wrote

My example of the fender my wife dropped is to demonstrate that it really
doesn't take much trauma to separate a fender from the boat with even
modest force.

Well, it should take a lot of force to separate your fenders from the boat
and they should be secured to proper solid attachement points. After all,
they are protecting iyour boat while is sitting there unattended.

I've moved my home dock fenders to the dock, hanging horizontal just under
the dock bumper. This provides two redundant attachements for each one and
I can flip them up on the dock so they don't interfere with docking and
undocking. Having them entirely under the rubber bumper keeps them from
being displaced up onto the dock and they keep the hull off the harder dock
edge guard.

Did you really say "stanchions are somewhat sacraficial"? I'll reserve
comment until confirmation that you really meant that.

--
Roger Long