Padlocking your boat to the mooring - do you?

[Sailingsaves]

Padlocking to a mooring ain't going to affect vandals or break ins.

Daft I call it, I wouldn't do it, just as I don't like being locked in overnight in my daughter's house because the door can be opened from the outside if it isn't key locked. I'd want to be able to cast a mooring off in a hurry in case of problems, just as I would like to be able to open the front door & run out if the house was on fire,

There's security & there's making things worse.

But does not padlocking to a mooring stop people easily letting your boat drift off? Never happened again since I padlocked the old girl = boat.
Addition - padlock was only on when away from boat - as you say, cast off quickly = padlock was always one of first things undone once I stepped onboard, then anchor ready, sailcovers off, engine ready etc.

 

[Uricanejack]

No, Just chain and shackles.
I lock main hatch.
I don't lock lockers.
I did not lock dingy, it was stollen.
I don't lock car.
I don't lock house.
I would if I lived some where else like big town or city. I live on a rural island with a small town.

 

[Seajet]

Searush,

I normally bow to your wisdom, but I've had this and other swinging moorings since 1978 and have sadly had my fears proved correct by events to other boats; as mentioned I leave the anchor available in case of ( un ) seamanlike problems like the mooring parting.

When going aboard I have a drill of taking all the padlocks off in case I need a line, fender etc but never needed an emergency slip of the mooring yet despite the odd dinghy hit.

I would never dream of padlocking a tender on a short scope to a pontoon - I've been to places with selfish gits leaving tenders like this, one has to climb from boat to tippy waterlogged boat to get ashore.

I might have sometimes considered an extra spare padlock on those considerate tenders blocking the pontoon, they must be very dear to their owners so only too glad to help with security.

 

[fireball]

You're reasonably close to where you're more likely to come across vandals who would do that sort of thing to your boat - I'm not - so little point in padlocking the boat.

 

[Seajet]

Is it worth taking the chance for the sake of a simple lock ? I wouldn't leave a car simply lassoed to a lamp post, would you ?!

 

[fireball]

No point - if they've gone to the trouble of getting to my boat the a padlock will make no difference. They could undo the shackle on the buoy if they wanted. If they've got to my boat they're not up to mischief - they're taking whatever they want. Not had a problem yet and not aware of anyone else in our area having a problem - but then we are out of the way....

 

[Seajet]

No point - if they've gone to the trouble of getting to my boat the a padlock will make no difference. They could undo the shackle on the buoy if they wanted. If they've got to my boat they're not up to mischief - they're taking whatever they want. Not had a problem yet and not aware of anyone else in our area having a problem - but then we are out of the way....

Undoing shackles on moorings requires brains and tools to beat the mousing plus the idiot probably getting wet.

We are talking of lowlife scum here, not boat thieves ( another type of LLS I'll grant but quite rare ); they just want to damage what some ' rich toff ' from beyond their sink estate has worked hard for.

I've seen yobs on ( probably stolen ) small boats from the East Coast to France and Cornwall, don't take the chance; what is the hardship to the boat owner, a few quid for a padlock and another key on the ring to consider the buoyancy of the cork job.

 

[interloper]

You can't predict where thieves will choose to strike.

I kept two different sailboats at a marina that was sandwiched between public roads. There was no fence and the distance from the street to the docks was less then 10 meters. I never had anything stolen, though a friend with a boat in a nearby slip did have a small outboard motor disappear.

I now have a private pier behind my house where I've kept two different powerboats. My previous powerboat was plundered twice. Both times, the starting battery was stolen. Fishing poles, a battery charger, and other assorted gear also went missing. I keep everything on the pier locked.

 

[Lakesailor]

You should slacken the warps when the river is going down.

 

[interloper]

^^ Good idea!

The amazing thing is that keeping a boat on a lift with the power off does not deter thieves. They will still climb into the boat and snatch a battery that weighs over 20 Kg. I actually heard about a large cigarette boat being stolen from a lift with the power off. The thieves cut the lift cables.

 

[fireball]

Undoing shackles on moorings requires brains and tools to beat the mousing plus the idiot probably getting wet.

We are talking of lowlife scum here, not boat thieves ( another type of LLS I'll grant but quite rare ); they just want to damage what some ' rich toff ' from beyond their sink estate has worked hard for.

I've seen yobs on ( probably stolen ) small boats from the East Coast to France and Cornwall, don't take the chance; what is the hardship to the boat owner, a few quid for a padlock and another key on the ring to consider the buoyancy of the cork job.

It would take some brains to get to our moorings. So more likely to encounter boat thieves - but they seem to avoid bavs for some reason ...

 

[Seajet]

How stable is it feeling, there's a lot of evil gits collecting scrap metal lately !

Not entirely joking...

It seems that yobs / casual thieves often steal a dinghy to get out to cruisers on moorings, and a solo cruiser on a mooring acts like a magnet for lowlife.

As for pro boat thieves, there was a case years ago in a marina where the boat owner had an inventory checklist by the chart table; he found the b******s had ticked off each item as they took it !

A good reason not to go to boat jumbles.

As for the casual yobs targetting solo boat on moorings, years ago my Dad's Centaur was broken into just after he bought her, and put her alone on the mooring a month before the rest of the club boats got launched.

They only stole things like a radio cassette player, but made a real mess, even cooked a meal and apparently slept aboard.

Dad's tools are still around in the mud where they threw everything overboard in plain spite; there was a bit of a good side though, the perspex hatch they'd shattered was covered in blood !

 

[Woodlouse]

Blimey. All you guys with your padlocks and your robberies and your petty vandalism.


You'll be telling me you don't leave the key in the ignition next.

 

[fireball]

Padlocking the mooring chain won't stop a break in - nor would it stop the determined boat thief.
There are so many things you could do to protect your boat that to do the mall would take up your sailing time. So like most ppl - you assess what is most likely and protect against that.

Most likely for us is being hit by another vessel - but I don't bubble wrap the topsides ....

 

[obmij]

Anyone used a GSM camera type device? Texts you photos if motion sensor is disturbed..

If they work would be better than a padlock. One could alert police etc as breakin occurs and would potentially have evidence.

 

[Seajet]

Anyone used a GSM camera type device? Texts you photos if motion sensor is disturbed..

If they work would be better than a padlock. One could alert police etc as breakin occurs and would potentially have evidence.

Unless this camera is slaved to a machine gun it won't actually prevent the scrotes casting her adrift !

However as an add-on as well as the Mk1 padlock anything is useful, I'm all for alarms with a strobe light on the mast ( a siren is useless ) and our club now has seriously uprated CCTV on the grounds and moorings, thanks to a member who used to work on Tornado avionics - well he had to do something useful some time !

As for alerting police, I was on the slip one day when a dinghy was stolen by 4 yobs; a member next to me called the police and gave them the destination and ETA in about 30 minutes time of where they were heading; plod did nothing.

 

[sighmoon]

The last two were on moorings, and neither was padlocked to the mooring - I can imagine unforeseen consequences. Neither was actually locked either. There was simply nothing of value onboard, and if a thief came visiting, I'd like him to discover that before putting a sledgehammer through the hatch.

Current boat lives in marinas, so different ballgame. We have electronics etc, so we lock it. I'm pretty sure the lock wouldn't slow a first offender down by more than a few seconds though.