Preventing chartplotter chip theft

[Oliverhg]

I have a Raymarine C120W chartplotter on my Hunter e36. The Navionics chart card disappeared. I suspect that someone came on the boat, take off the chart cover, open the little door to the chart card and took off with it.

I have been warned by my dealer before that this can happen. However, it is both a bother to remove the card after each outing as well as another thing to store and install before going out.

I also wonder how long the chip and receptacle will last with repeated unplugging and plugging.

Any of you out there experience the same issue and how are you dealing with this?

Is there a way to lock or secure the cover to the chartplotter to prevent easy access to the card?

To add insult to injury, I bought a new Navionics card to replace the lost card and the new card does not work with the plotter. Trying to deal with that now.

I almost wish that I can pay the thief to get my old card back if only I can be assured that he won't come back and help himself again!

Thanks.

 

[kappykaplan]

I had a Raymarine E90W muti-function display installed over the winter refit just finished. My solution was to make a sunbrella cover for the helm and pedestal guard. It may not stop someone who really wants to get to the MFD, but my thought process is that if they can't see it, they don't know it's there.

 

[GeorgiaBII]

I had a Raymarine E90W muti-function display installed over the winter refit just finished. My solution was to make a sunbrella cover for the helm and pedestal guard. It may not stop someone who really wants to get to the MFD, but my thought process is that if they can't see it, they don't know it's there.

Do this with a set of grommets at the bottom so you can thread a cable and lock it.

 

[Stu Jackson]

I have been warned by my dealer before that this can happen. However, it is both a bother to remove the card after each outing as well as another thing to store and install before going out.

I also wonder how long the chip and receptacle will last with repeated unplugging and plugging.

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Forewarned is...

Really, how much of a "burden" can it really be? Should be easier than opening your raw water cooling thru hull?

I don't figure it should be any different than plugging and unplugging a USB into a computer.

Good luck and getting the new one to work.

 

[Oliverhg]

Thanks guys.

True enough, it is not that much of an imposition to unplug and plug. Maybe just my initial reaction to and frustration resulting from the unexpected loss.

But then, I don't turn off the raw water, head pickup, galley and vanity drain etc. each time I come back from day sail, just at the end of the season. Forgot to turn the raw water on once before I left things on.

I had a Navman chart plotter in my previous boat and I remove it each time after returning. After 5 years of this the military style plug was getting quite loose and needing some wiggling to get the connections to go. I don't expect a regular memory card connection to last anywhere that long.

Maybe 5 years is several generations for electronics and time to let go but the cheap part of me want to have things last longer than that.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Thru hulls again

Oliver, perhaps it's a philsophical issue, but every discussion I've read in over 35 years of boating is to exercise your thru hulls. You have to ask yourself: "What's my entire boat worth to me?" Like, if a hose clamp lets loose because you didn't close a valve.

Your boat, your choice.

 

[gettinthere]

Where is this place I want to stay the H away from?

 

[mudtertel]

Is Rob Ford around you LOL

 

[Oliverhg]

I am in False Creek in Vancouver.

I usually remove the chart card at the end of the season (as well as close all sea cocks...). A couple of weeks ago when I move the boat over to the yard for servicing, I noticed that the card was not there. So I assumed that it is in my chart table.

However, after the service, I noticed that the Navionics case where the card should be is empty. It looked a bit suspiciously left opened inside the chart table. So it is possible that someone went inside the boat while the boat was on the hard in the yard and took off with the card.

But then, my memory is so bad now that I cannot say for sure that I took the card out last season before winterising the boat.

Binoculars is close by so any thieve that got inside the boat would have taken that first.

Either way. I am looking forward to see how I should change my routine to prevent it from happening again.

One possibility is to put a cable lock (used for skis and bikes) and pull tight all around the cover of the plotter (front to back) but it wouldn't look too good as well as call attention to the fact that there is something to steal there.

As to boating philosophy, we likely cannot settle that unless we have statistical figures on the probability of failure of double clamped hose connection failing per unit time versus valve failure per number of open/close operations. (plus the probability of forgetting to turn valve on!).

Justification for laziness.......(or is it efficiency?)

 

[Joe]

You might take a stroll around your dock to determine how many other boats leave their electronics out in the open. It seems unusual to me that the card slot can be so easily accessed... can't a lock be installed on it..... or.. can you purchase a locking cover for the device enclosure?

Well, anyway, here's a link to a discussion about this back in January... notice how the mood changes during the thread. http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=158947

And, as Mainsail stated,

two words: Pedestal Cover

http://shop.hunterowners.com/cu/detail-pedestal.php

 

[StinkBug]

All the lowrance units i've used have a door over the card slot. Seems like it'd be pretty easy to just glue it shut with some silicone if yours is the same and you dont need to pull the card often.

 

[Jackdaw]

It may not help the OP, but current Lowrance, Simrad, and B&G plotters can SHARE charts on a network. Our downstairs plotter has the Navionics Platinum chip in it, and the one at the helm loads the chart remotely. No chip to steal!

 

[Oliverhg]

The idea of gluing the door shut seems like a good one. May do that after sorting out the issues of making the new chip working.

Can't see the possibility of changing the map chip before the plotter electronics become obsolete.

I have also been thinking more about Stu Jackson's comment about exercising thru hulls. I may have been overlooking the possibility of stuck valve while downplaying the possibility of hose clamp failures.

The sea cocks have always work when I wanted to but they are on the stiff side.

So I may change my "efficiency practice" of leaving the seacocks open during sailing season and try closing them after each sail.

Always appreciate comments and suggestions on this site. Can't imagine what life was like before internet forums and search engines!

 

[Scotty C-M]

I have a cover over the chartplotter. Out of sight....
Glad to see that you are considering the thru-hull management. I close and open mine each time I sail not only to keep them free, and to prevent failure between uses, but also this gives me the opportunity to check them frequently. It only takes a few minutes. I leave my engine key at the engine intake seacock. Like Stu says: "Your boat, your choice".

 

[CarlN]

"Exercising" a seacock is not the best way to maintain it. Just because the handle moves doesn't mean much.

A once a year greasing and careful inspection for galvanic corrosion (cheap brass or dissimilar metals) is better. And more important is to inspect the hose not the seacock. That's what usually fails. Check the full length of below waterline hoses and clamps and replace them if there is any chafe, hard spots, or cracking. I replace all my hoses at 10 years. Also service any vented loops. I'd bet that a lot more boats sink from stuck vented loops than failed sea cocks.

If you do the above, closing your seacocks after every sail gains you just about nothing.

 

[DannyS]

I built my own chart plotter housing when I added the plotter and radar to our boat. I bought the plotter on ebay and when it arrived, there were signs that led me to believe it had been stolen. This made me think I should build the plotter housing with a way to lock it in place. It's not Fort Knox, but it will make a thief look for an easier target. With the cover on and locked, there's no way to pull the unit off the boat and difficult to open the chip cover.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Exercising seacocks

Applicable if bronze seacocks are being used. In the case of Marelon, the manufacturer recommends "exercise." Just like my doctor...

"Exercising" a seacock is not the best way to maintain it. Just because the handle moves doesn't mean much.

A once a year greasing and careful inspection for galvanic corrosion (cheap brass or dissimilar metals) is better. And more important is to inspect the hose not the seacock. That's what usually fails. Check the full length of below waterline hoses and clamps and replace them if there is any chafe, hard spots, or cracking. I replace all my hoses at 10 years. Also service any vented loops. I'd bet that a lot more boats sink from stuck vented loops than failed sea cocks.

If you do the above, closing your seacocks after every sail gains you just about nothing.

 

[Oliverhg]

An update.

I took the chart plotter to the local Raymarine service shop and they diagnosed the problem to be a bent pin for the connection to the Navionics chip. This bent pin had caused a short that damaged some minor components.

They said that the good news is that I don't have to replace the processor board which is $1,500 and that they can repair the damage by replacing components on the card. $500.

Good news indeed. Together with the $300 for the replacement Navionics card, it is $800 now plus running back and forth, getting compact flash card reader for computer, compact flash card to update software etc.

I wonder if the thief managed to fence off my old Navionics card for more than $20 for all the trouble he caused me.

One thing is clear, I am gluing the card door shut and not taking the card in and out again.

The compact flash cards are very fragile compared to the SD memory cards. There are two rows of holes on the card that needs to match exactly to two rows of pins on the chart plotter. I can see it is easy to bend one of the pins if the card is not pushed in right.

Besides, if they can take the cover off to get to the component board, I must be able to do the same to change the Navionics card if I ever have to and the probability is low.

All of you boaters out there with Raymarine chart plotters, compact flash memory cards, take note!

Stu, I think I can see muscles developing on my seacocks from the exercise!

 

[Stu Jackson]

Glad you came to a resolution, however it may have involved all that work. Good for you!

 

[DougM]

I often wondered what motivated the Raymarine designers to make the chip slot so accessible. I thought about fabricating a small cover plate and securing it with torx screws.

Because my boat is moored against a seawall that is semi public, it would take someone only a few seconds to jump aboard and swipe the chip. Fortunately CF chips are obsolete by now. In any case, I opted for a pedestal cover, figuring that at least for some, out of sight was out of mind.

Even though winter storage is in a secure boatyard, I have been in the habit of removing the entire instrument pod and taking it home. It's a pain to disconnect some of the smaller wires, but cheap insurance