Best number to paint on my dinghy: MMSI, SSR, Callsign?

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Hello I have found a nice inflatable, I plan on keeping it, and bought some PVC paint. I'm going to paint my yacht's name in big letters, and I was thinking perhaps I should put a number as well, so if I lost it the owner could be traced, etc.
If this is a good idea, for international use should I use

My radio call sign, from Ofcom?
Or my SSR, from the DVLA.
Or my MMSI?

The call sign is what I vaguely thought was best..it's also the shortest!
Thanks for a steer in the right direction Paddy

I suppose I can phone Falmouth for advice but I don't like bothering people like that. Is there official recommendations?
 
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ditchcrawler

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In some areas of the world it is advised not to put your boat name on your tender, as when it is seen tied up on a pontoon or at the quay you are telling people
that your boat is empty and available for plunder.
 

Gwylan

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In some areas of the world it is advised not to put your boat name on your tender, as when it is seen tied up on a pontoon or at the quay you are telling people
that your boat is empty and available for plunder.

+1 Put the SSR number on, so that if it is lost it can be identified. Most scroats will not be able to work out which ship it belongs to. And hence ripe for a quick visit.
 

macd

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In some areas of the world it is advised not to put your boat name on your tender, as when it is seen tied up on a pontoon or at the quay you are telling people that your boat is empty and available for plunder.

This is often trotted out. It's always seemed to me that the absence of a tender from a vessel at anchor/on a mooring is far more conspicuous than a string of letters on the tender itself.
 

Plum

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Hello I have found a nice inflatable, I plan on keeping it, and bought some PVC paint. I'm going to paint my yacht's name in big letters, and I was thinking perhaps I should put a number as well, so if I lost it the owner could be traced, etc.
If this is a good idea, for international use should I use

My radio call sign, from Ofcom?
Or my SSR, from the DVLA.
Or my MMSI?

The call sign is what I vaguely thought was best..it's also the shortest!
Thanks for a steer in the right direction Paddy

I suppose I can phone Falmouth for advice but I don't like bothering people like that. Is there official recommendations?

If you are going outside of UK waters the MMSI is the one that is more readily understood and accessible to marine authorities and can be used by anyone with a dsc vhf to call you. Otherwise, mobile number (with country code if going abroad)

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 

JumbleDuck

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This is often trotted out. It's always seemed to me that the absence of a tender from a vessel at anchor/on a mooring is far more conspicuous than a string of letters on the tender itself.

+1. If I wanted to steal from boats in an anchorage I would not wander along the shore looking for tenders, noting any names on them and then somehow working out which anchored boat had which name. I'd cruise around in a dinghy, approaching boats with no tender visible (or, ideally, watching for tenders leaving boats) and then approach with a plausible story ("Can you let me have a litre of two-stroke oil?") in case anyone is aboard.
 

KellysEye

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>If I wanted to steal from boats in an anchorage I would not wander along the shore looking for tenders, noting any names on them and then somehow working out which anchored boat had which name. I'd cruise around in a dinghy, approaching boats with no tender visible (or, ideally, watching for tenders leaving boats) and then approach with a plausible story ("Can you let me have a litre of two-stroke oil?") in case anyone is aboard.

In the Caribbean it's not cruisers that break into boats it's the locals and they do look for boat names on dinghies ashore, nobody painted a boat name on their dinghy.
 

JumbleDuck

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In the Caribbean it's not cruisers that break into boats it's the locals and they do look for boat names on dinghies ashore, nobody painted a boat name on their dinghy.

In places where there is likely to be a significant number of yachts with tenders stowed on board, I suppose that might work, but it seems like an awful more effort than just going up to a yacht with no visible tender, asking "Would you like to buy some fish?" and looting it if nobody replies.
 

Triassic

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I guess it depends if the objective is crime prevention, i.e.: something to deter a thief from pinching it, or if you want to provide a means of it being returned to you if it were to become lost.

For the later then something unique to your yacht such as the SSR number would be better than a name, however this will not necessarily be a deterrent to theft. You could carve the number into the transom or seat which would help prevent it from being removed easily, but just how often do you or anyone else check that a number on a tender relates to the yacht it is attached to.... The best deterrent to theft is making your tender stand out and be so immediately identifiable that the thief is simply going to pick an easier target, so paint it bright pink!

My garden tractor has "STOLEN FROM" and my postcode spelt out on the bonnet in holes drilled right through. All the time it's in my garden with me using it nobody else is ever going to read that, but if some scrote were to break into the shed to pinch it they should see that and decide not to bother.....
 

JumbleDuck

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You could carve the number into the transom or seat which would help prevent it from being removed easily, but just how often do you or anyone else check that a number on a tender relates to the yacht it is attached to....

I've spent the last two summers sailing around towing a dinghy with "T/T <something else>" on the transom. I really must get around to changing that. Meanwhile only my innate honesty has saved a couple of marinas from being stung by a boat for which they would have looked in vain.
 

KellysEye

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>It's also not true: "nobody" is a dauntingly high proportion of the yachting population.

We spent six and a half years in the Caribbean and saw over 1,000 yachts and their dighies and I can assure nobody had a boat name painted on their dinghy. Cruisers talk to each other and not having a name spreads as do many other things such as where not to go because of robberies where the crew is often shot dead during the robbery, the Venezuelan coast is an example.
 
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