grappling hooks

[skippy]

was just wondering if a grappling hook is something useful on board in the way of trying to grab mooring balls, dragging and catching something lost, on the dinghy(of course spikes need covered) etc

[Greg Brannon]

It might be handy if the anchor and rode ran out until the whole assembly left the boat for the bottom. There's a recent thread describing just that. Zephyr's blog tells of a similar incident where a spare anchor was used to locate and raise the anchor rode from a dinghy. I think. I might be mixing up stories.

Warships of old used hooks to grab an adversary vessel and it close while they blasted each other or boarded each other for swordplay. That might be movie fiction. I wasn't there.

[s/v Moondancer]

Not necessary...I was in Les Saintes off Guadalupe when a posh Brit in a fancy cat came in and when he missed the mooring ball he had his wife jump in with a line to tie to the ball!

He was a moderately famous actor and did not want to spoil his hair-do!

[Snowpetrel]

We used a grappling hook rather than a boathook on a cray boat I sailed on. It worked well, with a much better range than the boathook. I've thought one could be handy for berthing as well on the right kind of wharf.

[CFS Klopas]

I have also used a grappling hook successfully as a boat hook when my engine died a little before I wanted it to. It didn't catch on the far side of the dock as planned, but it did catch on a cleat. I have wished I had one a couple other times when I wanted to tie to something out of reach, like a lock wall or the shore of a canal.

The one time I tested it as an anchor it had no significant holding. Most people have similar results.

[HankOnthewater]

In my opinion, every boat should have one!!!
- picking up mooring buoy
- drag for lost equipment on the bottom, like chain, tools
- if you miss the jetty/dock, a grapnel can be a boat/life saver, as its reach is nearly as long as the rope attached to it.

As mentioned before, a boathook has limited range/reach, and even if you get it, you can not hold onto it; a rope on the other hand you can cleat off or put around a winch.

I find that 6 mm double braid, 10 to 12 meters of that, is nearly the ideal combination: it will still hold any boat below 20 tons in moderate conditions. I have a big eye splice in the end which I put on a cleat before I throw.
If you think 6 mm is not strong enough, go to 8 mm, but 10 mm is too big in my opinion and 4 or 5 mm too small for most boats.

I have a homemade SS one, and since then copied that at least 25 times for friends. I have two of these on my boat......