Since moving up from a 5.1 to 7.8 and after my back surgery earlier in the year making me less nimble i looked for ways to make my life easier when moring.
Years ago I windsurfed at a reasonably high level meaning using the rope to pull the sail up wasn't needed any longer except for very light winds. We used a piece of tubular webbing with shockcord/surgical tubing in to give us a means of pulling up the sail whilst staying out of the way for 90% of the time.
It occurred to me the same principle can be used when mooring, so i got a piece of tubular webbing (hollow down the middle) and some surgical tubing.
Finished
One end has a large loop in it to go over the dock cleat, one a small loop to larks foot it to the handle on the console.
1st I tied the loops in the webbing with overhand knots (from research seems to be what slack liners uses in their webbing) to check the overall length and loop position.
Then i threaded the surgical tubing
and gathered it up until the end of the tubing was at the position of the first knot.
then tied the overhand knot
Then pulled the surgical tube out of the other end and let it go back to the position of the 2nd knot, tied it an overhand knot again.
and voila
now i can reach from the console, without needing to unclip the kill cord to make fast initially. In light winds or low current the webbing also holds the boat alongside. otherwise the webbing takes the load (2000kg breaking strain less the knots )
Breawatch
