Odds and Ends on Sail
by Alvan Eames


A Little More on Mooring....

THE DAVEY HOOK

A Davey Hook is a simple item, which has many uses on a small boat, particularly when sailing single-handed. The original, as used by Navies on big ships, was a forged, heavy item (pic #1), but we small craft sailors can easily make our own version from a 6 x 3 ins piece of 1/4 or 3/8 ins thick steel or brass (pic #2). This size is ideal for boats up to 30 or 40 feet long.


Pic 1

The proportions and shape can easily be seen from the pic, and the two large holes are for the attachment of shackles. The smaller holes are for mousing the hook with light line, to prevent the load from jumping out.

Pic 2

In use, the anchor is suspended from the hook by its neck (?) with the cable flaked out ready to run; not forgetting to make the bitter end fast! The hook is hung from its top, by a line running through a becketed block hanging from the bow, or pulpit, and back to the helmsman, and cleated off. A measured short line is shackled to the lower hole in the hook, and made fast to the becket of the block, with a bit of slack. When the desired spot is reached, the line through the block is eased a little, the hook turns over, and the anchor drops (pic #3)


Pic 3

Pic #4 illustrates a way to use the hook for dropping a buoyed mooring from the cockpit, after cutting away the mousing, of course.


Pic 4

All the information above came originally from a page of Practical Boat Owner, of April 1977, in an article by one M. Macdonald Spencer, whose prose is much funnier than mine.

There are many other uses for such a simple piece of equipment, which, no doubt, will come to the fertile minds of sailing men.