Thanks, GunniSo, many years ago we were visiting Virgin Gorda and someone suggested that we had to visit some rum shack over at Limrick Bay. We borrowed a RIB and the owner gave me a wire cable and padlock, telling me to guard against theft. When we got to the dinghy dock it was close to the shack and I could keep eyes on the boat, so I simply tied the thing off. Within an hour or so the place was a madhouse with dinghies showing up from everywhere. This location is a prime stop for the Credit Card Charter Captains that populate the area. A small commotion erupted at the dinghy dock as boats arrived with operators in various states of impairment. Guys were arguing and gesturing, women in dresses were crawling across boats like sorority girls gone wild. Apparently some self appointed dinghy dockmaster decided to re-tie the dinghies to better suit his view of how things are done. I missed that. A few minutes later one of the shack operators yelled an alert that dinghies were floating, riding the trades toward Tortola (or the reef). By the time I got to the dock our borrowed boat was long gone, along with 3 or four others. A helpful belonger got me in his boat and we sped off to recover the roaming dinks.
I never did find that dinghy dockmaster, which was to everyone's benefit, but I did adopt the locking wire cable method to secure the dinghy.
I've never considered use of locking mechanisms to discourage "tampering" of one's tie to a dinghy dock, as well as to prevent outright theft of the dink. I would not be happy to see someone untying and then retying my dink, especially the polypropylene painter I use which, as capa pointed out, does not hold knots well at all and requires a special little trick to do so. There are so many boaters at Isthmus Cove that I doubt a loose dinghy could escape far b/f someone recovered it.
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