Last time, it was a bilge pump/water canon. This time, it’s magnetic! The Line-Shark Boat Hook promises to make it easier to pick up and release mooring lines. Magnetic mooring lines, that is…let me explain:

The Line-Shark Boat Hook is 6′ 2″ long extended, 4′ 10″ retracted, and retails for about $36. It’s just like a conventional boat hook, except that the vinyl end cap looks a bit larger than normal; that’s because it houses a powerful little rare-earth magnet, encased in epoxy for corrosion resistance.

All by itself, that might be pretty clever. “But wait, there’s more!” This magnet is attached internally to the handle on the far end of the pole; give the handle a tug, and the magnet inside the pole moves toward you, away from the vinyl end cap, releasing whatever ferromagnetic material it may have grabbed.

So how does this help grab lines, which generally are not ferromagnetic? The folks at Design Mechanics also produce Line-Shark Rope Rings, six of which sell for about $7.50. The idea is that you attach these galvanized steel rings to the working end of your lines with the provided velcro straps.

I played with one today over at Fisheries Supply in Seattle, and it appears to work well. Here’s how it’s supposed to work:

When approaching a new moorage, you use the Line Shark boat hook to drop a (Rope Ring-equipped) loop of line over a cleat or piling, or even to wrap a line around a cleat or bollard. Pull the handle away from the tip to disengage the magnet. At your home moorage, you can pick up your (Rope Ring-equipped) dock line off the dock, piling, or mooring buoy and bring it aboard, making it fast as usual. Getting underway, you reverse the process, placing the mooring line on a cleat or hook (somewhere that allows you to grab it later when you come back in), and pulling backward on the rear grip to release the Rope Ring.

One caveat: Don’t store the Line-Shark’s magnetic end near your compass, your pacemaker, or your floppy disks!