Dull but important question: dinghy park/boat yard security

[Greenheart]

I haven't kept a small boat out of the water in England for many years, except securely in my own or friends' gardens.

In times when tonnes of copper wire is pillaged from railways, and even road signs are swiped for unscrupulous scrap-dealers, is it wise to entrust rather expensive, very portable, possibly not very distinctive, highly-saleable dinghies, to yards out in the open?

I don't mean to have a go at metal-merchants - I only mean that things which even a few years ago weren't on thieves' menus, seem now to be at risk. Lots of dinghy parks have high but thin wire fences - scarcely proof even against pliers - and aren't overseen 24/7.

What's the dinghy-sailor's best policy? Ground-anchors and trailer-wheelclamps? Never leave sails/foils/blocks & hardware aboard? Own a tatty boat that nobody will covet? Or, is there a high-tech solution, like the traceable GPS blipper for finding lost pets/vehicles?

 

[l'escargot]

Stolen goods need a market. The size of the market will dictate the size of the problem. I don't think the size of the market for small dinghies is that great.

Probably the bigger danger is the borrower who neglects to return it or kids looking for adventure. Neither are usually inclined or equipped to overcome fairly simple preventative measures such as a simple padlock and chain round a post or some such and taking removables home with you.

 

[prv]

Unless you have a steel dinghy, I don't think the pikeys will be taking it to the scrappy just yet

Pete

 

[Neil_Y]

My boats are usualy left with foils, sails and loads of very expensive blocks, the only item taken was a main halyard shackle I assume borrowed and forgotten to return. Once I had a tow hitch removed from a trailer, but most of the boat and kit is not that interesting to crims.

 

[Greenheart]

P'raps it's just me, wanting a boat so much, I'm assuming they're vulnerable!

I'd think it's worth etching the boat name/sail number/club name onto expensive removeable tackle, isn't it? I mean, if such items can only be offered for cash to other 'people like us', and assuming none of us would shell out for something conspicuously stolen...

...then etching would sink the items' value to the opportunist criminal, even if boatpark security was less than ideal.

 

[Iain C]

The only boats that tend to go missing for profit are Lasers and the bits that go missing are Laser foils...simply due to their high numbers and mass production.

The dinghy sailing community is very close knit and it would be almost impossible to shift any other dinghy within the UK without people noticing and recognising the boat. An analogy would be trying to turn up at a classic car meeting with a stolen E Type...someone is going to recognise it.

The one thing I have had stolen was a brand new trailer wheel from the trailer park, now that one really did piss me off and to this day I still hope you catch yourself very painfully in your fly next time you take a pee....

 

[ChrisE]

My club had around 100 dinghies that, during the summer, are left rigged. In 12 years I've never heard of a problem.

To give a sense of proportion in the same period, 10s of outboards and a few inflatables have walked from the surrounding area.

 

[Zagato]

Stolen goods need a market. The size of the market will dictate the size of the problem. I don't think the size of the market for small dinghies is that great.

Think this is the reason so few boats/trailers and rigging is pinched when you see it all laid out bare

Outboard engines are another story however - a good market, easy to pinch and a decent wad of money with each sale Gangs have apparently come over from abroad to hit a few yards at a time in the past.

I'm always amazed at those that leave their flush fit GPS units in place £500 + just sitting their but again thankfully we don't have any security problems in our yard.

 

[Seajet]

I think as mentioned the main problem facing tender owners is kids / teenage yobs out for a lark.

I chain my dinghy down to a ground anchor as that is very obvious with the ( plastic covered ) chain over the gunwhale.

I also padlock it to a handy concrete post, and have a ( expensive but worth it ) brass bung and always take the bung to and fro in the car - top tip; the red top from a WD40 can makes a perfect bung holder, fixed near my car gear column so I can check it's there at a glance.

I painted an arrow inside the boat pointing to the hole where the bung should be, to get the message across !

Edit to add;

a chum had his trolley wrecked by yobs trying to steal that from under his chained dinghy, it was a rather fragile old job anyway but they obviously fancied it to move the boat they'd already appropriated; as I have a decent trolley I lead the chain from the dinghy through it so it can't be taken from under the boat; I suspect it's easier to take and sell trolleys than boats...

 

[prv]

I'm always amazed at those that leave their flush fit GPS units in place £500 + just sitting their

Mm - I'm cogitating over that one at the moment, as my plan for the new boat involves cockpit-mounted instruments whereas the old one stowed everything below except an ancient pair of speed and depth displays. They will be fastened from behind so not trivial to remove, but I'm under no illusions that someone who really wanted them couldn't smash the surrounding GRP.

Short of making up massive locking steel boxes to cover the mounting pods, which would be very awkward to fit, remove, and stow, I guess we just have to trust to luck and insurance

The yard has CCTV and there is a locked gate onto the pontoons, plus the liveaboards do tend to challenge people hanging around suspiciously.

Pete

 

[fireball]

The only boats that tend to go missing for profit are Lasers and the bits that go missing are Laser foils...simply due to their high numbers and mass production.

The dinghy sailing community is very close knit and it would be almost impossible to shift any other dinghy within the UK without people noticing and recognising the boat. An analogy would be trying to turn up at a classic car meeting with a stolen E Type...someone is going to recognise it.

The one thing I have had stolen was a brand new trailer wheel from the trailer park, now that one really did piss me off and to this day I still hope you catch yourself very painfully in your fly next time you take a pee....

We had our self draining bung nicked last year - I would've said it was borrowed and not put back - but the borrower didn't fasten the cover properly - the aft end blew off during a storm - and the bung never found its way back into my boat ... so it was nicked!
Also lost a trailer ... and dinghy wheels too ...

But overall, theft from sailing dinghies is quite low ... long may it stay that way!

 

[Lucky Duck]

My experiance was that packing up time at open meetings was when a lot of kit seemed to go missing.

 

[Stemar]

Mm - I'm cogitating over that one at the moment, as my plan for the new boat involves cockpit-mounted instruments whereas the old one stowed everything below except an ancient pair of speed and depth displays. They will be fastened from behind so not trivial to remove, but I'm under no illusions that someone who really wanted them couldn't smash the surrounding GRP.

Pete

My solution to that is a removable pod that comes home with me. Ordinary connectors (mostly colour coded phono plugs/sockets) work fine as they're behind a hinged door, not immersion proof, but certainly splashproof.

 

[gjgm]

My solution to that is a removable pod that comes home with me. Ordinary connectors (mostly colour coded phono plugs/sockets) work fine as they're behind a hinged door, not immersion proof, but certainly splashproof.

Yes.
Smaller units that are bracket mounted have connector plugs, so it is a 30 second job to remove the instrument.
Larger plotters that are flush mounted have the mounting bolts behind/underneath the grp, so arent usually that easy to remove.
I wouldnt think the incident rate of someone smashing the unit out of its grp mounting is very high? In those cases, I guess that is why you have insurance, policy excess depending.

 

[Greenheart]

Interesting posts. I'm glad to believe that most classes are small enough, and most class-crews well connected enough, for there to be minimal opportunity for benefit and minimal attraction to thieves, in these designs.

Perhaps there's something to be said for scoring/burning individuality into timber items like oars, which like outboards, will work aboard any small boat.

First instinct at the description above, of gangs of thieves (foreign or local) working their rat-like way through boatyards for profit, is BUILD A GUN TURRET!!! Those people hardly warrant conventional law and order, which scarcely seems to deter them anyway...

...but I expect one isn't supposed to express natural outrage and fury anymore. I'd think it would do our belongings' security some good, if the rumour of a very hands-on approach to security got around...all sorts of people stand in bars, earwigging...

...if it sounds to the average joe in the pub, as if any attempt on items in the boatyard will be met by a crowd of apoplectic locals with belaying pins and summary notions of justice, I'd think the average tea-leaf will stroll on to the next, quieter and less tidy boat park.

I think it was at Calshot two years ago, I saw lots of catamarans were standing on trailers, unfenced beside a public roadway. Some had their trailers' towball-sockets locked off with clever gadgets, some had wheel-clamps, but lots had nothing. It'd make me nervous.