Immobilising the dinghy

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Mctavish

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Where you are going to leave your dinghy at a pontoon/quay etc. for a short while, is there a small part in the outboard which you can whip out so as to immobilise it? Obviously there are other ways that someone could still remove the dinghy & outboard while you are absent. It's not foolproof, but it might help.
 
I'm sure many of us have given this some thought. The simple answer is no. It wouldn't be too difficult to remove the spark plug, but I'm unhappy about leaving the engine open to the elements. The only thing that seems to me to have some possibilities would be to rig the engine kill switch permanently engaged. That would work, but if anyone repeatedly tried to start the engine it would need a new spark plug to get you home! Perhaps you could remove the fuel tap handle? If it is of a type which would work without being screwed on you could attach it to the engine with a lanyard when in use and pocket it when parked...

Rob.
 
I have an outboard lock which will deter the casual scrote but not a detemined thief - but for pontoons etc the public positionoing should mean no serious tea leafs. I'm always worried about the local yobs setting the dinghy adrift so I have some chain and padlocks that go through the dinghy towing eyes. Again not enough to foil a real thief but enough to deter casual nuisances.
 
Burnham Bob said:
I'm always worried about the local yobs setting the dinghy adrift so I have some chain and padlocks that go through the dinghy towing eyes. Again not enough to foil a real thief but enough to deter casual nuisances.
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My approach also. Usually they only intend to go for a short joy-ride .....but then get scared when they think they have been rumbled and swim ashore leaving the dinghy to its fate. On a tourist beach I have found that it's the oars that are vulnerable rather than the dingy
itself ......due to the antics of much younger children!
 
I don't think anything short of a Claymore mine will put off pro thieves, it's the casual joyrider yob one is usually up against.

On my rigid tender I had our local chandlery swage a hard eye splice with 20' of 3mm stainless flexible wire, onto a Seasure hard eye bolted through the side.

The cruiser is protected from damage via the bolt heads on the tender side, by a computer mouse mat araldited on.

With this wire set up I can padlock the dinghy to the eyes on the slipway or quay.

The 2hp outboard, if I'm using it, is padlocked through the eyes in the ends of the clamps.

I also take the brass bung with me, and there's a big painted arrow inside the bilges pointing to the hole to give yobs the hint there's little future in stealing the boat even if they get past the wire and padlocks !

I do have to carry the oars and rowlocks with me, but if going to the club or car there's storage space, or at the pub they make handy conversation pieces. :)
 
Seajet said:
I don't think anything short of a Claymore mine will put off pro thieves, it's the casual joyrider yob one is usually up against.

On my rigid tender I had our local chandlery swage a hard eye splice with 20' of 3mm stainless flexible wire, onto a Seasure hard eye bolted through the side.

The cruiser is protected from damage via the bolt heads on the tender side, by a computer mouse mat araldited on.

With this wire set up I can padlock the dinghy to the eyes on the slipway or quay.

The 2hp outboard, if I'm using it, is padlocked through the eyes in the ends of the clamps.

I also take the brass bung with me, and there's a big painted arrow inside the bilges pointing to the hole to give yobs the hint there's little future in stealing the boat even if they get past the wire and padlocks !

I do have to carry the oars and rowlocks with me, but if going to the club or car there's storage space, or at the pub they make handy conversation pieces. :)
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I'd like to do something like that. I've now learned "swage", "hard eye splice", "araldited" and "slipway eyes".
 
Daydream believer said:
I have a 7ft long rigging wire with a loop each end. this is long & thin enough to pass through the eyes in the Avon & around a pontoon. It rolls up into 9 inch coil & is not heavy. Use a padlock to fasten it
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Ditto, but I use an old fore stay wire. Handily it had swaged eyes both ends. About 22' long so the dinghy does not get in the way of pontoons etc when left locked up.
 
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Mctavish said:
Do you mean a chain, as I don't see how a clamp-style lock would immobilise the boat? The outboard will already be locked to the boat (as far as it can be) with a clamp-style lock.
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I see. Yes, sorry, I'm talking about securing the OB but you're wanting to secure the entire dinghy.

If I wanted to do that I would just unclip the kill button plastic slider which goes under the kill button and take it with me.

A determined thief could wedge it back in place with something but it's not that easy as I found out once when I had to use an OB which had been supplied with the wrong slider. The different makes are slightly different thicknesses and not always interchangeable.

Richard
 
RichardS said:
A determined thief could wedge it back in place with something but it's not that easy
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The standard dodge is to wind a length of string around it. The more turns, the further out you push the button. Not hard at all, though I grant you the average casual joyrider is unlikely to know about it.

Pete
 
prv said:
The standard dodge is to wind a length of string around it. The more turns, the further out you push the button. Not hard at all, though I grant you the average casual joyrider is unlikely to know about it.

Pete
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The joy riding kids in Lanzarote knew how to do,it on my dink. They didn't know how to turn fuel on though so ran out halfway across the harbour. We found the dink on the opposite side of the harbour abandoned.
On our current rib we have a proper engine lock (to satisfy insurance company otherwise you are not insured) and also some plastic coated 5mm guardwire with talurite ends. This goes to engine lock, through a D ring at back of rib, through fuel tank handle, through eyebolt at front of rib then onto the pontoon where it is padlocked to a cleat. You can thread anything else you want into this wire such as oars (holes on blades) for added security
 
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