Lock-up the dingy in the Exumas?

[lestersails]

Originally Posted by Ken Pole

A "decent thief"? One of the best oxymorons I've seen in a while. But I do know what you meant, i.e. a well-equipped thief!

I thought the 'decent' thieves were the CEOs of large corporations

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
—Balzac

[Pegu Club]

We have been to the Bahamas / Exumas on three consecutive years, we have never locked our dingy at anytime, we do have a pad lock on our Honda outboard, mostly to keep the transom clamp screws from backing out, it certainly wouldn’t stop someone from taking the outboard, , the family Islands are very safe when it comes to this issue, It would be a different story in Nassau, but we have never stopped there, in fact I have very rarely seen anyone lock their dingy up anywhere in the family islands, especially at Staniel Key…,

Fair winds,

[merrydolphin]

Agree with most. I the Bahamas not much problem. But in much of the cruising that I have done (eg a lot of the Caribbean) lock up is a must. But where you do lock up you must respect others and allow other dingy access in and out. Also certain parts of Latin America. Although we never had problems in the Sea of Cortez. You need to keep in touch with local cruisers VHF nets a good start.

[Martinini]

Always lock your ding or outboard or both all the time! It's a real pain to wake up or come back from an excursion ashore and find your dink gone! With an electric motor you won't hear them when they pull up and take your dink off your boat.

[Cynara]

Don't know what it is like in the exumas, but in central America they wanted your outboard not the dinghy

[Pete Chambliss]

Always lock my dinghy, as long as there is something to lock it to. Ounce of prevention avoids hours/days of frustration, reports, police, inconvenience.

[TabbyCat]

Originally Posted by Content63

. Please let me know your thoughts...and thank you.

I believe the answer depends on how nice your tender is! We did not lock our previous deflatable with Yamaha 15 in Georgetown, and one time it went "missing". Turned out to be someone mistook our dinghy for theirs (since that's a pretty common combination) after a few beers at the beach party. They brought it back the next day. So a lock would have prevented that "accident". If you have an old outboard with a beater motor, it is less attractive to thieves, so maybe you would be OK. Then again, maybe you would be worrying about it the whole time, so maybe better to just lock it and move on. I now have a pretty flashy OC Tender with an 18 HP Tohatsu, so we locked it in most places in the Bahamas and throughout the world. Don't let peer pressure to "not insult the locals" drive your decision! That's just other boaters to lazy to lock their dinghy wanting you in the same pool as them to decrease their odds of theft.

[BlueH2Obound]

I was thinking of putting a 9.9hp decal on our Tohatsu 20hp motor to make it less attractive for thieves . . .

[Pete Chambliss]

paint it pink, put harbor/city stickers on it, scrape it up a bit on the engine cover, make it look uncared for, well used! I know we take pride in our boats but we drive our dinghies into harms way and leave them alone in front of a den of thieves! Yes I have had my just bought 9.9 Yamaha stolen, along with the dinghy

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I've been to the B'mas countless times...never once locked my dink, not in any island, at any bar, anywhere, day or night, nor found any need to.

Keep on mind, most all dinks will tie up to a designated "dinghy dock", which may have 4 cleats for 20 dinks...using a cable would be next to impossible in addition to being a pain in the butt for other sailors..

A newbie sailor can always be spotted by his/her use of cable and lock.

Just fugetabout it....leave the cable and lock at home.....you won't need it.

I felt that way til' I had a face-off with two guys trying to steal our dink in Lucaya while docked at a resort.

[tennis4789]

Originally Posted by TabbyCat

Don't let peer pressure to "not insult the locals" drive your decision! That's just other boaters to lazy to lock their dinghy wanting you in the same pool as them to decrease their odds of theft.

Lol

[smj]

Originally Posted by TabbyCat

I believe the answer depends on how nice your tender is! We did not lock our previous deflatable with Yamaha 15 in Georgetown, and one time it went "missing". Turned out to be someone mistook our dinghy for theirs (since that's a pretty common combination) after a few beers at the beach party. They brought it back the next day. So a lock would have prevented that "accident". If you have an old outboard with a beater motor, it is less attractive to thieves, so maybe you would be OK. Then again, maybe you would be worrying about it the whole time, so maybe better to just lock it and move on. I now have a pretty flashy OC Tender with an 18 HP Tohatsu, so we locked it in most places in the Bahamas and throughout the world. Don't let peer pressure to "not insult the locals" drive your decision! That's just other boaters to lazy to lock their dinghy wanting you in the same pool as them to decrease their odds of theft.

Those that don’t put $20k into their dinghy are probably less likely to have it stolen than you? Lazy? No, maybe smart would be the correct answer.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by lestersails

I thought the 'decent' thieves were the CEOs of large corporations
Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
—Balzac

Although Honoré de Balzac did write a statement, linking large fortunes to crime, it was a nuanced remark, about a subset of great fortunes. Over the years his expression has been dramatically simplified:
“Behind every great fortune there is (great) a crime.”, is almost certainly based upon his writings.
Here is the original in French, from a serialization of “Le Père Goriot” published in “Revue de Paris” in 1834:[1]
“Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait.”
[The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.]
[1] ➥ https://books.google.ca/books?id=JEn...ans%22&f=false

[Renee Schramm]

People just don’t here — never seen one locked. We never have. Never even close up the boat. Love it here!!

[David Mathis]

The only theft problem I've had in about 40 years of cruising was in Burlington, Vermont, last summer. A person entered my boat while I was sleeping on it and stole several items. This was a night time burglary of an occupied residence. I was encouraged to simply make an online report of the incident. Did they record this as a simple petit theft to make their crime stats look more favorable? The "Progressive" government cut the police department from 104 down to having only, I believe, 69 police for a city of about 35,000 permanent residents and many more visitors. According to one news source, 22 of the officers were looking for other jobs. As of July they had a reported ten shootings. The police appear to be demoralized which significantly reduces their incentive to actively look for crime, make arrests, and remove the criminals from the streets. There are safer places to spend my vacation dollars.