five new ones and now have around 30 Yokohama fenders available for hire. There are not many suppliers that are bigger than us in Norway, says John W. Nilsen, general manager of FFS.

Yokohama fenders, also known as pneumatic fenders or rubber fenders, are used primarily in maritime operations. They are specially designed to protect boats, ships, docks and other structures from damage caused by collisions during mooring or loading and unloading.

THE FENDERS ARE made of an outer rubber skin that rests on an air-filled inner core. It gives them a soft and shock-absorbing property.

- We offer fenders in all sizes. From the smallest measuring 1 meter by 1.5 meters to the largest measuring 3.5 meters by 6.5 metres, says Nilsen.

FFS USERS Yokohama fenders on many own operations. Several of the storage boats in Lundevågen lie with fenders between them. And when the aircraft carrier HMS "Queen Elizabeth" from the British Navy used the FFS Ponton as a distance barge during its visit to Oslo last November, Yokohama fenders were attached between the ship and the barge.

- The distance between the quay and the boat is extended, which in operations like this is very beneficial, says Nilsen

FFS also used Yokohama fenders during the launch of the underwater restaurant Under in 2018.

- The Yokohama fenders have tremendous buoyancy. That's why we placed two fenders under the back of the restaurant, so that it wouldn't sink too deep, says Nilsen.

BECAUSE OF the buoyancy properties of the fenders are also used to hold up mooring chains.

- We can deliver Yokohama fenders at short notice - either by tugboat, barge or truck, says Nilsen.

For those who might be wondering; the name derives from the rubber equipment manufacturer Yokohama Rubber Company, which manufactured the first of this type of pneumatic fender in 1958.