How low do you go...........????

I sailed away from home for the first time this last weekend. Had a great time, competed in 3 races back to back, very long day on the water, came home very knackered but pleased with myself. The only downer on the day was that some scumbag sailor has stolen my brand new Rooster Pro hikers from the changing room! Naturally I've contacted the hosting club & emailed the visiting clubs secs, to give anyone the oportunity to contact me if they inadvertantly picked them up, but....... zilch........ . So a hard lesson learned. Even in a sport such as ours with the cameraderie that I've exerienced in my fairly short sailing career, there are people that we mix with who will happily steal your wet clobber after sailing. I AM VERY BL**DY ANGRY!!! AND SAD....Especially as the event was to raise money for the local hospice !!!! So...... if I see anyone locally striding about in slightly used new Rooster hikers, beware, I'll be watching you.............

Seems you cant trust anyone. So....bear in mind these are people we all mix with, but how do you root them out??  Yes, I know they are a minority & mostly, we wouldn't steal fom each other but..........BL**DY HELL!! 

So, tell me - Anyone else experienced this sort of thing at their club & events they've attended?? What will go missing if you leave it for a second??

A clubmate had his Albacore stolen after the Internationals at Largs this year. It was packed up after the event and left at the club while they had a few days holiday.  When they got back there it was gone, also stolen was another boats mast and a couple of mainsails.

Perhaps we are too trusting, in the vast majority of cases the trust is justified, but all it takes is one scumbag to ruin it for everyone.

If you see a Wooden Albacore for sail that matches the description below, please call the police or crimestoppers.

http://www.stolenboats.org.uk/view.php3?q=3070

I would cling to the knowledge that it is very rare and was hopefully an honest mistake.  The visiting club secrataries probably won't have had time to contact their own sailors yet, and quite possibly someone somewhere was perplexed to put two sets of hikers in the washing machine and doesn't know who to contact. I do hope it doesn't put you off doing other Opens.

Back in the 1980's there was a member of our club who was caught taking money out of wallets in the changing rooms.  I believe he may even have been a copper. 

Just a few weeks back when I tested the RS100 at Hayling, I went into the shower and hung my towel on the peg.  I got out of the shower and thought someone had taken my towel.  After 5 minutes of wandering naked around the changing rooms it dawned on me that the towel had fallen off the peg into the bin below...

After having a cheapo sailing watch stolen from in the changing room, I'm much more careful. Like they say, don't tempt 'em and they won't think about nicking it.

Any club which has the potential for public/visitor access is likely to be higher risk than a small locals' club where everyone knows each other well(?)

Saying that, the level of "petty" but infuriating theft is far lower than the level of mistakenly picked up kit in our club - It might be worth asking after a week or two, as some infrequent sailors often return accidentally acquired items to lost property some weeks later.