Is yacht theft common?

[Cavalier]

Here was a >60ft being taken from Clear Lake, TX:

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...el-1927451.php

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

Here was a >60ft being taken from Clear Lake, TX:

Suspect in yacht theft is found dead on vessel - Houston Chronicle

From the article, this was a motor yacht, not a sailing yacht...

Jim

[WestCoastRix]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

Here was a >60ft being taken from Clear Lake, TX:

Suspect in yacht theft is found dead on vessel - Houston Chronicle

Probably found out what it cost to fill her up!

[Wckoek]

Makes a good plot for detective novels.

[geoleo]

I have had cruising sailboats since 1971 in USA,BVI, Mexico, and all over both USA coasts. I have never had a single thing stolen and I have never locked any of my boats.

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

From the article, this was a motor yacht, not a sailing yacht...

Jim

Sir, good catch!

I came across that theft when I was looking for this one:

http://www.galvnews.com/news/free/ar...8d427dcae.html



What they didn't know about when they left Kemah was that the marked channel takes you to the Houston ship channel via a trench that's dredged into the underwater bluffs/bars each side of the channel (thr material from creating the ship channel) - if you didn't/couldn't read the charts and were not aware that the only way to navigate transversely across the ship-channel was through "yachtsman's cut" (or other similar entries) then you'd slam into them readily and be grounded.

Clearly, this is what lead to this couple who stole the boat and 'ran aground' on the ship channel only 1nm after leaving kemah!

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

Sir, good catch!

I came across that theft when I was looking for this one:

Shipwrecked couple ID’d as alleged con artists on the run | Free News | The Daily News



What they didn't know about when they left Kemah was that the marked channel takes you to the Houston ship channel via a trench that's dredged into the underwater bluffs/bars each side of the channel (thr material from creating the ship channel) - if you didn't/couldn't read the charts and were not aware that the only way to navigate transversely across the ship-channel was through "yachtsman's cut" (or other similar entries) then you'd slam into them readily and be grounded.

Clearly, this is what lead to this couple who stole the boat and 'ran aground' on the ship channel only 1nm after leaving kemah!

Which one are you talking about? the one (boat) in the link was supposed to have been bought with cash by the couple....

Their alleged plans to flee the country on a sailboat they bought for cash just six days before departure were dashed, however, when a cold front came in on Oct. 29 and the boat took on water, throwing them — and their seven children — into the bay near San Leon, officials reported.

[hamburking]

A 41 foot powerboat was stolen from the downtown marina here...Kingston, Ontario, Canada, on Lake Ontario.

Boat stolen from slip | The Kingston Whig-Standard

You would think a big boat like that would be easy enough to find...its not that big a lake! But as far as I know, it was never found. Talk around the dock was that the ex wife had something to do with it.

[MLOI]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

At least in the areas we've cruised in, theft of a sailing yacht is extremely rare... like I can not remember an occurrence in our vicinity in over 30 years.

Jim

There was a blue hulled Beneteau 44 this year from around Sydney I thought. Stolen by a french man who had a set of documents from exactly the same boat back in France.

He did something dumb like run out of fuel and ask for more. May have also bounced it off something, I can't recall. There had been some discussion on the Women who sail facebook group about the theft and that helped the stolen boat be recognised. It's currently on the hard in Tin Can Bay.

Seemed like a good plan poorly executed.

Mike