thieving b****rds,portsmouth harbour

[Laundryman]

Happy New Year to everyone, sadly not for me. I decided to leave my boat in the water this winter to make use of any nice days, like yesterday. 3 weeks since my last sail and i arrived to find that someone has taken my outboard motor which was a permanent fitment with remotes and charging, and my chartplotter which was concealed inside the hatch.
So if you are offered a 4 year old Mariner 15 hp 4 stroke Big Foot with remotes, incidently at 63 kilos, too big for one person to lift on and off!, or a Raymarine rc435i with waypoints from Walton on the naze round to Portsmouth, think of me please.
In the next 3 months I am planning to replace my boat and expect to spend approx £30k.
I am now questioning whether it is safe to leave her on a swinging mooring ( wicormarine) or whether it is safer to move to one of the more expensive marinas. Any thoughts?

 

[V1701]

Horrible to return to your boat & find that. If you're happy with the swinging mooring though I'd try to stay there, review/increase the security of your boat and equipment where/if you can but don't let them dictate where you go or what you do...

 

[Matt341]

Sorry to hear this, it is everyones nightmare!

We usually dry our boat out for the winter in a "secure" boat yard. We had an attempted break in one year but the alarm scared them off (not before they had a good go at the washboard)

I dont know what is the safest option to be honest, we used to keep our previous boat on a swinging mooring in the summer, we never had any problems there, other than a neighbour boat breaking off his mooring and scraping past us.

We are now in a Marina all year and dry out for a couple of months around Feb time. A few weeks ago 2 boats were stolen from the marina. Apparently around 22:00, 2 people got onto the pontoon (must have known gate code or followed someone through!), one boat was a cuddy type boat with a very large, new outboard on it, the other was a rib with twin outboards. The boats were driven out into the estuary, engines removed as well as chartplotter etc. and the boats left to smash up on the rocks. They must have had someone waiting on a boat outside.

There was a security patrol at the marina but the people must have watched the guard go upto the other part of the marina and then made a go for it. Yes they have CCTV but all that could be seen were 2 guys in hoodies.

I dont know what the best option is, I think it all depends on your area, e.g. how secure are the marinas, what sort of boats are in the marinas, what boats are on moorings around you? Have they had thefts as well?

Hope the above is of help.
Ian

 

[LadyInBed]

Sorry to hear that, I know how you feel

 

[stafs]

Sorry to hear about your loss makes me sick.
Obviously a well planned group which must of taken some time.

With the amount of boats in and around Portsmouth harbour and the fact that police are there primerily for the Naval Base, maybe a private patrol may help.

Don't think it will stop all thefts but may make these low lifes think twice.It should also give you the info that there has been a break in earlyer and pre warn you so that it is not so much as a shock finding it yourself.

The other problem is if they are caught they will only end up with 20 minutes comunity service

 

[lw395]

Sorry to hear about your loss makes me sick.
Obviously a well planned group which must of taken some time.

With the amount of boats in and around Portsmouth harbour and the fact that police are there primerily for the Naval Base, maybe a private patrol may help.

Don't think it will stop all thefts but may make these low lifes think twice.It should also give you the info that there has been a break in earlyer and pre warn you so that it is not so much as a shock finding it yourself.

The other problem is if they are caught they will only end up with 20 minutes comunity service

Several of the local clubs have a security rota, with members on site every night.
There are civi police as well as our friendly 'ModPlod'.
Maybe it would be worth raising the profile of this problem with the PLSA, perhaps co-ordinating the efforts of the clubs.

I suspect we get away lightly on the water, you would not leave a £100 bicycle unguarded the way we leave £50k yachts.

 

[RogerMayne]

Know how it feels

Hi,

Similar thing happened to me last year although I was luckier than you and they did not get in (my companionway door was badly damaged and took two days to repair).

Had the local police out and their advice was to take anything of value, especially electrics, off the boat when leaving on the mooring. They also advised me to leave any external lockers open " as they will only break in to see what is in them"

I am moored near to peewit island and the modplod come by at least four times a day so I would have thought that you would be as secure there as anywhere. I spoke to the modplod about theiving in the area and they said it is fairly common. They mostly go for items that are easily carried and sold on, perpetrators will usually be on a dinghy with fishing rods making out they are going fishing. They will anchor near some yachts and suss them out and if anyone comes along "they are only fishing". Very hard to catch them at it as they have all day to eye your yacht up and then will be in and out in a matter of minutes.

Got the distinct impression from both the local police and the modplod that if you have a boat on a swinging mooring then you can expect it to be broken into if you leave anything worth stealing on board which is a real shame.

 

[DJE]

Happy New Year to everyone, sadly not for me. I decided to leave my boat in the water this winter to make use of any nice days, like yesterday. 3 weeks since my last sail and i arrived to find that someone has taken my outboard motor which was a permanent fitment with remotes and charging, and my chartplotter which was concealed inside the hatch.
So if you are offered a 4 year old Mariner 15 hp 4 stroke Big Foot with remotes, incidently at 63 kilos, too big for one person to lift on and off!, or a Raymarine rc435i with waypoints from Walton on the naze round to Portsmouth, think of me please.
In the next 3 months I am planning to replace my boat and expect to spend approx £30k.
I am now questioning whether it is safe to leave her on a swinging mooring ( wicormarine) or whether it is safer to move to one of the more expensive marinas. Any thoughts?

Very sorry to hear that. We've been at Wicormarine for 10 years now with (touch wood) no problems and I've seen your boat on the moorings. We leave nothing on deck except the spinaker pole but our neighbours seem to get away with leaving a dinghy and liferaft outside all season. I know that Scott is taking security very seriously these days, and a patrol roster has been mentioned, but it's hard to see what he could do to combat this sort of thing.

It's probably worse this time of year with so few people about. You might be surprsised how cheap the marinas are for over-winter berths.