Secure Your Boat Safely With the Best Boat Hooks
When you own and maintain a boat, it’s important to have the right tools and accessories to enhance the vessel and make it more functional while using it out on the water. Boat hooks are versatile and can be used to fend off at a dock, grab a gear bag, snag dock, and mooring lines for more control and safety.
Although there are a variety of boat hooks available on the market, they’re not all created equal. In fact, there are some important factors that you must consider before choosing a boat hook. To help you choose, we have listed down some of the top boat hooks in 2024 worth using because of their quality design and build.
Our Top Picks
- Buyer’s Guide to Finding a Boat Hook
- 1 Tips For Handling Boat Hooks
- 2 What Do I Need To Consider Before Buying Boat Hooks?
- 3 Length
- 4 Durability
- 5 Floatation ability
- 6 Multipurpose
- 7 Wooden boat hooks vs. Aluminum boat hooks
- 8 Telescoping boat hooks vs. non-telescoping boat hooks
- 9 Lock mechanism
- 10 How Much Do Boat Hooks Cost?
- 11 Final Thoughts On Boat Hooks
- People Also Asked
Great Boat Hook Worth Considering in 2024
Top Pick
Made with a rubber sturdy bumper, this boat hook can be used with a broom, telescoping pole, or a mop rod. It comes with a screw-on design and doesn’t scratch or damage the hull.
Better Boat Hook is heavy-duty and has metal threads for added strength with a sturdy rubber tip. It locks tight and is made of high-quality materials but still floats if it falls into the water. However, the screw size may not fit some six-foot painter roller rods.
Overall, this is a well-made hook and offers plenty of utility if you can find a compatible pole to use with it.
Runner Up
This boat hook can withstand hundreds of pounds of pressure and features a galvanized locking mechanism, which prevents it from rusting. It’s made with non-slip foam hand grips for extra control.
The manual clip locks onto the extensions of the Eversprout boat hook. They are strong and the poles feel sturdy. It has an elegant design and is easy to use. The exterior of the material can become scratched and scuffed up, but this doesn’t affect its durability or functionality. The pole is sturdy enough to push/pull up to 30lbs when fully extended, or up to 100lbs in its contracted form.
Best Construction Material
Rainier Supply Co Boat Hook is unrivaled in terms of durability because of marine-grade premium aluminum. It has two different handle designs, which you would absolutely adore. Also, it readily allows you to utilize the hook and provides more leverage because of its two-tiered design, particularly when extended fully. You can say goodbye to the annoyances and pains of pushing and tugging things that are out of your reach, thanks to this function. Since it doesn’t leave any surface with scratches or scrapes, you will also feel at ease when pressing other items. Additionally, the boat hook is made even more resistant by the strengthened nylon at its end. It can effectively support high weights, enabling you to do all jobs quickly.
Honorable Mention
This boat hook extends from four to eight feet and is constructed of unbreakable, glass-reinforced nylon. It can be used as a push pole, a pole for docking, and has a lightweight design due to its aluminum construction that makes it very easy to use.
Star Brite boat hook has an excellent reach for grabbing dock lines and for pushing off of the dock. The sturdy design makes it reliable to use and it doesn’t require a lot of effort or strength to extend or retract. The flexible hook can make it challenging to latch onto cleats because it can occasionally bend.
Contender
This three-part telescopic hook comes with a second grip for easier handling and can reach up to 12-feet in length when fully extended. It can be used to push, pull, and scrub, and has a universal threaded tip.
WindRider boat hook can float in the water and has a long reach to avoid getting too close to the seawall by motoring. It has a telescoping design and can fit in a small storage locker on the deck of the boat, making it easy to store. Some of the sections may fail to lock firmly in place so they can occasionally release, requiring you to adjust the pole length again.
Also Consider
If versatility is your highest priority, this dynamic boat hook is what you need. It works perfectly for its intended use but can also be used with various attachments.
This boat hook is designed with an anodized aluminum telescoping pole. This material makes it easy to handle due to its lightweight while ensuring it’s strong and durable for frequent use. This boat hook extends from 53 inches to 92 inches for a variety of applications. It breaks down into two pieces for easier storage and portability. A threaded end allows it to hook up to a multitude of attachments for tackling various projects.
Buyer’s Guide to Finding a Boat Hook
Boat hooks are one of the unsung heroes in the sailing world. While other tools hug all the attention and grab the accolades, the boat hook goes about its work diligently without any fuss or recognition. Perhaps one of the main reasons why boat hooks are often overlooked is the simplicity of the task they carry out. Who rates a long tool when its only job is to hook and unhook mooring ropes? It is even easy to forget a boat hook exists until that awkward moment where you have to moor your boat, and you can’t find a boat hook. In this moment of truth, you will wish you had treated your boat hook better
Without a boat hook, the mooring process will be a long, tedious process of trial and error. After making a loop with the mooring rope, delivering it accurately around the moor becomes a game of chance. You throw the loop across and hope that everything is in your favor. If not, you try again over and over. A boat hook will complete this task in less than two minutes.
Traditionally, the wooden hook used to be the most popular type of boat hook. The hook consists of a wooden rod with a metallic hook attached to it at the top. More recently, there have been new brands of boat hooks that are not made with wooden rods. The new hooks are made from light aluminum material and have entirely plastic hooks attached to the rod.
Tips For Handling Boat Hooks
Most modern boat hooks feature plastic hooks at the end of the long rod. However, certain types of boat hooks still have a sharp hook covered with plastic at the end of the long rod. Proper care should be taken when handling such hooks to avoid injuries.
What Do I Need To Consider Before Buying Boat Hooks?
To get the best out of boat hooks, there are several factors to consider. Some of these factors include length, storage, flotation ability, and durability.
Length
Since a boat hook is essentially meant to transport mooring ropes over, the length of the hook is the first factor to consider. The longer the hook, the better it is for hooking and unhooking mooring ropes.
Durability
Boat hooks are not tools that you use once and forget about. They will come in handy for many docking and undocking episodes; hence, they should be durable enough to withstand the rigors of long-term use. One significant way to ensure durability is to check the quality of materials used to manufacture the hook.
Floatation ability
It is not news that boat hooks will be used mainly on water, and mistakes do happen. If a mistake happens and you drop the boat hook into the water, it should float. Not all boat hooks float; some fall and sink immediately. A boat hook that floats makes it easy for you to recover it in case of such an occurrence. It saves you the cost of getting a new one every time it drops.
Multipurpose
A boat hook serves one essential purpose of helping you dock and undock a boat. However, there are boat hooks that go one better; these types of boat hooks double as mini-paddles. Therefore they could come in handy when you need to lightly paddle. These types of boat hooks are cost-saving as they save you the extra cost of getting a paddle.
Wooden boat hooks vs. Aluminum boat hooks
The choice between wooden boat hooks and aluminum boat hooks boils down to preference. Aluminum boat hooks are lighter than wooden boat hooks. However, many are more comfortable with wooden hooks and find the switch to aluminum boat hooks unnecessary.
Telescoping boat hooks vs. non-telescoping boat hooks
Another feature to look out for when buying a boat hook is whether the hook is telescopic or not. A telescoping boat hook’s length is adjustable so that when not in use, it can be adjusted to a shorter length for easy storage. A non-telescoping boat hook does not have this feature and may be hard to store when not in use.
Lock mechanism
The lock mechanism factor only applies to telescoping boat hooks. After elongating the hook’s length for use, the hook may start curling back to its previous short length without a lock mechanism in place. A good lock mechanism will lock the hook at the desired length and keep it there till the lock is deactivated. Thus, when choosing a telescoping boat hook, you should check well to ascertain it has a good lock mechanism.
How Much Do Boat Hooks Cost?
The average price of aluminum boat hooks ranges from $15 to $35. Also, the price of wooden boat hooks ranges from $11 to $28.
Final Thoughts On Boat Hooks
Boat hooks are best stored horizontally in a corner of the boat where they cannot be stepped on. When a boat hook gets matched often, it spoils the rod.
If kept vertically, the hook may fall, and repeated falls may damage the rod. A damaged rod makes the boat hook entirely useless.
People Also Asked
Do I need a boat hook?
If you have a boat, yes, you need a boat hook. Apart from its well-known use in docking, it is also useful when retrieving items thrown overboard. Instead of diving in and getting wet, the hook does the job seamlessly.
Are wooden boat hooks floatable?
Wooden boat hooks are generally not floatable. However, there are new brands of wooden hooks being made now that are floatable. These wooden hooks are designed in such a way that the hook end of the rod points downward when drowning, leaving the rod standing upright.
Which is better between aluminum boat hooks and wooden boat hooks?
The two types of boat hooks are good since they both perform their intended tasks well. However, aluminum hooks have an edge over wooden hooks because they are relatively lighter and can be easily stored.