Securing/locking a dinghy

catlotion

catlotion

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I've just bought a new Honwave dinghy and will be keeping it ashore in dinghy racks at a boat club. I'd rather it didn't disappear. Anyone have any good tips for locking up?

I've bought a hardened motorbike chain but there's nowhere great on the boat to attach it to. There are a couple of rings in the transom but they could be cut though pretty quick.

I notice others have just locked through the rubber handles on the tubes but could also be cut though pretty quick. I was thinking of bolting a bigger ring into the transom maybe..? Can't seem to find a decent hardened steel one though.

Maybe one of these bolted to transom with security bolts?

FD-MOTO Motorcycle Wall Ground Anchor Motorbike Lock Point Bike Scooter Security 7658794899121 | eBay
 
I once had a very expensive racing bike when I was at Uni, I gave it the worst hand painted job I could give it. Instantly recognisable and basically unsellable, never got stolen. Awful paint job works.
 
Decent S/S U-bolts through transom lowish down is the best you can do. Anything more fancy just becomes a challenge and easily beaten by an angle grinder.
PS. A bit late but for a dinghy left in racks I would have bought the cheapest strong dinghy, not wasted extra cash on a Honda brand - which (to my mind) is no better than Waveline etc, but more likely to attract thieves
 
Hole in the transom big enough for the chain to go through, plastic plug on a string to block the hole when in use.

We had a Honwave, excellent dinghy with large tubes. Very dry.

I dont think you wasted your cash. ?

IMHO, having owned both Waveline and Honwave, there really is no comparison. The Honwave is substantially heavier which should tell you something.
 
There's nothing you can attach to a rubber dinghy that will prevent anybody other than the casual thief making off with it; it's not physically possible. Making it look horrible is the main means of making it unattractive to thieves, as others have posted.
 
catlotion said:
I've just bought a new Honwave dinghy and will be keeping it ashore in dinghy racks at a boat club. I'd rather it didn't disappear. Anyone have any good tips for locking up?
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Deflate and take home.

Some time ago there was a gang who stripped the local river of dinghies. They came well tooled up and only those locked in buildings were spared.
 
rotrax said:
The Honwave is substantially heavier which should tell you something.
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It tells me that it's probably a bit more solid, but what it mostly tells me is that it's harder to lug from the storage to the water, and even more so on the return trip.

Can anyone explain to me why my little flubber always weighs twice as much when I put it away at the end of my sail than it does when I'm getting it out to go? Same thing with the OB. Physics is clearly broken :D
 
catlotion said:
I've just bought a new Honwave dinghy and will be keeping it ashore in dinghy racks at a boat club. I'd rather it didn't disappear. Anyone have any good tips for locking up?

I've bought a hardened motorbike chain but there's nowhere great on the boat to attach it to. There are a couple of rings in the transom but they could be cut though pretty quick.

I notice others have just locked through the rubber handles on the tubes but could also be cut though pretty quick. I was thinking of bolting a bigger ring into the transom maybe..? Can't seem to find a decent hardened steel one though.

Maybe one of these bolted to transom with security bolts?

FD-MOTO Motorcycle Wall Ground Anchor Motorbike Lock Point Bike Scooter Security 7658794899121 | eBay
Click to expand...
Maybe a large bag made of this stuff with the neck padlocked to the rack would be a good visual deterrent. After use, stuff it into a cloth bag. Inox 316 Flexible Architectural Ferrule Type X Tend Stainless Steel Wire Cable Mesh

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
Thanks for the dinghy choice opinions but I did lots of research and wanted something substantial with an aluminium floor and larger tubes because I've been getting soaked in my Zodiac roll up. Thought the Wavelines looked a bit cheap in comparison (suppose they are though).

Happy with my decision, just want to hang onto it, also when I leave it at a jetty and go to the pub... :p
 
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I kid you not...on the forshore not a million miles from Beaumaris was a little blue GRP tender with a hole in the floor where the security chain passed through it.
 
An idea I might copy is to drill a 12mm hole through the transom and crimp a 10mm flexible stainless cable through it.
An eye on the other end to padlock to something.

Most of the time, you just have to make your dinghy harder to steal than most others.

If we leave our dinghy and outboard anywhere dodgy, we padlock the engine to the dinghy and the motor lock to something fixed using a 10ft 4mm ss cable.
So far,so good.
Our dinghy is also marked using a small router bit on the wooden transom.
 
I don't know Howaves, but do they have a low down drain plug in the transom for letting out water whilst underway?

If so could you not obtain some chain the correct t size to pass thru that hole?
 
Ss wire works for me . Cant bolt crop it. But you wont stop them if they want it...toerags . Have scruffy things nice things go
 
Could you hide a tracker device on it so you know if it moves without you ? Range rovers are retrofitted with trackers so thief’s move just round the corner and leave before collecting but maybe they would not be so subtle with a Honwave? It might not stop the theft but you might know it’s been nicked ? The worry of the outboard being nicked it’s what puts me off an electric outboard . When we had to use a dinghy to reach pontoon we bought a grp dinghy but maybe your honwave use is not to reach mothership.
 
ashtead said:
Could you hide a tracker device on it so you know if it moves without you ? Range rovers are retrofitted with trackers so thief’s move just round the corner and leave before collecting but maybe they would not be so subtle with a Honwave? It might not stop the theft but you might know it’s been nicked ? The worry of the outboard being nicked it’s what puts me off an electric outboard . When we had to use a dinghy to reach pontoon we bought a grp dinghy but maybe your honwave use is not to reach mothership.
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Where would you suggest hiding a tracker on an inflatable dinghy? :unsure:
 
I would have thought that by now a small self powered tracker could just be stuck on the the rib-I doubt most thieves carry out much of a search before they cut the chain and Make off down the river.
 
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