bow line holder

[lil buggy]

i am taking delivery of a new to me cruiser.
now that i am paying attention i have been seeing the tennis ball on a stick bow line holder.

anyone using this contraption.

i bet it makes docking inline without help a little easier.
any advise would be greatly appretiated

still paking the lil buggy in the slip(very easy one man opperation)

[lwells]

as the first mate of my ship, i have to say that it's extremely useful when we don't have anyone to help us in. it's easy for me to reach over the rail and grab the line to help pull the bow in while the captain manuvers the stern to the dock. we use an old lock pole that my husband has bolted to the dock on a hinge. (the hinge is so that in the winter we can just lay it down on the dock) when we pull out, i just hang the bow line on the hook and away we go!

[galleyslave]

The tennis ball thing works great at home-port, but for travel I recommend this little contraption: http://www.landingloop.com/ Works great on locks with floating bollards, and at marinas you are unfamiliar with that have no one to help you in. If you could fabricate your own...even better.

[Grantz]

What is the tennis ball thing? I think i know what lwells is talking about... a post that is 6 or 8 feet tall that you can hang your bow line on so that you can reach it from the bow of the boat when pulling in. But what about the tennis ball thing???

[lil buggy]

Grantz,
you got it,
its all variations of the same idea.

at one of the loacal marina's
i saw a few made outa ribar with a tennisball on the top.

i assume it's for visibility but it could be for protection so you don't get cut on the end