Theft protection devices for dinghy?

[pelenter]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

I have an AB 310 AL RIB with 20hp Tohatsu. I'm working my way down Pacific Coast of Mexico towards Panama.

Current thread on weather resistant padlock for me thinking more briefly about cable or chain for locking to dinghy dock and/or brackets to secure mounting clamps if outboard to transom. When at a chore, we hoist the dinghy onto a cradle on boat deck of our trawler so feel fairly secure there. Concern is dinghy docks and beaching.

What types of physical theft devices are folks using, especially those who cruise in lessor developed countries where opportunistic theft is more common?

Thanks in advance.

I hide inside the engine an Apple Airtag. It works great. At least you can see where the engine is if it was stolen.

[taxwizz]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

One thing nice about cruising in New England is that there is very little dinghy theft most places and we never lock to the dock when cruising around Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, etc. For quite awhile I left my dinghy unattended on a beach with others nearby and nobody even bothered to lock their motors to the transom. In fact, most of the East Coast is OK, including the Chesapeake, though I might lock the dinghy to something when ashore in a few spots. OTOH, Florida and south you need to lock up and haul the dinghy aboard at night.

Where is OTOH, Florida? I cannot find it on any map.

[Alec H]

Keep in mind, it's all about the motor; they don't care about the dinghy. All the techniques posted are helpful, but all can be overcome with proper tools. The first thing I did with my new Yamaha 15 was to 'distress' the cover. I scuffed it up and then did an intentionally bad job of spray painting. If the motor looks old, it is less attractive to thieves.

[TPG]

I have 20' of 3/8" chain that I've covered with PET braided sleeving (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1) and use 2 marine grade padlocks for either end.

Chain goes around grab handle on outboard, thru handle on gas tank, and thru a cleat at dock when we tie our dingy up somewhere. Or chain can go around piling at the dock as well. Someone will have to work pretty hard to get this off.

Got the idea off Sailing Brittican I think, he has a good video on YouTube that covers dingy security.

[fishead]

I use a long stainless steel chain. Bolt cutters or hacksaws don't work well on stainless steel chain. We ended up using a cutoff wheel to cut it in the store.

[Kettlewell]

I scuffed it up and then did an intentionally bad job of spray painting. If the motor looks old, it is less attractive to thieves.

I just slapped some marine paint on mine. A lot of motors look very similar and you can't tell what it is at a glance. Might want to paint it something like fluorescent orange to really stand out in a harbor and at a distance.

[sinnerman]

Find yourself a really mangy viscous-looking dog that drools and will bare his teeth at anyone.

Leave him in the dingy to guard it....

LOL

Cheers

[Amapola]

We use a coated steel cable that locks the motor and the dink. We also have a metal locking mechanism that locks the motor. We've never had an issue with theft in the Bahamas or eastern USA.

[H0BBES]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

I have an AB 310 AL RIB with 20hp Tohatsu. I'm working my way down Pacific Coast of Mexico towards Panama.

Current thread on weather resistant padlock for me thinking more briefly about cable or chain for locking to dinghy dock and/or brackets to secure mounting clamps if outboard to transom. When at a chore, we hoist the dinghy onto a cradle on boat deck of our trawler so feel fairly secure there. Concern is dinghy docks and beaching.

What types of physical theft devices are folks using, especially those who cruise in lessor developed countries where opportunistic theft is more common?

Thanks in advance.

I would add, use a Disk Detainer lock as they are a bit harder to pick. Also, an Apple Airtag hidden on the motor or dinghy can help in the even it's stolen.

[YANDINA]

We stuck about 6 black patches on our nice new dinghy and splashed paint on it to make it look less attractive to thieves that then other dinghies.

[singlespeed]

Both times we have singles stolen it has been at public docks in larger cities in the Eastern Caribbean. Easy access to vehicles near the public docks is part of the reason.
I always have an outboard lock that covers both handles and a separate cable that secures the fuel tank and the filler cap. A stainless steel chain and padlock is kept in a bag for locking onto docks. It is much easier to store than a coiled cable. I rarely feel the need to lock up the dinghy on remote beaches, criminals are basically opportunistic and lazy. No one wants to carry an outboard or a full five gallon tank any distance. The biggest change has been the increased acceptance of battery powered angle grinders, on even small islands, making the work of the thief that much easier.

[Medic 4 U]

I use a trolling motor as when we come back late at night, I want to be quiet for my neighbors trying to sleep on their boats. But I have a very nice, new Tobin, so I do as many of you have mentioned with a cable, but I simply remove my prop, & have a false floor under my battery in my battery box, where it's locked up.

So if you're going to steal my dingy, you're going to have to cut the cables, & then you're going to have to tow it, knowing the whole time you know you're going to have to buy a new prop & nut. I'm hoping I've just made it too inconvenient for you to bother stealing my dingy. BUT that makes me feel bad because that means they'll go on to someone else's.
.

[rupertfb]

Ive worked for years in the Caribbean Charter industry and concur with all the above ideas plus:
* Buy/make a sun cover for the tubes and let it get sh*tty - to hide the quality of the AB dinghy
* Buy/make a canvas outboard cover, and let that get sh*tty too (as Kettlewell suggested earlier)
Then, a potential thief can't tell how good your boat and engine is and will steal the adjacent nicer one!

[nofacey]

In high theft dinghy docks of the Caribbean, only way to go is heavy chain padlocked to motor & dinghy.
- didn’t leave dinghies on beach in those areas
- always hoisted dinghy at night

Thieves are mostly after your motors - 15hp+ are the real targets.

[Ken Goodings]

Have you moved up from steel cable dinghy/motor security to 8 or 10mm Stainless Steel chain?

Go one step further to eliminate the padlock at the dinghy end of your chain. Install the largest omega-shaped SS shackle whose pin will just fit through the last chain link. Install the pin with Loc-Tite, cut off the pin's knob with a hacksaw and hammer both ends of the pin with a ballpeen hammer.
Make a noose of the chain through the shackle and slip the noose over your SS outboard bar lock or through the lifting handle. Eliminates one (salty rusty?) padlock at the motor end of your security chain. The chain can run through the handle of your fuel tank too. We have another similarly attached shackle at the free end of our 15 ft 10mm stainless chain to accommodate a Kryptonite U shaped combination (keyless) New York style bike lock.
This lock slips easily through a dock cleat or over a 2x4 dock support leaving plenty of room for other cruisers lines/chains.
The long chain loops over the bow (with chafe sleeving) and into the water, it's catenary weight holds the dinghy away from the dock to allow access for other dinghies.

We've found from sad experiences of other yachties that any stainless chain less than 8mm isn't sufficiently strong enough to resist simple cutting shears. We have 10mm SS chain on the dinghy and motor, and 8mm SS chain on the fuel tank.
Please don't me misled into believing that your dinghy and motor are perfectly safe from theft when hoisted on davits or alongside with a halyard. Chain them to the railing. Steel cables, while convenient, are no longer a theft deterrent anywhere in Caribbean.
Even in marinas bad things happen! Similarly, we've seen plenty of nice outboards clamped to stern railings but not chained to the boat in marinas or on long term moorings, anchored and in boat yards.

GPS trackers are not very expensive these days. They utilize limited range BlueTooth signals to allow you to track the location of your missing dinghy and stolen outboard.
So...you have tracked and found your outboard in someone else's possession.
Now what?
Will you physically confront them with accusations?
How will you prove ownership to police?
How will you get to shore from your anchored boat while police impound your outboard and wait for a court date?
GPS trackers sound great in theory but really...isn't theft prevention with a robust chain a much more practical idea?
In other words, don't let your guard down " Don't be the low hanging fruit."

To the many naysayers asserting that even 8mm stainless chain can be easily cut with battery powered angle grinders; at a cost of nearly $700US, it's not really a thing in most poorer Caribbean countries where we've cruised.
Would you use a Mr Bean padlock on your automobile? Then why cheap out on your dinghy and outboard motor.

The whole concept of dinghy security tethers is simply to encourage an opportunistic thief to bypass your dinghy and steal one with either a rudimentary lock or no locks at all.

To learn more about how we developed this dinghy chain idea, here is the original article published by Caribbean Compass in 2017
http://www.caribbeancompass.com/ding...rity_2017.html