Looky Loos and What to Do About Them

[JPA Cate]

Look, I know it's fun to posture and look strong and terrifying, but really.....

.....Mainly, these are land based people with little knowledge of boats or boat people, and so, treating them with kindness and humor will do the best for all boaties over the long term.

Ann

PS, now the kayakers who scratch your 14K paint job, that's a different issue. Usuallly, they are totally unaware, and very apologetic, especially when told it is their insurance that will have to cover the damage. Big eyes, and in the case of the women, the "Oh, my God, I'm going to have to tell my husband," look, then murmuring the amount as they go away.

[Laughing Buddha]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

For marina use, I like translucent covers for the port lights [even printer paper will do], which allows light, or actual shades, or curtains.

When we first moved aboard we bought some translucent contact paper (sort of bathroom screen style) and applied to our forward head and master's berth port lights. Now, some 26 years later, it has only shrunk about 1/4" in all the heat of Mexico, South Pacific and Asia. Has been good privacy for those zones when dockside.

There are still the locals that come alongside in local boats in even the remotest anchorages, who are just interested in meeting us and maybe interested in some trade. Had this occur throughout the SoPAC and asia. It is always smart to keep a fender handy but not over the side for such occurrences.

Cheers - Jim

[a64pilot]

Way I see it is if someone comes aboard my boat, unannounced and uninvited, it's for nefarious purposes and they are likely to cause me or my wife bodily harm.
I see no difference than if they came in the back door of my house.

I'm not abdicating deadly force here, but I would likely detain them and let the Cops deal with them and in the very unlikely event I had a squirt gun with ammonia in it, yes I'd be likely to squirt them. But really, what are the odds of me having a squirt gun, with ammonia in it, in my hand? Now riding bicycles, it was readily available, and sometimes you had a very good idea where that dog was going to come from, likely from the same house he did last time

While I do not doubt what you guys tell me, if that kind of thing were at all likely, I'd move

[Capt Phil]

Seems that my method of dealing with uninvited interlopers aboard has raised a few sensitivities. Let me be clear... After this happened about a dozen times even in what was suppose to be a secure Marina, and having lost tools, cushions, a set of falls, even a tarp(!), my patience and love for my fellow man ran a bit thin.
This was our home and my possessions. If it were a land placed dwelling, how long would these looky Loos put up with me traipsing through their yard and picking up anything not nailed down?
No one was shot but there was plenty of warning if you did come aboard and it was effective. Phil

[Greene]

We don't mind the occasional dock walker stopping by to take a picture or say, "Beautiful boat." Heck, we have done that countless times ourselves. (Please holster those pistols)

We equate the main dock area to a public street, the finger piers are our lawn and our boat is our home. Walk the street if you please. Walk my yard and we will likely get ornery. Touch or enter my home without permission and we get pissed.

Mike and Brenda

P.S. If anyone peeks in and sees Mike naked then they will have been punished enough.

[vjm]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Way I see it is if someone comes aboard my boat, unannounced and uninvited, it's for nefarious purposes and they are likely to cause me or my wife bodily harm.
I see no difference than if they came in the back door of my house.

I'm not abdicating deadly force here, but I would likely detain them and let the Cops deal with them and in the very unlikely event I had a squirt gun with ammonia in it, yes I'd be likely to squirt them. But really, what are the odds of me having a squirt gun, with ammonia in it, in my hand? Now riding bicycles, it was readily available, and sometimes you had a very good idea where that dog was going to come from, likely from the same house he did last time

While I do not doubt what you guys tell me, if that kind of thing were at all likely, I'd move

100% understandable, but not how the law works. If there is no action that a reasonable person would deem physically threatening, using force against someone is probably going to cause serious problems for you. Someone standing on your property is not physically threatening you or anyone else, so using force against them is not going to be deemed reasonable.

Varies state to state of course, but I am in a state know for its bananas permissiveness on using force against others and that won't fly here.

To be clear, people are going to do what they are going to do in this situation, I am just advocating educating yourself about the potential repercussions before you decide how to address these kinds of situations.

A simple "Hey guys, this is a private boat and my home. You are actually trespassing right now. Could you please get back on the deck?" would probably suffice.

[Capt Phil]

I never said that I drew down on the trespassers... I was taught that to point a firearm at anyone meant that you would shoot them. Just the appearance of a firearm seems to send the progressives that populate the state of CA into a tizzy so it worked for me when I lived there. One of the reasons I left was to not have to deal with the politics and the people. Phil

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

.....Mainly, these are land based people with little knowledge of boats or boat people, and so, treating them with kindness and humor will do the best for all boaties over the long term.

Ann

.

Thank you Ann for your thoughts that I hope a few more belligerent forumers have read (but I doubt it as they seem only able to read something called 2nd amendment)

A sign-board "Private. No Boarding" works. A bit of rope across the gangway does the same. Both together sends the message.

But wilfully shooting photographers, children, mothers on Sunday walks, and old cootes remembering their Navy days, wilfully shooting them with glaring eyes let alone guns, boobytraps and haughty language is stupid when a smile and explanation will work easily.


Mark



Sent from a stupid phone that replaces words with weird stuff.

[Schooner Chandlery]

After a long night sail, around 10 am, we anchored in the free anchorage at Port San Luis (California) which is out in front of a small beach with swimmers and surfers. Within 30 minutes of dropping the hook, my husband and I were both in bed just dropping off to sleep when we hear footsteps on deck -- 4 guys on surfboards had paddled out and 3 were on the boat. One on the bowsprit, another trying to open our forward deck hatch and another standing around looking stupid.

My husband popped out the companionway and asked them why they were on the boat--the one trying to open the forward hatch was quick thinking and said "oh, I've never seen a hatch like this before and wanted to look at it up close...I thought nobody was aboard..." Seriously. My husband told them they had no right to EVER get on a boat uninvited it is trespassing at best and to get off the boat NOW and his wife was calling the harbor patrol at that minute (I wasn't, but I hupped to and called the Port San Luis Beach Patrol who happened to be driving their truck along the beach (I could see with binoculars their phone number!)..

When the surfers got back to beach, they had the gall to tell the beach patrol/police that they had not set foot on the boat! but they got close and that upset the owner. Unfortunately, the beach patrol believed them and didn't take it further and we were too tired to jump through hoops to go to shore, file a complaint, etc, we just needed to sleep so we could be on our way in a few hours when the wind came back up in the afternoon.

++

Our boat is striking enough that people take pics of it at anchor all the time. They find our blog online and send us notes asking if we'd like a copy of the pic, or sending a link of it. Most folks are very nice about that. Loads of small boats approach us and chat if we're on deck while we anchor but besides the surfers none have come aboard.

++

At dock it a bit different, yes. We've had one uninvited person board the boat and go below to look the place over while we were inside the adjacent yacht club. She was a friend of a friend and long story short, she seemed totally clueless that it was not what one should do.

We've seldom been in a marina long term. The two times we have been in one spot long enough to have dock steps, we just choose not to. That may be your easy solution: Just refuse to have dock steps and that goes a long, long way in preventing people from getting on the boat. We have just enough freeboard that it's not so obvious, to the non-boater, how one gets aboard easily. We have a hefty rubrail that is the perfect height to put a foot on and hop up from there though. Other people with large vessels like ours and yours do similar things, you might climb aboard with a foot in the porthole frame or similar. No matter the case, don't make the path onto the boat easy for yourself or others and folks will be much less likely to board uninvited.

[a64pilot]

Sorry,
If I step out of my bedroom and find someone standing in my den, I'm slipping back into the Bedroom and grabbing the cheap shotgun and detaining them til the Cops arrive, and arrest them as I will be pressing charges.

I see no difference from my house and my boat, they are both my place of residence.
But I can't imagine what you guys are telling me, the only time I have ever had someone touch my boat was for them to knock on the hull to get my attention

[a64pilot]

Mark,
We seem to be talking about different things here, anybody is of course allowed to look, take photographs, etc. but to come aboard and especially down below?
That's ridiculous, maybe why that kind of thing has never happened to me is I'm relatively small, don't have a gangway, if your coming aboard my boat, your climbing over lifelines.

If I'm at anchor and people climb aboard in the middle of the night, especially if they are trying to open a hatch, do you think they are just being curious?

OK reread the post, not the middle of the night, but still not OK

[amytom]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Sorry,
If I step out of my bedroom and find someone standing in my den, I'm slipping back into the Bedroom and grabbing the cheap shotgun and detaining them til the Cops arrive, and arrest them as I will be pressing charges.

I see no difference from my house and my boat, they are both my place of residence.
But I can't imagine what you guys are telling me, the only time I have ever had someone touch my boat was for them to knock on the hull to get my attention

Amen.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Sailor Jer]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Thank you Ann for your thoughts that I hope a few more belligerent forumers have read (but I doubt it as they seem only able to read something called 2nd amendment)

A sign-board "Private. No Boarding" works. A bit of rope across the gangway does the same. Both together sends the message.

But wilfully shooting photographers, children, mothers on Sunday walks, and old cootes remembering their Navy days, wilfully shooting them with glaring eyes let alone guns, boobytraps and haughty language is stupid when a smile and explanation will work easily.


Mark




Sent from a stupid phone that replaces words with weird stuff.

Love the way this female pandering guys imagination works, he confuses defending oneself/property as an act of aggression/tries to validate it as such and throws in the childish "stupid" word banter of atypical safe zone cowards LOL...

these are exactly the overly sensitive/emotional people who exaggerate & twist things into something that was never implied cuz they have a rush to judgement/draw conclusions LOL!

Another who has an anxiety attack when seeing firearms, much less talking about them?

Mark has never been to any rough anchorages like Key West Fl I'll assume, much less seen/experienced the ever-prevalent violence in third world countries. Go to the Olympics this summer Mark, Rio is a great place for you to experience!!!

I'll assume Mark thought Michael Brown of Ferguson Mo was a "gentle Giant" victim and officer Wilson was a racist trigger happy bigot?

But then again as one of my fellow forum members put it, "I use a sledgehammer to swat flys" LOL

Maybe it's just my Reagan "peace through superior firepower" logic?

Climb aboard my vessel without asking/uninvited and you'll be over the side in the drink...no smiles or explanations included...

[a64pilot]

Lets not escalate this thing.
Thread is about Looky Loos and what to do about them, not a gun thread and Lord knows what else.
I didn't mean to escalate things, my intent was to find out if people are actually out there boarding boats uninvited and unannounced.
Now admittedly, I was not thinking of boarding gangways, those if left not roped off are sort of like leaving your front door open, but even then I have a hard time believing people would just walk in

The surfers who climbed aboard and were prying at a hatch. They were seemingly up to no good?

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Sailor Jer

ack when seeing firearms, much less talking about them?

Mark has never been to any rough anchorages like Key West Fl I'll assume, much less seen/experienced the ever-prevalent violence in third world countries. Go to the Olympics this summer Mark, Rio is a great place for you to experience!!!

I'll assume Mark thought Michael Brown of Ferguson Mo was a "gentle Giant" victim and officer Wilson was a racist trigger happy bigot?

Totally uncalled for. Crude and rude. You can make your own points, ala your flyswatter jab, without calling names.

FWIW, Mark's been around the block. So have you. Big deal.

What does Ferguson have to do with this?

Please stop being so offensive.