Bollard mooring hook
Sam Longley goes single-handed into the Dutch canal system
I have had many forays into the Dutch canals, but last year was my first single-handed. I planned to arrive at Vlissingen, where I remembered there were bollards inset into ‘pockets’ built into the wall of the lock.
This means you can’t simply lasso the bollard or cleat from above, while using a normal boat hook is not helpful as the mooring line droops from it.
But I remembered a commercial device seen on a previous trip aboard a Dutch boat that worked perfectly. The skipper’s wife had serious knee problems, but from a seated position on the cabin top forward she was able to reach port or starboard wall bollards while he managed the stern lines.
I couldn’t find out what that particular product was called, so I decided to make a copy from memory, using pieces of 19mm overflow plumbing pipe, some 135° bends, a T piece and fittings.
For the extension arm I’d intended to use the remaining length of pipe stiffened with a length of dowel inside, but in the end I found the handle from a broken floor mop was perfectly long enough and stowed easily in the locker. I tapered the end to fit the ‘T’ by cutting slots in it and drilled for a 3mm bolt.
I assembled the octagonal pieces with a gap at the mouth of about 5in.
I then cut out slotted sections on each side of the two fingers about 3∕8in wide using a cutting disc in a Dremel, followed up by the sanding drum in the same tool before cleaning everything up with some 120-grit abrasive paper.
A 10mm mooring line now sits easily in the slots to form a nice loop that is not too big to go into the lock pockets, but is big enough to clear the bollard or cleat.
With care the hook will last a couple of seasons before it breaks, and then it can always be repaired.