Patent ID: 6951182

Claim:
A marine mooring line vermin shield to prevent the passage of vermin crawling along a marine mooring line from land to a pleasure craft, comprising: (a) a disc having a disc axial axis perpendicular to a face of said disc, the disc axial axis being positioned in a central portion of said disc, said disc also includes an aperture through said disc coincident to the disc axial axis being positioned such that said aperture uses the disc axial axis as a centerline, said aperture is sized and configured as a passage for the marine mooring line, said disc also includes a radial slot through said disc coincident to the disc axial axis, said radial slot extending from said aperture to a periphery of said disc, said slot having a radial axis parallel to said slot; (b) an aperture insert including a male frustroconical segment terminating in a radial retainer that is in the form of an ear relative to said aperture insert; (c) a closure sized and adapted to insert into said slot in a closure pivotal movement arc approximately parallel to the disc axial axis, said closure is in a closed state when inserted into said slot and is substantially flush with said disc face, said closure also sized and adapted to manually extract from said slot in the closure pivotal movement arc approximately parallel to the disc axial axis, said closure is in an open state when extracted from said slot to allow the marine mooring line to pass through said slot from said periphery to said aperture, said closure including a first end substantially flush with said disc periphery when said closure is in the closed state, said closure also including an opposing second end, said closure second end is sized and configured to removably interlock said aperture insert, said closure second end also includes a female frustroconical segment terminating in a radial retainer that is in communication with a closure second end axial guide surface, wherein said female frustroconical segment terminating in a radial retainer and said male frustroconical segment terminating in a radial retainer are removably interlock able, being operational to removably retain said aperture insert on said closure second end, with said aperture insert adapted to partially compress the mooring line against said aperture when said closure is in the closed state, wherein said disc resists axial movement along the mooring line when said closure is in the closed state with said disc face generally perpendicular to a mooring line axial axis; and (d) for urging said closure from the open state to the closed state.