Boat security on a swing mooring..

[wipe_out]

Moving the boat to a swing mooring in Poole Harbour this season and wondering what others do in terms of security..

I guess the obvious first thing is don't leave anything of value on the boat but there are still things accessible to be stolen.. For example the batteries or engine components..

Alarms seem pretty pointless because who will be around to notice them?

Or am I just being paranoid? Is the boat perfectly safe 99% of the time?

 

[NUTMEG]

Not a lot you can do really. Kept an earlier boat on a swinging mooring for two years. Once arrived to find her covered in human naked footprints. Someone may have swam out to her! Nothing stolen. I had a very loud PIR alarm in the saloon 'looking' at the companion way (£20 from Maplins). Ear splitting in the confined space. Made me feel better!

 

[pcatterall]

There are plenty of devices you can use.
We left our boat in France over winter. I had a camera system which I could call up to do a visual check and there were alarms fitted to doors and the pump float which would trigger a picture and alarm on my phone. Our system was called 'Minder' and it cost around £100.
Of course you would need to be able to get there PDQ or have a contact who would respond.

 

[Seashoreman]

I suppose it depends on local activity. Where I am I have not heard of any break-ins to approx. 400 boats of various shapes and values. Apart from cans of fuel in the cockpit (possibly late night fishing by amateurs) and also annual outboard thefts (organised crime). Surely alot of secondhand boat stuff has an unknown value to the chance thief? I have heard of persons fitting out their own boat with gear they have stolen so maybe battery is vunerable, check your insurance. Maybe when you are on your boat they can be breaking into your house, this has never worried me as it has never happened and there are usually people about keeping an eye out.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Is the boat perfectly safe 99% of the time?

If it is that'll be 3.65 days a year when it's not.

 

[rosewood]

I had a swinging mooring for about four years and I am about to go back to one at Emsworth. I didn't have anything stolen but did have a couple of dings that meant someone had hit the boat. It was usually dinghies so no terrible harm done. In all honesty I never locked my boat as I reckoned they would cause more damage/cost breaking the doors in than they would stealing stuff

 

[chinita]

I agree. Nothing of real value left on my boat. Never lock it. Anybody going to the trouble to board a boat on a mooring will be tooled up to get inside.

 

[doug748]

Consider a tailored cover for the cockpit and get to know your neighbours.

There may even be an organised boaty watch scheme. Across the range of users there will often be someone around to keep an eye on things, if everyone is primed to keep an eye out.

 

[chewi]

Moving the boat to a swing mooring in Poole Harbour this season and wondering what others do in terms of security..

I guess the obvious first thing is don't leave anything of value on the boat but there are still things accessible to be stolen.. For example the batteries or engine components..

Alarms seem pretty pointless because who will be around to notice them?

Or am I just being paranoid? Is the boat perfectly safe 99% of the time?

Depends on whereabouts in Poole.
I had a swinging ( drying) mooring off Hamworthy in the early 1990's and was burgled 3 times in my final season , less in earlier seasons.
(This was a Vivacity650, not a gin palace)
I moved to Middle sands (off Salterns) in the mid 1990s, still there and have had no trouble since.

It may be that either the scrotes in the 90's just grew up, moved out or were locked away, or it might be that it being feasible to wade out to the old mooring made a difference.

Where is your new mooring?

 

[Lakesailor]

On Windermere there are about 850 occupied swinging moorings at present. There is a scheme which supplies a canvas cover for your outboard (with a Police logo on it) The idea is you remove the motor cover and replace it with this. If someone were to pinch the motor they would need to source a new cover. It doesn't address the problem of somebody pinching a motor and the nipping over and swiping a suitable cover from someone not in the scheme. Who is going to actually take their engine cover home, so it's probably in a locker or the cabin?
There is also the fact that those not in the scheme are more of a target.
Bit of an "I'm alright, Jack" idea I thought.

I had some new bouyancy aids swiped from Slippy once, but as I didn't lock the cabin there was no damage. A neighbour had some likely lads pinch his cannister liferaft (the boat had been on the sea previously) and take it ashore to use as a tent.

Most pilfering seems to be opportunist vandals, except the outboard issue which is organised.
(A member of the Royal Windermere Yacht Club was nobbled with 16 outboards in his outbuilding a few years ago.)

 

[onesea]

If you have a 24hr moat even thick gloopy mud around you as others have said its more secure.

I do not have much of value onboard other than sails VHF old GPS. When I bought a new lock I asked for one that looked secure as it was for insurance, if they where going to break in they where going to do damage so minimalise it.

I have been tempted by ear piercing PIR device just never got round to it. How do you make it so it does not pierce your ears when you get onboard?

 

[CreakyDecks]

Mine is on a drying (muddy) mooring. The only time I've been broken into was in the boatyard over winter!

 

[rosewood]

Mine is on a drying (muddy) mooring. The only time I've been broken into was in the boatyard over winter!

It's much easier for crooks to steal from boats in a marina. They are like water and will always find the easiest way because they are idle and awful

 

[Daydream believer]

The River Blackwater suffered a bad state of theft last year & a number had expensive bits stolen

On one boat they removed the window then took all the electrics & clothing etc.
That boat was parked just opposite a family members house yet they made 2 separate visits
Not leaving anything of value is a real pain as lugging electrical items each way plus personal possessions back & forth is a no no
on the first visit they definitely used the cockpit tent as a cover to hide under so the owner has now removed it

 

[NUTMEG]

If you have a 24hr moat even thick gloopy mud around you as others have said its more secure.

I do not have much of value onboard other than sails VHF old GPS. When I bought a new lock I asked for one that looked secure as it was for insurance, if they where going to break in they where going to do damage so minimalise it.

I have been tempted by ear piercing PIR device just never got round to it. How do you make it so it does not pierce your ears when you get onboard?

The one I had had a thirty second delay, giving time, just, to enter the pass code.

 

[wipe_out]

Hmmm.. Sounds like boats on swing moorings are easy pickings for thieves and they know it.. Guess leaving nothing of value on board is the only real option, just a hassle to cart it all each time..

On the plus side it keeps the weight and clutter build up down..

Might look into one of the systems that texts a message for various events..

 

[oldharry]

40+ years on various swinging moorings, 2 break ins: one to collect a Genny I had been seen putting aboard, the other to collect its replacement (they hadnt seen me taking it home!). Last 25 years have been in Chichester.

Yes there is a risk, just as there is in a marina. Just as there is a risk they will turn your home over while you are away.

 

[Greenheart]

It'd be jolly interesting if an amoral, utterly ruthless vigilante decided to discourage theft from boats in an area, by waiting inconspicuously on board, despatching the unauthorised visitors with a boat-hook or spear-gun, then quietly jettisoning their worthless corpses with a link or two of 1/2" chain to keep them within convenient reach of crabs' claws.

There'd be little benefit in trying to scare them, or actually duffing them up...that would make them into ruddy squawking little victims. Much better if they just disappeared forever...

Of course, I can't say I wish it would happen...that wouldn't be right...criminals have rights......but I reckon it'd be very interesting. I'd be fascinated.

 

[LittleSister]

My strategy is to ensure I have the humblest looking boat in the vicinity!

 

[planteater]

I set off a shed alarm in a Seawych and it made me feel sick!