More thefts on the river

Sadly a mate of mine lost his outboard this week from MYC, I understand a couple of others went to.

I did a lap of the moorings last night before it got dark, no obvious signs of break ins to boats, appears to be just outboards.
 
They'd have trouble syphoning diesel from my tank, as it has an anti-splash fitting in the way. On second thoughts, they'd probably find out and pour water in just to spite me.
 
HappyAfloat said:
More thefts on the river

Further to reports of diesel being siphoned from moored vessels at Queenborough and Strood ..........
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How do you siphon fuel from a vessel afloat? Nearly all fuel tanks are in the bottom of the hull and at, or below, the water level. How do you get the receptacle lower than the fuel level without it being underwater?
 
CLB said:
How do you siphon fuel from a vessel afloat? Nearly all fuel tanks are in the bottom of the hull and at, or below, the water level. How do you get the receptacle lower than the fuel level without it being underwater?
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I thought it was possible to siphon “uphill” once you have the siphon started? Not sure how big a level difference. Would presumably need some sort of suction though, they probably just use portable 12V pumps.
 
CLB said:
How do you siphon fuel from a vessel afloat? Nearly all fuel tanks are in the bottom of the hull and at, or below, the water level. How do you get the receptacle lower than the fuel level without it being underwater?
Click to expand...
Perfectly possible on my Moody 31, where the tank is effectively in the cockpit locker. Probably true of a lot of fin keel boats, where the body of the hull isn't very deep.
 
I know what a syphon is, and I'm pretty sure everone else does too, even if the spelling appears to be elastic. However, I am quite happy for the word to be used very loosely to describe the action of extracting fuel from a tank. We use plenty of other words inaccurately, with 'decimate' being one of the commonest offenders.
 
The Roman decimation was a brutal method of punishing a legion which had performed disgracefully in battle. The troops were lined up and every tenth man was given a large club. On the order he then had to kill the man standing next to him by crushing his skull!
Literally one man in ten was killed. Supposed to inspire them to do better next time.
 
The online Oxford gives the verb siphon the primary definition of to draw off using a siphon, but also (with a financial example) the secondary definition of ‘draw off or transfer over a period of time, especially illegally or unfairly’; the Online Etymology Dictionary says the figurative sense is recorded from 1940. The loss of specificity may be regrettable, but I suspect that many people now associate the word with theft rather than with a mechanism which they rarely if ever employ.

The original Greek σίφων (a pipe) implies siphon as the etymologically correct spelling, and there are many long-standing technical usages which do not refer to a true physical siphon: e.g. the soda siphon, back-siphonage, the anti-siphon valve and the siphons of molluscs and other animals - more here: Siphon - Wikipedia. The more one thinks about it, the more remarkable it may seem that the primary dictionary definitions still retain the purity of the concept!
 
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Hydrozoan said:
The online Oxford gives the verb siphon the primary definition of to draw off using a siphon, but also (with a financial example) the secondary definition of ‘draw off or transfer over a period of time, especially illegally or unfairly’; the Online Etymology Dictionary says the figurative sense is recorded from 1940. The loss of specificity may be regrettable, but I suspect that many people now associate the word with theft rather than with a mechanism which they rarely if ever employ.

The original Greek σίφων (a pipe) implies siphon as the etymologically correct spelling, and there are many long-standing technical usages which do not refer to a true physical siphon: e.g. the soda siphon, back-siphonage, the anti-siphon valve and the siphons of molluscs and other animals - more here: Siphon - Wikipedia. The more one thinks about it, the more remarkable it may seem that the primary dictionary definitions still retain the purity of the concept!
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An old Oxford Concise Dictionary tried to give 'tire' as the correct spelling for the rubber things on wheels. Fortunately, this was unsuccessful. I prefer 'syphon' for its quirkiness, and perhaps for its similarity to 'python'. Matters of correctness or aetiology seldom concern me so much as the aesthetics of written English and a wish to keep its strange complexity. There are spellings which I would not categorise as wrong, but just what I would prefer to avoid. Some have crept in as errors within my lifetime, and I still find myself taken aback when reading 'cill'. Some Americanisms we just have to accept, such as 'archeology', others I hope that we will fight to avoid, such as 'etiology'.
 
johnalison said:
An old Oxford Concise Dictionary tried to give 'tire' as the correct spelling for the rubber things on wheels. Fortunately, this was unsuccessful. I prefer 'syphon' for its quirkiness, and perhaps for its similarity to 'python'. Matters of correctness or aetiology seldom concern me so much as the aesthetics of written English and a wish to keep its strange complexity. There are spellings which I would not categorise as wrong, but just what I would prefer to avoid. Some have crept in as errors within my lifetime, and I still find myself taken aback when reading 'cill'. Some Americanisms we just have to accept, such as 'archeology', others I hope that we will fight to avoid, such as 'etiology'.
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I have always used siphon, but not from any notion of correctness with which I could justly criticize your preference - the serpent Wiki tempted me, and I fell. I share your reaction to cill, and my main point was the multitude of 'siphons' that are not.
 
I'm pretty sure that the sign at Tollesbury Marina in the early 70s read 'Grounding on the cill incurs a fine of £5'. I was surprised a Cambridge Blue like John Goldie would have tolerated that sort of Americanism.
 
pvb said:
"Cill" is correct in that context.
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Since it is the same word, that doesn't make sense. A sill/cill merely means a ledge of certain types. A marina sill doesn't become a cill just because of the salt water. 'S' long preceded 'c' in its spelling and all that has happened is that the variant spelling has achieve sufficient use to be regarded as acceptable. Authentic or not, it doesn't mean that I have to like it. There are many instances of English usage that I can't describe as wrong, merely as alternatives that I prefer to avoid myself. The commonest one is the pronunciation of 'either' as 'eether', whereas I prefer 'eyether'. Another is 'envelope' said as 'onvelope' vs my preferred 'ennvelope'.
Which is correct, "cill" or "sill"?
 
johnalison said:
Since it is the same word, that doesn't make sense. A sill/cill merely means a ledge of certain types. A marina sill doesn't become a cill just because of the salt water. 'S' long preceded 'c' in its spelling and all that has happened is that the variant spelling has achieve sufficient use to be regarded as acceptable. Authentic or not, it doesn't mean that I have to like it. There are many instances of English usage that I can't describe as wrong, merely as alternatives that I prefer to avoid myself. The commonest one is the pronunciation of 'either' as 'eether', whereas I prefer 'eyether'. Another is 'envelope' said as 'onvelope' vs my preferred 'ennvelope'.
Which is correct, "cill" or "sill"?
Click to expand...

I don't think linking to an American website is necessarily helpful. In the UK, "cill" is the more usual spelling of "sill" when used in the context of an underwater horizontal member which forms the base of an entrance to a basin .
 
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