Fancy boathooks

[Miker]

I am looking for a method of attaching a line to a marina mooring cleat while I am still on the boat. Has anyone tried the Plastimo pick-up hook or the Bosco boat hook? Both seem expensive but if they do the job, they could well be worth it to a short-handed sailor like me.

I posted this on Shuttlebutt by mistake. I am repeating it here as I know that only the comedians will answer on the other.

 

[mica]

We have a little plastic gadget than fixes to our existing boathook which only costs £7.99, but it is a threader. Primarily for threading a line through a buoy, so I don't know if it would be suitable for your purposes. I don't think I would like to use this or the Plastimo one for coming alongside. What happens if you miss the cleat first attempt "crunch" !!!!.

MICA

 

[incognito]

We have one of the Bosco boathooks, but I believe there are others that do the job. In the case of the Bosco, it does the job very well, unless we are trying to hook onto something where the thickness is comparable to the 'gape' of the hooks jaws.

We only use it for mooring buoys, where it is dead easy to use, positive and VERY back-saving.
Hook is attached with simple clip to boathook and sort of 'cocked' like a gun - reach out and hook on buoy, boathook is released. Use anchor winch to pull buoy up to bow, attach more 'permanent' arrangement and remove fancy hook and line, using trip cord.

In the case of coming in to a finger pontoon, I have not yet trusted the combination of wife and Bosco. This may be no reflection on the Bosco hook!!

 

[[448]]

These Bosco's or similar are absolutely indispensible up the West Coast of Scotland where there are many HIDB mooring buoys. We used to spend hours watching the antics of those who didn't have them. But that was before we got Satelite(?) telly on board.