In all the years using a boat hook without exception, but once or twice, were used to grab a mooring ball ring. One time used it to transfer an object (skipper's favorite hat that he left on our boat) to a buddy boat while underway. The other was to untangle the chain from the anchor. It was that time that a tip broke off from a stress failure. The hook just would not support eighty pounds (forty pound anchor, fifty feet of chain, twenty pound kellet).
The other time was when I grabbed a mooring ring in a blow, then with the ring still on the hook placed the tip of the hook on the inside of the toe rail and expected the hook tip to hold a 35,000 pound boat while I threaded the line through the ring. That really worked; the tip said no way jose and gave up. In both cases the maker replaced the tip after sending them a picture of the resulting disaster.
Hey, I'm not the one that established the guarantee nor did the maker say under what circumstances, conditions, or standards must the product meet before honoring a guarantee. I gave them an explanation of what happened and a picture of the part that failed. The rest was, as they say, history. They might have said by original owner, but that part was never addressed, thank goodness. How I came about that hook is another story. And no it was not stolen property, at least not technically.
