I am heavily indebted to Les and Graham for this idea.

It’s such a simple way to make the launch and recovery of a Marblehead dead easy and safe. In fact, if you have wobbly knees or difficulty bending (as I sometimes do), you’d be tempted to use this launching method for your IOM, your DF95 and – well, anything that you own! Have you seen our video about using it in the ‘Launching and Recovery’ section of this website?

What you are looking at is an Amazon sourced fish landing net. Loads to choose from and dead cheap! Most models are telescopic and fold flat – great for getting in the car boot.

You just slide or cut the fish net off. Then bend the arms “over your knee” to make the hull supports. Some of us just use the arms bare, but you can enhance things by buying 6mm or 8mm tubing from Amazon. Just slide it over the arms and think about how you will protect the tips. I’ve used 8mm tube on this one.

The red and green tape? It’s just that so many of us use these now, you need to tell them apart. The photo below is with the telescopic handle extended, so you can get a rough idea of what it look like in action.