Sailboat in the surf near San Francisco

[David M]

Dock gates don't stop thieves. Never have, never will. They just make it more of a pain in the arse for owners and their guests. I'm glad the marina where I am at has none.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Mark1977

Sooo, they stole it and remained on board??? They were 20 ft from the shore......
Makes no sense.

Your assuming thieves are intelligent.

Originally Posted by The Garbone

A bit of planning involved.

I imagine the plan was to leave on the outgoing tide Monday morning and get a week head start before the owner got wind the boat is missing. Take it someplace remote and gut out the goodies and scuttle the hull.

Running aground. Priceless....

again...you are assuming thieves are intelligent.

Originally Posted by deckofficer

It has been my experience that scum bag boat thieves are not competent sailors.

I repeat...thieves are not intelligent.

Originally Posted by Cpt Pat

She's probably set hard aground. Her reported speed was 7.8 knots just before she hit bottom. I doubt those idiots aboard did anything to try to slow her down. Good thing it wasn't high tide when it happened.

They ran out of pizza and saw a Pizzeria from the water and thought it had a drive through...

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by Bash

Darling is now on the hard. Busted up rudder, bent prop. Keel intact but damaged (?)

Surprised it wasn't worse (tbd)

[Dsanduril]

She was towed 15-20 miles on her own bottom. Seemed to be sitting pretty much on her lines in the yard docks before she was lifted out. Didn't see any signs of large pumps or anything indicating more than her onboard bilge pumps were in operation. Pretty amazing to come out of 24 hours in the surf like that. Guess we'll have to wait a while to see what the yard thinks after a thorough inspection.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

Surprised it wasn't worse (tbd)

Immensely strong construction, laid up by Windboats of Wroxham. I'm not surprised. The Oyster 485 I almost bought had 120mm of solid fiberglass at the turn of her bilge.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Immensely strong construction, laid up by Windboats of Wroxham. I'm not surprised. The Oyster 485 I almost bought had 120mm of solid fiberglass at the turn of her bilge.

?? that is 5" thick solid fiberglass? I thought they are full balsa core...

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Immensely strong construction, laid up by Windboats of Wroxham. I'm not surprised. The Oyster 485 I almost bought had 120mm of solid fiberglass at the turn of her bilge.

And you know this how?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

?? that is 5" thick solid fiberglass? I thought they are full balsa core...

Nope, Oyster alone among high end boats with full skeg rudders and no coring in the hull whatsoever. Heavy!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

And you know this how?

My surveyor, who eventually advised me not to buy the boat (and I took his advice). Hull thickness data on the basis of well-known problems with adding through-hulls to these boats (but he admired that part).

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Nope, Oyster alone among high end boats with full skeg rudders and no coring in the hull whatsoever. Heavy!

Ahem....

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by David M

Dock gates don't stop thieves. Never have, never will. They just make it more of a pain in the arse for owners and their guests. I'm glad the marina where I am at has none.

Agreed. Our marina has tehm and they serve two purposes.

1. They slow people down long enough for the security cameras to get a good shot of them.
2. They offer great entertainment watching people try to find the release button to get out.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by minaret

Ahem....

Oh, sorry. LOL. Yes, Nauticat too

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Tim R.

Agreed. Our marina has tehm and they serve two purposes.

1. They slow people down long enough for the security cameras to get a good shot of them.
2. They offer great entertainment watching people try to find the release button to get out.

I dunno about that. This was probably a crime of opportunity. Doubt they planned it in advance or anything, just drunk and there was a boat. Probably never could have climbed over or around a gate. One of them had a prosthetic leg fer chrissake! Exactly the sort of thing dock gates are there to prevent. Bet the owner wishes he had been in a marina with some basic security now...

[Deepdraft]

Small picture but it shows the rudder damage... From http://www.marinij.com/

[fstbttms]

More pix from onboard and in the yard, plus first hand commentary of the rescue here (scroll to end):

"Darling" visits Linda Mar