Padlocking dinghy to mooring ?

[VicMallows]

The problem is not theft, but 'younger people who should know better' fooling around! (No one in their right mind would actually want to STEAL my dinghy, and even if they did they would carry bolt croppers). Either way, absence of the dinghy is likely to have far more serious consequences about getting to/from the boat than its monetary value.

When leaving the dinghy on the mooring (easy swimming distance from shore) I attach it by chain with a shackle - they are unlikely to have a suitable tool with them. When leaving it ashore I do try to nominally lock it to something for the same reason.

 

[Robin]

Back in the days when we had a swinging mooring in Poole, we had two dinghies, a rigid MOD (manky old dink) that had more patches than original hull, I rescued it from a pile waiting to be burned by the then yard. The other dinghies were various inflatables that we carried with us either fully inflated on deck or deflated and in a cockpit locker. When using the 'good' dinks away from home we never worried about them or the outboard on them being stolen and it never was. Nowadays in Yankee land and marina based we have just our 'take with us' dinghy which is a RIB hung in stern davits. The outboard is padlocked either to the dinghy or to it's bracket on the pushpit, but the dinghy is not locked either to the boat or the davits. We do have a spare drain bung for the dink on board it as we heard tales of those sometimes going walkabout

 

[Burnham Bob]

my main worry is going ashore in the dinghy from a strange anchorage. for example, goldhanger creek in the blackwater is a good anchorage and if you take the dinghy upriver you can walk to a great pub. but i always worry about local yobs setting it free or sinking it. so i have a length of chain and padlocks. mind you the dinghy is so old and tired that ripping out the metal eye wouldn't take much so i'm hoping it's a deterrent not a guaranteed security solution.