Don't Steal a Red Dinghy

[Kamaloha]

Gord, I don't think those are what he was talking about - what you linked to has a very short range and requires your own pinger nearby to listen for them. Based upon the price, I think what sushi described had a cellular network interface built in. That is the way the things that watch truck trailers, railroad cars, etc work these days; not very practical in a foreign anchorage though. They do make satellite-based tracking units (I sell them) but they are much more expensive (several thousand dollars) and of a fairly non-stealthy size.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Kamaloha

Gord, I don't think those are what he was talking about ...

Sory - I guess I'm applying the first of Ken Venturie’s two rules of life:
“There are two great rules of life: never tell everything at once...”

[Amgine]

Had a very old fibreglass el toro dinghy as the tender in Seattle, painted with really bad yellow house paint that rubbed off on most everything. And during Seafair (local water festival events) it was stolen, much to our surprise. (No oars or motor on board.)

Then it returned, about 3 days later, with a very nice pair of handmade rowing sculls. Which, it turned out, had also been stolen. (Which were returned to their owner.)

We still own the dinghy... sort of. One of our kids took it with him when he moved out.

[Hud3]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

...The really funny part, I think, is that their yellow ketch (and lack of a dinghy) is equally unique. I wonder how they'll be received as they continue their cruise through the Caribbean?

TaoJones

Good point, Tao. This morning, I saw a sailboat on a mooring here on Nevis that I remember seeing four years ago in Chatham Bay, Union Island, in the Grenadines. It's a hard-chine aluminum boat with a bright orange stripe--very distinctive--so I immediately recognized it the instant I saw it. If one is into thievery, one really needs to have a nondescript boat.

The idiots in the yellow ketch will rue the day they were so stupid. They're branded as thieves forever.

[stevensc]

When I head for the islands, hopefully next year, I'll paint dinghy the upper tubes a flourecent orange probably do the engine cowling the same way. As a theft deterrent and to make it easey to spot incase it ever has to do lifeboat duty.
Steve

[Rangiroo]

Originally Posted by slomotion

In places where boat boys prevail, you almost have to hire one to prevent theft of your dinghy - it’s just kind of understood. In other places, unless you go to extraordinary and inconvenient lengths, there’s not much you can do to prevent theft of a dinghy from a dock. One of the reasons I advocate dinghy davits when anchored at night is that they sort of prevent theft of our dinghy while it’s attached to your boat. They don’t really, but it makes them easy to haul and secure and therefore, a much less attractive target compared to those that are just attached by painters. OTOH, a red dinghy might be a cheaper way to go. Can you paint a dinghy? - Lime Green, Plum Crazy Purple, Banana Yellow (oops not a good choice if the French boat is around), etc.

This is absolute garbage....I have just sailed the length and breadth of the Caribbean and have not heard of ONE SINGLE THEFT of a dinghy anywhere at all and I have been on all the nets most mornings. As long as you are prudent, i.e. lock your dinghy at a dock with wire or chain and lock it at night either in the water or out then 99% of the time you should be fine...if you are going to worry about the 1% then really...stay at home.
You don't need a boat boy anywhere, you don't have to be paranoid about losing your dinghy unless you are stupid.

It annoys me that people make blanket UNTRUE statements like the above quote because new people reading this forum rely on getting information from people that have been out there doing it and to get blatently erroneous information does not help them nor engender a measure of confidence in any information from this forum.

[hellosailor]

The two cheapest "tags" on the market today are the zoombak and the pocketfinder (both from .coms of the same name) running about $125-150 to purchase, smaller than a cigarette pack, but requiring an annual contract (another $150) and battery changes every 4-5 days or so. And you'll have to be in the cellular data network that each uses.

Other than that, if you are ham radio licensed you can use a small APRS transmitter, but that's strictly for folks who don't mind doing their own soldering. More out of pocket, no annual expenses, no cellular service needed. Assuming, that type of radio transmission is legal in the place you are visiting.

[s/v Jedi]

This is absolute garbage....I have just sailed the length and breadth of the Caribbean and have not heard of ONE SINGLE THEFT of a dinghy anywhere at all

Ah, but they are not often stolen while sailing (sorry :-) We're in the Caribbean 6 years now and heard about stolen dinghies hundreds of times and only a small percentage of that goes on the nets. Places like Porlamar alone count tens of dozens of cases in the last 6 years. And yes, they steal locked dinghies up in the davits too there...

I even believe most dinghies are taken by other cruisers. There was this boat Tatoosh that had around seven stolen dinghies aboard, incl. 2 from 2 different friends of us, stolen in Tobego. Venezuela coastguard boarded them after "the net" located them and the dinghies (and outboards) were found but they just let them go (no jurisdiction).

cheers,
Nick.

[Tempest245]

They used to hang horse thieves.....Pirates were tied to a stake in the harbor at low tide.

[slomotion]

Sorry to annoy you, Rangiroo. Obviously, your experience was different from ours, and yours is more recent. So, maybe things have changed. Eight or nine years ago I could not imagine visiting Union Island without hiring a boat boy - unless you wanted to spend all your time fighting them off.

Our dinghy was never stolen, but we heard about such thefts all the time and I doubt that all the owners were stupid. Safety and Security Net is far from comprehensive, but it sounds like things haven’t changed much:

WINDWARDISLANDS

I notice that no dinghies (but one OB) were reported stolen in Union Island. Bequia was also boat boy country - not sure about the rest of SVG.

[Hud3]

We spent the cruising seasons of 2004-06 in the Leewards and Windwards, and encountered boat vendors in Dominica, St. Lucia, Bequia, the Tobago Cays, and Union Island. I came to like them. They're pretty friendly and interesting people if you take a little time to get to know them. We've become good friends with a young man in Dominica, an Indian River guide, and keep in touch with him via email.

We never felt an implied threat that something bad would happen if we didn't hire one of them. In fact, we never had a single negative interaction of any kind in our whole time cruising the islands, with the exception of a surly clerk in a store on Tortola. We almost never locked up at night, and sometimes didn't bother to lock when off the boat.

[slomotion]

I didn’t mean to give the wrong impression. We always had good experiences with boat boys and we always had one in those places where it was customary. I never felt that the system was a shake down racket. It’s just that in those places where the custom is to hire a boat boy, you will be hounded and pestered until you do. Once you retain one, the others all seem to know and leave you alone. Boat boys provide a valuable service at a modest cost (at least it used to be): they help you tie up (and in some places this is nearly a necessity); they steer you to good places and good times; they will deliver stuff (including breakfast!); they give you the feeling that someone is looking out for you; and they otherwise make your stay easier and more fun. The only one I remember well was improbably named 'Buba' - he was a real hoot and we shared some mean sundowners.

[s/v Jedi]

I agree with Hud, these boat boys are okay... just a little persistent ;-) We always choose one to be "ours" and have him bring some bread every other day or something like that. The others don't bother you anymore as soon as they see that and you have a lovely time... and fresh bread ;-)

I think other cruisers steal most of the dinghies and fisherman steal a fair number of outboards but maybe not as much as other cruisers. This thread is just one example of the many incidents we noticed around us where another cruiser was the thief.

cheers,
Nick.

[Kamaloha]

I spent a month in Simpson's Bay Lagoon, Sint Maarten, a few years back. During that time I was involved in attempting to solve two dinghy thefts. During the first one I was just walking out of Budget Marine with my purchases when a sailor came in screaming "they just stole my dinghy!" We could see it motoring out of the bay. He and I jumped in my dinghy and gave chase, but unfortunately he was a REALLY big guy and I could not get on a plane so we lost them. We searched the whole lagoon and out into both bays and never found it. When he reported it he was told that local theives would park trailers at the waters edge, drive dinghies right onto the trailers and haul right out, then strip them out and sell parts at their leisure.

The second one was a BIG dinghy belonging to a maxi racing in the Heineken. It was stolen from the dock by the mail service on the Dutch side. He had tied but not locked it. Again we searched the lagoon, and spotted it motoring along in Marigot. When we gave chase the theives beached it and ran into town, quickly disappearing. We recovered it, and you can bet he now locks it always.

[Vega1860]

Friend of mine had a glass-over-plywood pram with a deck plate in the bottom. When he left the dingy he took the deck plate with him leaving a six inch hole in the bottom. I wish I could do that with my Walker Bay.