theft from boat

Sep 15, 2009
6,243
S2 9.2a Fairhope Al
People in my neighborhood rent their docks mostly because someone asks them and they are not using them. You very seldom see a homeowner on a million dollar lot desperate to lease his dock out for $500 a month., and then expecting his insurance to cover your Boat. That is just crazy. To the person suggesting suing the owner i say , you sound all too familiar with small claims court.
i used to do a lot of work in the St.Louis area and everyone in the working crowd had a lawyer's phone number on a card in there back pocket ....made me think they get up every day and praise the court gods for a law suite ....totally amazing
 
Dec 31, 2012
91
Catalina 28 mkll #649 Port Charlotte, fl
I also live on a canal with very easy access to charlotte Harbor….. Last winter as I was mixing a drink for she who must be obeyed, she called there’s a boat out back….. We went out smart phone in hand and the wife started taking pictures….. What we found was a 19ft boat and three guys about six inches off the midship of my sail boat….. All three were leaning over my rail and looking very close at my two flexible solar panels. Their big engine was silent as they were running on their trolling motor. Smart group as we normally hear any motor coming down the canal and this time we didn’t hear anything…… They made a quick exit and I called the guy next door as his friend had come in from fishing an hour before and left gear on the back of their boat….. Long and the short they made off with an expensive Penn rod and reel.
Lesson I learned from all this is:
Do not take pictures from inside the screen as that screwed up the focus on the perpetrators boat numbers…
This led to a long delay but local LEO did find the boat involved, but by then that stolen gear was long gone.
The local LEO also mentioned it’s best not to shoot these kinds of bastxxds or you could possibly go to jail….. go figure…
 
Jun 9, 2004
615
Catalina 385 Marquette. Mi
Meanwhile, good luck finding another place to dock your boat. If you choose to leave your boat unattended, expect this crap to happen every now and then. Why is the homeowner leasing the dock? To make a few extra bucks. It's not their job to provide 24/7 security. If you want that, spend the extra money and store it properly. I'd hate to raft up next to your boat. I might scratch it and get sued.
Oh my........
 
Mar 11, 2015
357
Hunter 33.5 Tacoma, WA
Oct 16, 2014
1
Chrysler Sandpiper Ellison Bay
45ft boat and a $500 loss? trivial cost of boating. BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand. $500 is peanuts.
 
Jun 8, 2004
10,068
-na -NA Anywhere USA
Years ago, some moonshiners would fire salt peter and lo and behold the rascals never came back except for the revenuers.
 
Sep 12, 2009
3
Oday 222 Havre de Grace, MD
This has been said here before (probably at least once by me), if your going to own a big boat, you pretty much have to have a several thousand dollars/year kitty allocated for unanticipated 'expenses' and be prepared to spend it at a moments notice. Like today! If you don't wrap your head around this and accept it, your boating experience is pretty much going to suck. Because its ALWAYS something.

On the prevention side, I once had a sailboat BURNED on a mooring by punks. Next time around I installed a simple IR alarm with a VERY loud 115db buzzer attached. Not perfect, but a bit of deterrent for 45 bucks. You don't need to catch them. Just make them want to leave before they can do anything.

Jackdaw; I'd like one of these. Where did you get it, what is the brand, I can't read the word before 'alarm'. Thanks! Linda H
 

mm2347

.
Oct 21, 2008
241
oday 222 niagara
Thieves

hello all

I live along way from my 45ft sailboat... at present I have my boat at a dock behind a private residence in Florida... I pay me dock rent each month on time... I keep my boat plugged into shore power to keep the batteries fresh... the other day I ask my buddy to go down and get my boat and have it taken to the repair marina to have the motor and transmission serviced...

he went down to the boat, then immediately called me.... someone had stolen my shore power cord, and the 3 group 24 AGM batteries I had inside the boat.... the bilge was full of water too...

my marine insurance agent said it was less than my $500 to replace them... I contacted the owner of the property, and he doesn't have insurance on the dock or anything tied up to the dock... his property insurance doesn't cover anything tied to the dock...

this is going to throw off my up coming vacation... I now have extra added expenses before I even go down there... be warry of dock agreements with private home owners on responsibility of theft or vandalism to your boat...

at present I am looking for a good marina to put my boat... my buddy will move it there for me before I come down on vacation... it is a shame you cannot trust everyone to leave someone elses property alone...

sincerely
Jess
1) Except nothing
2) Do Something
3) Blame nobody
from Bill Koch
 

mm2347

.
Oct 21, 2008
241
oday 222 niagara
Thieves

hello all

I live along way from my 45ft sailboat... at present I have my boat at a dock behind a private residence in Florida... I pay me dock rent each month on time... I keep my boat plugged into shore power to keep the batteries fresh... the other day I ask my buddy to go down and get my boat and have it taken to the repair marina to have the motor and transmission serviced...

he went down to the boat, then immediately called me.... someone had stolen my shore power cord, and the 3 group 24 AGM batteries I had inside the boat.... the bilge was full of water too...

my marine insurance agent said it was less than my $500 to replace them... I contacted the owner of the property, and he doesn't have insurance on the dock or anything tied up to the dock... his property insurance doesn't cover anything tied to the dock...

this is going to throw off my up coming vacation... I now have extra added expenses before I even go down there... be warry of dock agreements with private home owners on responsibility of theft or vandalism to your boat...

at present I am looking for a good marina to put my boat... my buddy will move it there for me before I come down on vacation... it is a shame you cannot trust everyone to leave someone elses property alone...

sincerely
Jess
1) Except nothing
2) Do Something
3) Blame nobody
from Bill Koch
 
Aug 16, 2009
1,000
Hunter 1986 H31 California Yacht Marina, Chula Vista, CA
I too was a recent victim of theft. I had been working on the interior and wiring and had lots of tools, though of Harbor Freight origin, and a year-long collection of wood and machine brass and stainless connectors, screws, nuts, bolts. They also took one of the 3 AGMs on board [I guess they were too heavy] to load out of the forward hatch. Replacement cost of all was probably $2500 total. Agony of replacement and not having what you want right at hand: About $10k.
I was VERY pleased with the way Boat US and my homeowner's insurance [Wawanesa] handled the claim. After the deductibles, I got about 75% of my claim. BUS was very liberal with their definition of "boat related equipment". Wawanesa was apparently happy enough that I reported the dual coverage so they did not quibble about the rest, though they were helped by the deductible.

The large urban marina is another story. They have a camera at the gangway serving 3 docks. I could only pinpoint the theft between Sunday and the following Saturday. That's a lot of mind-numbing footage to review and I knew I would be the only person on the planet willing to undergo that torture [the resolution, particularly at night, precluded speeding it up]. They would not let me look at the security footage and only told me they saw nothing unusual. To offload all that stuff through a 12 X 16 hatch would have taken hours and they saw nothing!? The marina has no liability, and no one on the dock has any expectation of privacy from the camera, so why the secrecy?
 

cptjak

.
Apr 13, 2010
21
CS 36 T Channel Islands Harbor
The bad thing is your friend just noticed the batteries and the
power cord What diden't he notice
 
Sep 10, 2012
220
Hunter 450 Gulfport, Florida
I like marinas with live-a-boards as they serve as a built in security. Yes they could possibly be the problem but it is far less likely.
 
Nov 2, 2015
196
hunter 30 bat n.c.
Damn shame but there are thieves every where buddy! You need to call insurance back those batt. are gonna cost a lot!
 
Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
Club member left his boat in FL for the winter, a Pacific Seacraft (40?). Got broken into, but nothing ended up being taken though a couple bolts from a winch had been removed. Other valuables in view, but not stolen. They must have been in a hurry leaving, as they left the hatch open... for months. Mildew ruined/totalled the boat. Looked like a Chia boat. They get a whole new -to-them boat.
 
Dec 2, 1997
8,736
- - LIttle Rock
I just returned from the Strictly Sail Pacific show in California. A vendor across the aisle was showing a VERY interesting boat security system that has separate modules for each "system" you want to protect--intrusion, dinghy, outboard, high water, fire etc...you can even get it with GPS that'll track your boat if it's stolen...and it's all controllable from a smart phone. If you bought all the modules it could get expensive, but cherry picking just the ones you need isn't that bad.
The mfr is "c-pod"...their website is http://c-pod.com/ Y'all might want to check it out. It's not the easiest site to get information, so you'll have to prowl around it a bit and prob'ly go to a dealer/distributor for answers to questions. But from what I learned in talking to the guy in the booth, it seems to be worth the effort.
 
Last edited:
Feb 14, 2014
7,450
Hunter 430 Waveland, MS
Your ONLY recourse is a private security system (camera & alarm) and a BIG sign saying your boat is being "watched!" Good luck! Capt Bill on STARGAZER
I have put a sign "This boat has internet video surveillance!" works like a iPhone cam threat ( the new gun).
No thefts in 2 years.
Jim...