Locking your Outboard - What is your Technique ?

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

And of course you should make your motor look like crap. I strip off all the stickers and slap on some sort of white paint I have lying around, which pretty soon gets beat up, scratched, and dirty. Underneath, the motor is in perfect shape, but from any distance it doesn't look like one you want to steal.

When it's on the boat and I'm in a suspect area I'll run a length of chain through the motor handle and across the deck, with the ends locked to stanchions or something solid. The handles of the motor are also locked together. Anyone trying to deal with the heavy chain inevitably makes a lot of noise, which chain does on a fiberglass deck.

+1

Pretty outboards get stolen. One that's spray painted and looks like hell is much harder to resell.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

OT, but this is one reason I like New England. Nobody ever locks their dinghy or outboard or raises them at night and I've never heard of one being stolen. Now somebody will chime in for sure with an incident, but it is pretty darn rare. --snip--

When we were in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard two years ago the harbor kid (a college kid wearing a harbormaster t-shirt) advised us to lock our dinghy. He said thefts are common, especially from drunks trying to get home from Edgartown to Chappaquiddick. Apparently the bars stay open later than the ferry, and some drunks will steal dinghies to cross and leave them on the beach -- often they are found or they float free on the rising tide and are lost at sea.

I have known of similar situations in Block Island when people take the launch ashore and want to return to their boat after the launch stops running. They'll steal a dink to return to the boat and then let the dinghy go free, to wash ashore elsewhere in Salt Pond.

These aren't crimes to finance some addiction nor to put food on a poor man's table. Some people are just self-centered inconsiderate swamp slime. No amount of money they might have changes that.

PS -- we lock our dinghy and motor with a 20 foot heavy cable that connects from the motor handle to a piling or open cleat. Not tool-proof but more trouble than the next-guy's dink.

[cfarrar]

I grew up in Edgartown, and we considered it normal to "borrow" a dink to get back from Chappy after midnight. Everyone knew where to find them the next morning... about 200 yards across the channel. But we always took rowing dinks, not ones with engines. Geesh, kids these days are so spoiled!

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by cfarrar

I grew up in Edgartown, and we considered it normal to "borrow" a dink to get back from Chappy after midnight. Everyone knew where to find them the next morning... about 200 yards across the channel. But we always took rowing dinks, not ones with engines. Geesh, kids these days are so spoiled!

It's "borrowing" ONLY if put it right back where you found it. If you think it's normal to steal I don't think much of your values.

[cfarrar]

SFT,

I agree completely. I was a knuckle-headed teenager. I guess on some level my friends and I felt that "borrowing" was acceptable because it was "our" island. We "borrowed" hot tubs late at night, or we had parties on private beaches or land trusts.

About 25 years ago we had our dink stolen while at anchor in North Sound, BVI. After talking with some locals at Gun Creek they "found" our dinghy for a $100 fee. Karma!

[boatman61]

Never had a dingy or outboard stolen...
I like to keep my outboard looking respectable as its my fallback emergeny fund from time to time...
Did have one oar stolen of my dinghy in Ferragudo, Portugal..
I assume it was some yachtie pratt as an inflatables alluminium clip together oar is no use to a fisherman.

[defjef]

You can easily lock most motors to the transon by turning the clamps so the handles align. The OB's I've had always had holes in the handles which I slip a pad lock into so the handles can't be turned and the motor lifted from the transom.

But this doesn't prevent someone from taking off with the whole rig... even when you remove the safety *key*... You can use a chain to lock the motor and the dink if there is a suitable place to secure the chain on the dock... a horn cleat of eye bolt...

[fla.sailor]

Try the stainless steel stazo lock, we've used ours for 3 years and still looks good considering the environment. This sucker is built to take a beating and got a good review from practical sailor.

-dennis

STAZO Outboard Engine Locks

[Nonsuch30C208]

I have looked at the Stazo Smartlock at LED lighting, soundproof, Sailor's Solutions Inc. and the website indicates it doesn't fit a Yamaha 15. It seems strange that it won't fit the most popular type of engine. Can anyone confirm this?

[DWJensen]

Originally Posted by Nonsuch30C208

I have looked at the Stazo Smartlock at LED lighting, soundproof, Sailor's Solutions Inc. and the website indicates it doesn't fit a Yamaha 15. It seems strange that it won't fit the most popular type of engine. Can anyone confirm this?

We have a Stazo and a Yamaha 15 - I don't know why they'd say it doesn't fit. That said, I did have to grind it some to fit our Edson rail moun, but it only needed grinding to fit when the OB is on the rail, not when it's on the dink.

[Nonsuch30C208]

Thanks Daz. Another link to an AU on-line retailer that I found with Google asks for the engine make and model on their order form. Not sure if there are different sizes of the Stazo. I have asked Sailor Solutions for a clarification.

Ray B.

[Cheechako]

Dont worry, after a couple of weeks you cant remove your outboard as the threads are stuck! Then the thieves have to saw it off.... which they do.

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by defjef

You can easily lock most motors to the transon by turning the clamps so the handles align. The OB's I've had always had holes in the handles which I slip a pad lock into so the handles can't be turned and the motor lifted from the transom.

.

The clamps on Yamaha outboards are plastic! A small tap with a hammer will break the clamp at the hole and off comes the lock and then off goes your outboard.

[Cheechako]

mine were metal so I just did that with the pad lock. But as said, didnt need it... threads froze up solid every couple of weeks.. The good theives have gone beyond "locking it up"; just take the whole dingy or saw it off..... still, you gotta try right!

[sy_gilana]

Our OB is bolted to the transom permanently, one bolt is 12mm the other 13mm the nuts are also different sizes, and two nuts backed against each other, the handles on the clamps are removed. So far so good, the thief would have to come well prepared. The dink is chained to the boat, and any movement is heard from the aft cabin. The closest we got to having it stolen was in La Linea in Spain, right next to Gibraltar, where we also had our passive infra red alarm located in such a way as to cover the dink. A swimmer in camo wetsuit with looong fins set it off one night, I did not catch him, he was off downwind in the dark, but I watched for a long time with my binocs and saw him board a fast large motorboat 1/2 mile downwind of us, it moved off slowly and only when it got to the light of a nearby tanker we could see that it was, well, "government registered", that should say enough.