Dinghy stole with new outboard - AGAIN - what do you use?

[chowdan]

Hi guys,

Back in October I had my outboard stolen. I live aboard on a mooring ball full time, year round in the PNW. My outboard was not locked to the dinghy - its oil was mixing with water so i was upset up not terribly upset.

On Friday after a night at a friends house we arrived to the dock to find out that our dinghy and BRAND NEW 15hp Suzuki was stolen. Dinghy was a AB Navigo 9VS - great dinghy with a wonderful outboard. I locked the outboard to the dinghy with 2 different locks to two different points. Cant believe this happened no more than 4 months since the first outboard was stolen.

It really sucks to go through this all again considering I had installed an external fuel filter, put a new Spade S40 anchor + 20ft of chain and 100ft of rode onboard with the brand new outboard. This was a work boat for me, it was a pleasure boat, it was my vessel to/from the dock. I know you guys understand the pain this is causing so i wont go into any further details. I'm incredibly fortunate to be in a location where the community is standing behind me and my wife and our small liveaboard community as I am actively pursing the city to install cameras on our public dock in an effort to reduce crime(this has been a problem for 3 years, but never had a outboards stolen - usually props, chart plotters, VHF, etc).

ANYWAYS enough grumbling about the frustration. What are YOU doing to secure your dinghy to a dock now? Chain? Cable? Both? Something else?

As I search for a giant pile cash to pull out of my ass to buy a new dinghy and outboard, I'm also looking to see how the hell can I secure the dinghy to a dock better. I'm personally leaning towards a braided stainless steel cable that will loop through the outboard and dinghy and through a dock cleat - or a pillar or something of that nature.

[accomplice]

Motor locked to dinghy. 3/8" stainless chain from motor through gas can locked to dock. Chain has large stainless shackle attached at motor end, locktite, pin ground down and hammered such that chain forms loop through motor lock.

Chain could be attacked with battery powered angle grinder, but that will take a little while and hopefully attract attention.

[SailingHarmonie]

Almost nobody really wants to steal your dinghy. It's almost always just a tool to transport the outboard which is the valuable bit. Locking the outboard to the dinghy is barely an inconvenience for the thief. They just drive (or tow) the whole thing home and cut off the lock at their leisure.

If someone is going to walk down the dock carrying a pair of bolt cutters, NOTHING will save your boat. They can easily cut chain, cable, whatever. It's kind of funny seeing how some people secure their dinghies with HUGE heavy chains. As if that would actually help slow someone down with a boltcutter.

The best thing you can do is to make your dinghy not be the easiest, most attractive target at the dock. For this stainless steel cable is as good as anything. A nice long length you can run through the outboard handle and through the dock. You really don't have to sweat locking the dinghy to the dock, nobody is going to take the outboard off and dump it to steal your dinghy.

Also, useful to not have your outboard be the "pretty one." Make it uniquely yours, and not just on the cowling either. Let your inner graffiti artist out!

[SailingHarmonie]

Originally Posted by accomplice

Chain could be attacked with battery powered angle grinder, but that will take a little while and hopefully attract attention.

It's nice to know you don't have a thief's heart... but trust me... you do NOT need a noisy grinder to cut that chain.

One of these will be through in a second, and its so cheap it is disposable, and compact enough I can carry it around in a bag without attracting attention.

Once I have your boat off the dock, nothing else you have done matters. I can deal with everything else in my own good time, with the angle grinder

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by chowdan

What are YOU doing to secure your dinghy to a dock now? Chain? Cable? Both? Something else?

I am sorry for your loss.


My approach is to use either oars or a 50 year old 3hp outboard that nobody wants. My dinghy is homemade out of wood and fiberglass and painted a unique color and is unlikely to be stolen.


I realize this approach is not for everyone, but it works for me.

[PippaB]

Having been in the same boat, the only thing you can really do is cause your dinghy to take more time to steal than someone else's - time is the one thing that might pressure the people who want your dinghy. To that end, in addition to locking the thing up, we disable the engine whenever we tie up. There are various ways to do that, not going to advertise ours here, and they can pretty easily be bypassed, but that takes time. Towing the stolen dinghy may happen, but it seems most times (that we know about) the dinghy is driven away under it's own power - no power makes that more difficult.

In addition to the graffiti mentioned above, de-badge the outboard. It's not really going to fool anyone who know anything, but why advertise that it is a Suzuki 15HP? Again, just trying to make it the least obvious choice.

[Cheechako]

Davits with chain. Hard to get at.

[SailingHarmonie]

Originally Posted by PippaB

In addition to the graffiti mentioned above, de-badge the outboard. It's not really going to fool anyone who know anything, but why advertise that it is a Suzuki 15HP? Again, just trying to make it the least obvious choice.

This matters more than you might think. For example, there is a very large price difference on the "used" market between a Yamaha 15 Enduro (I believe the still the most popular outboard in the world) and a Yamaha 9.9, yet without the brand badging they are almost identical. On the other hand if you have a Honda 2HP, you can probably not worry too much...

We also do what we can to "disable" the engine. Some are obvious and trivial, like taking the deadman clip with you when you leave it, but we also cripple the fuel system in non-obvious ways so the engine can start, but only has the fuel in the carburetor...

Now that I think about it, one of the best things might be to have a "fake" deadman clip. One that fits under the stop button and LOOKS normal, but doesn't actually let the engine start...

[singlespeed]

Been there. Found the most effective is using a dinghy cover that you've stained and ripped a bit to look abused. Couple that with painting the motor cover with a few different colors of a patchwork pattern or a visually abused fabric cover and many thieves are immediately put off, thinking that the dinghy/motor are in poor shape and not worth much. After watching a local try to steal gas from our locked dinghy tank, I also drilled a hole in the gas cap and locked that to the same chain that locked the motor to the dinghy. Basically most thiefs are lazy and will steal something that will require the least amount of effort and exposure to discovery.

[MicHughV]

my solution....I installed a hidden "secret" kill switch underneath the engine. The engine will simply not start.

[wingssail]

We don't think we can stop a well equipped pro thief. But many outboard and dingy thefts are done by low level junkies and not-so-bright opportunists.

To thwart those we use a long, heavy, steel braided (and plastic coated) cable. It has eyes on both ends. A lock through the motor clamp handles, cable through the gas tank handle, and through the dingy bow eye then locked to a cleat or post at the dingy dock or ashore to a tree. Some places with heavy foot traffic we don't bother locking, but dark dingy docks with low traffic...we lock 'em up. Other stuff, like the oars, I worry about, but in 38 years we have not had anything stolen from our dingy.

At the mother ship, while anchored, we always raise the dingy, never leave it floating tethered. Every year we hear of cruisers whose dingy was stolen at night while tied behind their boat.

If I am worried about the dingy being cut down while hanging (into a panga which is pulled up just below it) I run my cable to the yacht. Maybe they cut the lifting bridle and drop the dingy into their waiting hands, but when they try to drive off it will make a big racket. Also, my lifting bridle is wire (plastic covered lifeline wire) which is a bit harder to whack through with a machete.

So far we've been lucky.

[Allied39]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Davits with chain. Hard to get at.

Huh, so you install davits and chain on every dock you tie up at....hmm, interesting approach.

From some of the spew I see written on this forum I was under the impression that this sort of thing only happened in big bad old Florida.

Glad to see it's not the case.

Sorry that you have to deal with thieving scum, but aint it just the way of things.

[MicHughV]

Ironically, in the B'mas with countless 1,000's of boats there, never locked my dinghy up ever...not once..never had a problem...

[Shanachie]

A hacksaw will cut through anything you can use in a couple of minutes. Locks, chain and cable are only meant to discourage the lazy and dumb, which a lot of thieves are.


I prefer ugly dinghy and small outboard of 2-3 HP. They just aren't as attractive on the stolen goods market as a larger one that can be used on a small fishing boat.

[boatman61]

I use a length of chain along with one of the two eye bolts in the transom (for use when lifting), apart from putting a lock through the outboard transom screws I also chain a loop though one eyebolt and the o/b handle secured with another stainless lock.
The chain is then fed fwd along one side of the dinghy looping the grab rope and down to the central tether point at the bow with a double pass to stop any play then back upto and into the dinghy.. this then leaves 2 metres for chaining the dinghy to a Dock with another s/s lock.
Never had an outboard or dinghy stolen.. yet..