Boat Hook for single/short handed

Steve_Jones

Steve_Jones

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Morning All!

I've been looking for a boat hook which will make mooring easier (we are on a swinger) and allow me to occasionally single-hand and pick up from the cockpit. This http://www.boscoboathook.co.uk/default.asp looks pretty good, are there better alternatives? I understand that this essentially is for a temporay mooring, but I can't see any problem with using it to catch the pick-up buoy and then hauling it up to attach the mooring warp.

All ideas and comments gratefully received as always!!
 
We have several boat hooks on Wight Dawn. Most of them have the usual plastic ends but the one preferred by all mooring picker-uppers is a home made simple hook. It came with the boat and is a bit of 6mm stainless rod bent into a semi-circle of about 6" diameter with a tail that disapears into the tube of an extending pole via a wooden plug. There was a brush head on the other end but that broke off about five years ago.

I think the hook is secured by a through bolt which must be very thin, but have never inspected it closely in the last ten years! It is by far the easiest tool to use to latch onto the handle of the bobbing pick-up buoy or grab for the rope underneath if it all goes pear-shaped.
 
We tried one mooring aid, more like the one Salty john is trying to sell you perhaps in that it fitted in a sort of slide on the boat hook.

We found that the weight of it on the end of a boat hook made it a bit difficult to handle.
We found it only any good for grabbing rings on the tops of large buoys and no good at all for grabbing light plastic pickup buoys ... possibly because it had a spring latch that was not held open in anticipation of mating with a suitable buoy.
Consigned to the bilges where it probably still resides to this day.

Maybe one of these two would be better. Design should have been improved upon during the intervening 30 years.
 
Steve_Jones said:
Morning All!

I've been looking for a boat hook which will make mooring easier (we are on a swinger) and allow me to occasionally single-hand and pick up from the cockpit. This http://www.boscoboathook.co.uk/default.asp looks pretty good, are there better alternatives? I understand that this essentially is for a temporay mooring, but I can't see any problem with using it to catch the pick-up buoy and then hauling it up to attach the mooring warp.

All ideas and comments gratefully received as always!!
Click to expand...

I'm not a great fan of the *clever* boat hooks apart from their price their one function gadgetary doesn't appeal. so what to do?

Well, I have a 23' fishing boat on a swinger which I single hand most of the time. When the wind isn't blowing too much it is a doddle to collect the pickup buoy with a boathook from the cockpit and walk forward to moor up. However, when it is blowing f4+ this is not a sensible option as the windage is easily sufficient to pull me overboard whilst walking forward. So I now have a carabiner, or a snap shackle attached to the chain of the mooring bouy and a length of line cleated off at the front of the cockpit to the bow roller. Now, just pick up mooring buoy from cockpit, attach carabiner to line and reverse which causes the carabiner and mooring buoy to go the bow roller. Job done, then walk up to front and tie off.

I've used this now for 4 seasons and have yet to find a fault with this system.
 
The other way is to replace the mooring buoy by one with a tall steel bar with loop on the top. I don't know what they are called but I have often seen them and used one twice. You can drop your fixed mooring line into the loop when you leave and motor alongside and pick it up on your return, just feet from the helm. Make fast while the wind or tide is making you fall back, and sort yourself out at leisure. These buoys are not expensive and the moorings will need to be inspected and serviced annually anyway so someone needs to go down. Much more convenient than messing about with clever hooks. I have the yellow and black mooring buoy picker-upper that was all the rage five years ago. It has been used three times and we scratch our heads whenever thinking about using it. Too clever for us.
 
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Steve_Jones said:
Morning All!

I've been looking for a boat hook which will make mooring easier (we are on a swinger) and allow me to occasionally single-hand and pick up from the cockpit. This http://www.boscoboathook.co.uk/default.asp looks pretty good, are there better alternatives? I understand that this essentially is for a temporay mooring, but I can't see any problem with using it to catch the pick-up buoy and then hauling it up to attach the mooring warp.

All ideas and comments gratefully received as always!!
Click to expand...

The proffered hook, the Bosco hook, the Mooring Duck are all good for attaching a line quickly, provided you want to have a semi permanent attachment i.e. you can't easily slip on departure. The Moorfast can be an advantage in this respect but one needs to take care to have a slim(ish) line as it may not pass through the the buoy ring easily, but it does bring back the line aboard.

One thing I would suggest and that is avoid the ally/plastic telescopic boathooks as the host to a hook addition as in my experience they unlock with great difficulty when you want them to, but freely let go when you don't- a real PITA.

Another alternative is the Exe Buoy boat hook http://www.exebuoyhook.co.uk/page2.htm

a simple design but this and all the others above are pricey
 
I have 3 boat hooks .. one old that stays out on deck.... one really nice job stowed away with turks heads etc. on ... normal double plastic head. 3rd is same as number 2 but with the cheap plastic auto line threader that puts a line through a loop / ring ... cost about 4 quid for the bit to screw to boathook.

Swedish / Finnish boats use what is similar to a shepherds crook with ring at opposite end of pole to make mooring line fast to ... they just hook on and load keeps it in place. They ride out all weather to stern buoys etc. with them.
 
the lasso technique you mention has much to commend it in a blow or in very tidal waters - saves getting pulled overboard by a jammed boathook
 
tabernacleman said:
the lasso technique you mention has much to commend it in a blow or in very tidal waters - saves getting pulled overboard by a jammed boathook
Click to expand...

That depends on whether the line to the mooring buoy is just to tether the buoy or whether the chain or heavy warp is attached to the buoy. Many buoys are attached by leaders with insufficient strength to hold a yacht on strong stream. If you lasso a buoy that is attached to some frayed bit of 10mm line you might regret it.
 
I made one from 8mm SS rod, in the form of a snap hook about 80mm wide. It fits onto my ally boathook in a slide and the spring closer is held open by a hook that is also into the slide. When you hook the buoy the it slides off the boathook and the closer shuts so it doesn't fall off the loop on the buoy, the rope tail is attached tto the main cleat. Only negative is you have to release it manually from the buoy, but there is usually time for that with the load taken by a loop through the buoy. Used it a few times in gusty conditions and V pleased;
A
 
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