Docking Stick boat hook adapters

[zipper]

We just purchased a package of two of these Docking Sticks for use on our 35' Beneteau. https://www.dockingstick.com/. Dont know if we will use them on the Yamaha, due to its light displacement, but on heavier boats I can see the benifit. There are no pilings up here to lasso only cleats on the dock when you are comming in, and I have witnessed all kinds of approaches to catch a cleat. A boat hook alone with a person catching a cleat will not do much to stop a 12,000#+ boat while moving and I have had them get stuck in a cleat and break. I have seen people jump from a moving boat with a dock line in hand and face plant on the dock, not pretty! The dock hands at our marina were never trained to wrap the line you throw them around a cleat. They try to use their strength/body wt. to manipulate the boat to the dock without using a cleat. Using a cleat is so much easier. It's never a good feeling until I get a couple of lines on cleats. This solution looks good, and may even help us jetboaters dock in crosswinds or currents. Wish I would have thought of it.

 

[GTBRMC]

Very clever! Would buy. At $40/pair the price looks reasonable, too.

 

[Scottintexas]

Wish I would have thought of it.

X2 pretty good idea,

it is funny watching people try to hold the boat against the wind or current and slowly, just slowly continue to loose it, I've tried to teach my kids when they get the docking lines is first get a bite on the cleat and then think about tightening it up (sometimes if their not paying attention I'll leave the boat in forward or drift with the wind to get their attention)

 

[merlinjet]

Great idea! The videos on the website are hilarious!!

 

[djetok]

Where is Grandma?!?!?!?!?

 

[2kwik4u]

X2 pretty good idea,

it is funny watching people try to hold the boat against the wind or current and slowly, just slowly continue to loose it, I've tried to teach my kids when they get the docking lines is first get a bite on the cleat and then think about tightening it up (sometimes if their not paying attention I'll leave the boat in forward or drift with the wind to get their attention)

I don't know why more people aren't taught this. Use your vertical pull through a cleat to bring the boat closer. If the boat gets away, just let go and the person is safe from being drug in with the boat.

 

[zipper]

We ordered them yesterday, they came this evening. Will install them tomorrow. They look useful for when we are shorthanded and coming in after the marina has closed and dock help has gone for the evening.

 

[zipper]

These things work great. I set both of them up. All line lengths were set while the boat was in the slip ahead of time. The first one is set with the eye of a 25' dock line around the starboard bow cleat. The line runs forward thru the fairlead. On the working end I tied the docking stick using a bowline knot, as per directions, to reach the middle cleat on the dock finger. Willow, using her 12' boat hook, from the bow can quickly lasso the middle cleat on the dock as we are coming in and as we are still moving forward, hook the bow line laying on the dock and hook it to the same cleat on the bow so the bow does not drift away from the finger. Just as the boat is coming to the end of the line tied to the docking stick, I deploy mine, 15' in length, from the stern cleat to the cleat at the end of the finger. I can then use that line to pull the stern in if it has drifted away from the finger. Will get some video of the process next time out.

 

[Jgorm]

I've jumped off 30'+ boats hundreds of times. Never had an issue. I've docked a 30 Catalina solo dozens of times. Tie the front line to the rear line and step off.

 

[zipper]

I've jumped off 30'+ boats hundreds of times. Never had an issue. I've docked a 30 Catalina solo dozens of times. Tie the front line to the rear line and step off.

Ya, I get what you are saying. How old were you then? At 58, I am still willing and able to jump off a moving boat. Farm work and all the walking around the woods in the winter has kept me in shape. But I am the guy at the helm coming in. Although I still am the first to jump out of the Yamaha during docking, 3000# boat, the Beneteau at 12,000#'s is a different story. My wife, mid 50's, will not jump from the boat, and I do not expect her to. We needed to find a solution for controlled docking while shorthanded as many boat owners rely on others on the dock to help them in. The dock hands here do not even know how to use a cleat as mechanical advantage in landing a boat. I have always been the independent type and these cheaply priced docking aides help us to remain so.