Dinghy theft

[Jammer]

I am trying to understand the extent to which dinghy theft is a problem. I encounter people who claim to have cruised for years without having a dinghy stolen, and contrasting stories of people victimized early and often.


As always, reply with comments that further explain your experience if you wish.

[Sailingallday]

I’m not answering that poll. Don’t want to jinx anything

May as well ask - when is the last time you had a flat tire? Or when is the last time a thru hull failed? Some questions are left best unasked and unanswered

[Jim Cate]

Brand new 3.2m RIB stolen at night, trailed from boat on mooring off Hobart, Tasmania. Dinghy found days later, upside down, floating in the Derwent river at Bridgewater. 12 year old Suzuki 15 missing, along with fuel tank, oars, anchor, etc... and they had poured some fuel into the dink and set it afire. An area known to harbor a lot of druggies... (Bridgewater, not Hobart!).

Not the brightest of thieves, dink worth 5K$, tired motor worth ~200$. But bright or not, they made us pretty sad!

Jim

[noelex 77]

We have been cruising full time for the last 16 years and never had a dinghy (or anything) stolen, despite no locks for most of the time.

Much depends on the cruising ground. We have been up to now cruising remote areas where theft was very uncommon. We are now cruising busier higher crime areas. The dinghy is now locked, stored on the solar arch every night (actually we have always lifted it because it easy) and the motor has been made to look quite old. Security bars are up at night.

All you can do is make the dinghy and the boat a less easy and desirable target.

[JPA Cate]

Re: Jim's post #3,

A bit more data, Jammer:

That was in 2004, and we had left the States the 2nd time in March of '89, the start of full time cruising for us. We had big, fast dinghies since February '83, so 21 years.

Prior to that, Jim had a nice, hard, sailing/rowing dinghy stolen from the boat in a marina in a metropolitan area, after about 7 yrs. in that marina.

Ann

PS: The police thought it had been set afire to destroy DNA evidence.

[chrisr]

i think it depend very much upon where you are. here in FP, theft is negligible. from what we hear, it's very different in eg caribbean

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

cheers,

[Shrew]

Without a location, this poll is not going to yield useful data. Probability is extremely low, where I cruise in the New England region of the US. But I also don't go to high crime areas.

[boatman61]

Never had a dinghy stolen, mind you I use slat bottom dinghies (cheap) and Tohatsu 5hp o/b's well secured to the dinghy with chain..
Mind I did have one of the oars stolen in the Algarve..

[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.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I am trying to understand the extent to which dinghy theft is a problem. I encounter people who claim to have cruised for years without having a dinghy stolen, and contrasting stories of people victimized early and often.

As always, reply with comments that further explain your experience if you wish.

Depends a lot on where you are.


In Northern European waters, I think dinghy theft is fairly rare, although I've heard of outboards being nicked in Denmark. On my typical summer cruise, I never lock the companionway even once over the whole summer, and I don't own a dinghy lock. I do take the outboard below if I'm going to be off the boat for a longer period out of season.


Other places it can be a plague; e.g. St. Vincent.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I am trying to understand the extent to which dinghy theft is a problem. I encounter people who claim to have cruised for years without having a dinghy stolen, and contrasting stories of people victimized early and often.


As always, reply with comments that further explain your experience if you wish.

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.

[JPA Cate]

Certainly, dinghies DO "go walkabout." We had one do it, once, when the carabiner on the end of the painter let loose, and I dove in and swam for it; another time, it came loose at night, and we found it the next day...AND learned a better way to secure it. [NB: dinghies secured with proper cleat hitches do not go walkabout.] We've also rescued a number of other folks' dinghies for them when they went walkabout.

In fact, someone "borrowed" our dinghy once, too, and loosed it in the marina from their boat, and we got it back the next morning. Not sure if that counts as a theft or not, it was tied up at a sailing club, in mid-Queensland. That was in the late '90's. It was annoying, but not a BIG deal, like it was in Hobart, when we had to go into a marina and buy a used dinghy and a used O/B. The Hobart event was more traumatic.

Ann

[Chotu]

Ah, damn. I have have to come clean too. When I was 21, I borrowed a dinghy. I heard that the people were going to be away for a couple weeks and I was going on a one week trip. I took their beautiful puffin rowing/sailing dinghy. No motor involved.

I used it for the week, and then I tied it back up where it was when I was done.

They never knew I took it for a week and returned it. At 21, with a $3000 boat, I couldn’t afford a dinghy. Still feel bad about it.

[wsmurdoch]

Never had a dinghy stolen in perhaps 100 months of cruising almost always at anchor along the SE US coast and in the Bahamas.

We have only been in company with one boat that had its dinghy stolen. A couple of kids wrapped a bit of cord around the kill switch to hold it out and took it from the beach where it was anchored to a dock two miles or so away. Their father made them bring it back the next day.

[Mike OReilly]

I don't know what "fast" vs "displacement" dinghy is, so haven't voted. But I've never had my dinghy or outboard stolen. In fact, I've never had anything stolen from my boat during the on-season. I have been robbed while on the hard, but never while living on board.

I suspect my luck with the dinghy/OB is two-factored. Firstly, I tend to cruise in more out of the way places. There aren't a lot of people around, and those that are, are usually good folk. I never lock my boat. Wouldn't even know how to lock the dinghy.

But secondly, my dinghy and outboard are, for some strange reason, less desirable models. For some reason, people don't seem attracted to a Portabote, with a small (3.5hp) engine. Go figer???