Dinghy theft

[MicHughV]

I must be one of the lucky one's.....in over 35 years of cruising, I have never experienced dinghy theft of any kind....

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by chrisr

sorry to hear about your experience jim. would have expected hobart to be relatively safe

cheers,

although now that i come to think of it, the only time i can recall having anything stolen was in hobart, when some ratbag stole wetsuits and other sailing gear off the clothes line during a regatta

perhap it is under-rated as a hot bed of crime ??

cheers,

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by chrisr

although now that i come to think of it, the only time i can recall having anything stolen was in hobart, when some ratbag stole wetsuits and other sailing gear off the clothes line during a regatta

perhap it is under-rated as a hot bed of crime ??

cheers,

I was shocked by the theft, many of the folks who stopped by when we went into Constitution Dock (lacking a dinghy) were shocked, but the coppers were not shocked at all! Apparently there is significant minor crime around that fair city.

It was interesting to see in the "lost or stolen" ads in the Afloat magazine for that very month another dink stolen in Hobart, and IIRC Eric and Susan Hiscock had a dinghy pinched there long ago.

We seldom lock the companionway when leaving the boat and only lock the dink in certain areas, but mostly we feel pretty safe in the less urban areas we tend to visit.

Jim

[Fore and Aft]

Our dinghy got borrowed by some bored backpackers in Bundaberg. We turned up at the public wharf and there's the dinghy being paddled by a couple of lads. No harm done and a bit of a laugh was had about light fingered Irish and being a thief is the main requirement of Australian citizenship.
Another time we gave a friend a ride to his dinghy that we found at another dock in the Brisbane River. It always stuck in my mind as the dinghy had been tied back up with a bowline. Which sort of points to a boaty doing the borrowing.
Then another time in Bic national park Quebec we left the dinghy ashore and hitched hiked into Rimouski to pick up some supplies. Came back to the dinghy and it was gone. That was a heart stopping moment, so we headed to the ranger's office and the dinghy was in the back of his truck. He thought it was abandoned and had picked it up. Our yacht was anchored of the beach, so I have no idea what he was thinking.

Cheers

[SailingHarmonie]

First, except for the occasional degenerate cruiser, nobody wants your dinghy, they want your outboard. The dinghy is just a way to haul the outboard away.

We have been cruising for 7 years from Nova Scotia to Grenada. Never had a dinghy stolen, or messed with. We have a Yamaha 15hp 2-stroke, the most popular outboard in the world, and likely the most common target for thieves. We lock things up if we feel the neighborhood is risky, but we usually just tie up.

[LarryDW]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

A LOT of dinghy thefts are really dinghies that go on "walk about" because don't tie them up well. Here in the Bahamas I know of 3 the last couple days that did this.

I would agree. My dinghy, “Wilson” has gone walk about a few times in the Bahamas. Alcohol was always involved. Just saying!

[CarlF]

20 years with dinghy or outboard never stolen. Cruise Bahamas and New England. Lock only a few times a year (Nassau). I’ve never met anyone who’s had their dinghy stolen in these waters - although I’m sure it happens. Most “Stolen” dinghies here are because they weren’t tied up properly. Happens a lot - including once to me. Always tie with two lines at night.

One reason is that the people who steal boats have no use for cruisers little rubber dinghies with small outboards. There’s no resale market. Why steal a 15hp 11’ dinghy when you could steal a 30ft fiberglas fishing boat with two 200hp outboards? Bahamians also much prefer the 2cycke Yamaha Enduro outboards sold in the islands to the heavy and expensive to fix 4 cycle US outboards.

Florida, Caribbean are a different story.

[BlueH2Obound]

Never had a problem, however, we never leave our dingy in the water overnight. Always pull it up in the davits. Never had anything else stolen off any of our boats either, but maybe we've just been lucky?


On a related subject, we've "salted" expensive equipment on our boat with Apple Air Tags. $108.00 including shipping and tax for 4 of them. No annual subscription, no fees. Batteries last about a year with normal use. Batteries are simple to replace. CR2032, readily available. Cost 7.99 for a 10 pak on Amazon. Hope we never need to chase one down, but it's available if needed.

[clamshack]

We had our dinghy outboard tank stolen as soon as we crossed the state line into FL :-) I'm pretty sure it was for the 5 bucks worth of gas. Little did the thief know they could have sold the tank for 50 bucks on e bay.

Desperation + Opportunity / Risk = Theft ??

It's really hard to gauge desperation and risk as an outsider. We now always lock the outboard and tank to the transom. Sometimes we then lock the dingy to a cleat or other object. However, when doing this you need to be considerate of others.

This is a great question, but tough to answer.

[newhaul]

My dingy is available to steal for anyone that wants to a 20 year old zodiac bombardier. Looks like an old pos so nobody wants it . Motor is old pos 7.5 hp evinrude cowling has been tagged by me or my kids with about 7 different colors of spray paint including florescent pink . It really sticks out .

[wingssail]

Thirty eight years of cruising, never had a dingy stolen. Several dingys, one displacement with a 4 hp, otherwise all "fast" dingys with good outboards.

Circumnavigated, 35 countries. Plenty of third world locations.

Always hung dingy from halyard alongside. Often placed it on deck. Always have wire lifting bridle, always had cable and padlock on dingy and motor to the mother ship. Dingy is never floating on a painter.

Ashore? Often a long heavy cable and padlocks is used but not always. During daylight hours we only tied the dingy with a long painter to a tree or something. Leaving it after dark we make it more secure.

Usually the stolen dingys we hear about are not secured, every year several naive cruisers lose dingys.

Lots of people are either airheads or careless. I never had enough money to be either.

BTW, some dingys simply go adrift. If we do let ours float on a painter, we use a second line so if one slips away the other catches the dingy.

[Chotu]

Here we go! Some actual data. Right out of Florida, the “top state for boat thieves.” (I definitely don’t doubt that, I’ve been utterly ransacked down here)

The better part of 1000 outboards a year are currently being stolen here.



https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/loc...273117655.html

And these guys seem to be responsible for quite a few of them.

[Bycrick]

I’ve been cruising the Pacific Coast since 1998, from SF to Ecuador. The only time I’ve had something stolen was from my backpack in downtown Panama City. And that was purely an accident, because they just reached in and grabbed my wallet, an electronic translator and a candy bar. All were only temporarily in the outside pocket. The only time anything boat-related has ever been stolen was a cheap plastic flashlight out of the dinghy one night ashore and an anchor buoy which somebody wanted badly enough to swim down and disconnect it from the anchor.

[clamshack]

[QUOTE=Chotu;3755035]Here we go! Some actual data. Right out of Florida, the “top state for boat thieves.” (I definitely don’t doubt that, I’ve been utterly ransacked down here)

The better part of 1000 outboards a year are currently being stolen here.



https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/loc...273117655.html

And these guys seem to be responsible for quite a few of them.[/QUOTE

One could probably double or triple those statistics. There are those who wouldn't bother filing a police report or don't have all the relevant information to file a complete report.

Thanks for the article!

[KWF]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Depends heavily on the region.

East coast USA:

Absolutely pillaged in Florida. Much more than the dinghy and motor stolen.

Northeast USA even including NYC? Nothing stolen.


I think I notice a trend.

Dinghy theft potential is inversely proportional to the absolute value of your latitude.

Same experience in the Northeast. Cruising New England and LI Sound for 20 years without disappearance of dinghy.