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Can anyone help Mike Goodwin, the man who once owned and still loves Blue Moon?
He needs to find out how to make a moustache or pudding for a tugboat, and says that the last man that he knew who had the knowledge has passed away. The pictures show what I’m talking about: the moustache is on the left, and the pudding is on the right.
Mike knows how to make up fenders, he says, but he needs to know how to make a genuine moustache or pudding. Can anyone help? If you can please email me at gmatkin@gmail.com.
How about Des Pawson, knotter supreme?
Or one of the suppliers of canal boat ropework, like http://www.trafalgarmarineservices.co.uk/
or The Fenderman? They don't seem to do tugboats ("There ain't the demand, guv") but they would probably be able to work out how to do it from photos.
I've seen Des Pawson in action but couldn't remember his name, and didn't know about the other people at all. The Trafalgar Marine Services clearly have a small moustache in their catalogue – the question will be whether they'll want to share the information with Mike, or sell him one!
Gavin,
We know the moustaches by another name, U Bow fenders. Ours are quite small and designed for narrowboats but you could make these rope fenders in much larger sizes.
I sent you some information and photos of our U Bow fenders. Did Mike get them and have you any updates on his project?
Also the above link is now available at http://www.trafalgarmarineservices.co.uk/type/fen…
I started making some fenders for my Barton Skiff. Wanting a pudding up from, I did some internet trolling for how-to and tutorial articles and came up with this one:
http://www.frayedknotarts.com/grudinskas.html
It's about the most thorough article I could find. There are lots of other ropework and knotwork tutorials and links to tutorials on the same site.