THEFT !!!

rivonia

rivonia

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We left our boat at the marina to be worked on by the staff. After a week we were informed it was finished (nice work) only to discover that some thieving GIT had removed the batteries and bulb from the life ring floatin light. Can you believe it. by the way we are in Karpaz Gate Marina-Nth Cyprus. Had to be a fellow yachtie in my oppinion.

Angry

Peter
 
We had a life ring nicked in France. A right pain as the french ones are a slightly different size and don't sit right in the special thing there for holding the life ring in place.
 
I'm getting to the stage where I trust no one. Coming back from the Med I sent our mast up to Calais by road. I had left the running rigging on. When I got to Calais and examined the mast on the rack in the secure area, some scrote had sliced off all the halyard shackles.

I had a rescue sling nicked off the pushpit while the boat was left for a few days in Port St Louis and until last year I had thought that the Netherlands was fairly safe until we returned to our boat in Enkhuizen after five days away to find that someone ( must have been a fellow sailor) had unscrewed and taken the aerial extender for the Navtex.

Now I take off every easily removable item that I can before leaving the boat, even if it is in a "secure" marina. I also stay away from places that are likely to hold "shoestring sailors" who often regard other berth occupants as floating chandleries.
 
samwise said:
I also stay away from places that are likely to hold "shoestring sailors" who often regard other berth occupants as floating chandleries.
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I understand where you're coming from, finding your boat has been a target more than once must be depressing, but I take exception to being considered a thief.
Our club only has "shoestring sailors". Theft is practically unknown there, but anyone can walk in and out, so the odd thing has gone missing or been vandalised.
A thief is a thief, there are plenty of rich ones.
 
Well I thought I was badly done by but some of you have had the thieving Bar*^&**s around you as well. I shall now strip the boat and store it safely away whenever we leave her.

I just hope whoever took it gets something BIG taken from his boat and see how he feels.

Peter
 
Sorry guys, didn't mean to upset anyone. Perhaps I should have qualified the shoestring sailor a bit more. I know who I was aiming at and thankfully you don't find many of them in our ports and marinas. However, I will not go into a more detailed explanation because I am sure to dig myself a hole, suffice to say I have no problem with the frugal and the cost conscious yotties who represent most of us.
 
samwise said:
.....Now I take off every easily removable item that I can before leaving the boat, even if it is in a "secure" marina. I also stay away from places that are likely to hold "shoestring sailors" who often regard other berth occupants as floating chandleries.
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You would be surprised by who does the thieving, when I ran a chandlery all the thieving of little bits and pieces, ie cooker knob here, danbouy bulb there.. was done by guys with big boats and the bulging wallets and an attitude problem who resented paying for the little parts.

When the same parts as you had stolen went missing from our display, the security camera footage took me to one of the biggest motor vessels in the marina at that time.

The poorer sailors have their pride, and I never had a problem with them, they would have things put aside and come for them when they had a little more money as well as the fact they were more likely to support the local chandlery than the guys that would come in, have a good look at the stock to make their choices and go home and order it off some website.
 
Except for the old saying. Most people finish their boats so that they can go cruising but (nationality deleted to protect the innocent) .... go cruising so that they can finish their boats.

Our camper has been broken into 3 times. Our boat once.

Friend had a beautiful anchour stolen, which had been engraved with all their friends' signatures, as a leaving present.

Bikes go missing all the time, sometimes they turn up when the borrower has finished with them.

The other side of the coin is the increadible amount of gear, which is thrown away.
I'm sure that whatever I loose, I will still be in credit. :D
 
rivonia said:
We left our boat at the marina to be worked on by the staff. After a week we were informed it was finished (nice work) only to discover that some thieving GIT had removed the batteries and bulb from the life ring floatin light. Can you believe it. by the way we are in Karpaz Gate Marina-Nth Cyprus. Had to be a fellow yachtie in my oppinion.

Angry

Peter
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When it comes to valuable gear you can buy an comprehensive "RFID Scanner" for around £120. Then buy the appropiate rfid chips probably from the same seller which you can inject into the object or open the casing and adhere it to them ( the chips can be very cheap) inside, make sure you choose waterproof chips or place them in a waterproof container. Also that they can be read at some distance ( the distance factor may make the chips not so cheap).
 
Ben Dockrell 22 said:
When it comes to valuable gear you can buy an comprehensive "RFID Scanner" for around £120. Then buy the appropiate rfid chips probably from the same seller which you can inject into the object or open the casing and adhere it to them ( the chips can be very cheap) inside, make sure you choose waterproof chips or place them in a waterproof container. Also that they can be read at some distance ( the distance factor may make the chips not so cheap).
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Derrr. Sorry is this in English. As I get older I understand less and less. Is this something which I should know about or should I just go back to sleep?

I hate soggy chips:D
 
Searush said:
RFID probably stands for Radio-Frequency IDentification. They will be small electronic chips (like the ones they put in dogs) that can be scanned by a handheld device to prove ownership.
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That's handy to know. SWMBO has a number of said chips in her surgery. Perhaps I can rename the outboard Fido! :D
 
rivonia said:
We left our boat at the marina to be worked on by the staff. After a week we were informed it was finished (nice work) only to discover that some thieving GIT had removed the batteries and bulb from the life ring floatin light. Can you believe it. by the way we are in Karpaz Gate Marina-Nth Cyprus. Had to be a fellow yachtie in my oppinion.

Angry

Peter
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What's depressing about that is that 99 out of 100 owners wouldn't have noticed it until one dark night when someone went over the side. The thief could have caused an unnecessary death.
 
You can get camcorders which are marketed to drivers just in case of needing to claim on insurance,theft ect.

Theres quite a choice out there.

You can simply stick them in your boat and discretely on the deck or looking out to the deck from the hatch or a window. you can have two way mirror film with your camera behind it.

Mind you if you catch them in the act and have one or two devices handy you could hold a taser party ? :D


As an afterthought some boat owners may already have some form of cctv, you might enquire if any boat owners moored next to your boat has cctv.

Also one aspect of the Southdown Marina is they state they have cctv on the website which will of course be the case in other marinas thought its up to the marina / company if the choose to use cctv.*

*If anything gets nicked you need to inform the staff and do a subject access request ( or its equivalent for cctv). giving them the probable time/s of the theft.

If they state they do and a significant loss is suffered such as a boat or car and they say the dont have the relevent video recording it might be worth finding out the legal standing of the marina with a view to a compensation from them.
 
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