Here’s a new trick for old sea dogs who often dock and undock singlehanded, a simple way to retrieve a breast line tied to a dock while standing in the cockpit. It involves a bit of slight of hand, or really slight of a home-made retraction pin.
Colin Haines spends most of his sailing time single handing and found getting away from his mooring slip difficult. It required him to start the engine and then climb down to the dock to remove the bow and stern lines and sprig lines before climbing back aboard.
The solution he came up with is as ingenious as it is simple. He now arranges fenders amidships and holds the boat in place with a tight amidships breast line while he removes the other mooring lines. The breast line in held in place by a wooden pin with a retraction line to it.
Back in the cockpit he can retract the pin and thus unmoor the breast line. He is now free to back out of the slip and into open water where he can remove the fenders.
