We’ve said it before: Cast off and travel 10' away from the dock, and you’re in another world, with its own rules. Now let’s turn that around: When you sail or motor your boat to within 10' of the dock, you need something to bridge that last gap between a fluid, uncertain medium and shore stability. Unless you have dock-wallopers to seize heaved lines, or a bow thruster, your tool of deliverance is the boathook.