What's this I found in my anchor locker ?

[JC Reefer]

That’s Kindofa silly item

[a64pilot]

I’ve seen something similar on Sportfishermen, they put it into a rod holder and run the shorepower cord though it.

[reflectionsv37]

I can guarantee you one thing. Within a week of getting rid of it, you'll figure out what it was for!

[iduff]

It's a hook for docking your dinghy on a floating dock. You stick the first transverse rod in, rotate it 90 degrees, the second transverse rod holds it rotated that way, and you attach the dinghy painter to the loop at the end.

[CaptMDG]

This is a copy of a commercial dock anchor. Go to any West Marine or BOW catalog and you will see a version of it. It is meant to be inserted between the gap of dock planking and twisted. Then you attach your dock line to the ring. Good docks have cleats or bollards available, but what about those out of the way places where there is only planking and no hardware. You bring your own hardware to the docks!

[Lepke]

Might be for anchoring in kelp. Commercial fishermen have something similar (more arms) for that purpose when regular anchoring is not possible in the open ocean. It gets caught in the kelp and with a long rode gives a pretty good ride. The kelp patch breaks up seas and swells, and behind the kelp you get a better ride.

[Dave9111]

It's made to create a tie point to a timber dock with lousy or missing cleats or poorly spaced posts. Push it between the dock planks, and twist. I can think of a better design, but that's a lot better than nothing.

After a while you will realize that there are a lot of lousy docks. Not only large, big timber docks, but lousy small docks at boat ramps (hence the smaller commercially available version). If you are doing a lot of cruising to unrefined ports, (ie, not yacht clubs) hang onto that. You'll need it!

Dave

[stairforce]

Casting my engineer’s eye over it, I think it is a tool either to turn something installed in a covered hole in the ground, like a water stopcock, or it is to allow additional purchase on an anchor chain when said anchor is proving reluctant to part company with the seabed. The 2 T-bars suggest it is used to turn something against resistance.

[Jens Jakobsen]

It is a "bollard" to be used on a boardwalk with no usual (fixed) bollard at a convenient place. - Put the "handle" of the tool down between the boards and turn it 90 degrees: then you have the eye of the tool as fastening point for your mooring rope at the place where you want it. Widely used in Scandinavia.

[David Hoyt]

It is a device to establish a cleat on a slotted dock . Insert the loop through the slats in the dock, twist it 90*, and secure a line from the loop on the tool to an object you are wishing secured to the dock.

[LargeMarge]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Here's a picture

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Gerbil extractor.

Identified by a friend.

[kmacdonald]

It's a nice one. What is it?

[Captain Kev]

This is to be inserted between the boards in a dock and twisted 90 degrees. Then a DINGHY ONLY can be tied to the loop. Handy when there are no cleats.

[Pete Chambliss]

It is a temporary dock cleat for a pier - the ring would slip between the slots of the pier boards and the cleat would stick up for holding a line. Certainly not for heavy weather use!

[boatman1]

If I were a betting man, I'd go with a piece envisioned as the attachment point for a mooring. The thingy would have been cast in a concrete disc or square. Six feet square, however thick you've got to the bail would be a prodigious mooring. You'd want some steel bars in the slab to hold it all together. Should last a long time and hold like forever