How to deter the engine thieves?
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Insurance
Forum Discription: Questions and answers related to this topic
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13464
Printed Date: 24 Jun 25 at 10:43am
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Topic: How to deter the engine thieves?
Posted By: zimbob
Subject: How to deter the engine thieves?
Date Posted: 16 Nov 19 at 4:20pm
| We are a sailing club in the countryside with no neighbours and recent events suggest we are being targetted for our ribs and engines in their containers. What steps can we take to deter / foil the thieves? What has worked for you? CCTV, lighting, motion sensors, etc? |
Replies:
Posted By: 423zero
Date Posted: 16 Nov 19 at 5:33pm
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Scrub the paint or whatever finish is on your engine cover, make it less attractive. Padlocked to wall etc, we have been burgled, but not taken engine yet.
Depressing thing is last twice they have cherry picked boat spares, clearly they know about dinghies. My club in a similar situation, no one within miles. we have cameras and alarm, one of those screaming sounders that disorentate you, looking at a smoke machine. ------------- Robert |
Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 16 Nov 19 at 6:12pm
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Painting the covers, use the pens that can't be seen in normal light so you can identify them (smart water?) keep the boats afloat in the middle of the lake. Hopefully it will work, but sadly not necessarily. Good quality CCTV that can actually make out who people are. Tracker devices hidden in the engines. A shoot on sight policy? ------------- Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686 |
Posted By: zeon
Date Posted: 16 Nov 19 at 10:30pm
| A shoot on sight policy seems a little harsh for engine thieves. But I am more than happy for it to be used for iGRF 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 |
Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 17 Nov 19 at 9:38am
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I admit I was running out of ideas...
iGRF is too small to be seen! ------------- Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686 |
Posted By: zimbob
Date Posted: 17 Nov 19 at 10:04am
Thanks for the responses so far; a couple of points - we spoke to the insurance but the policy is void if we park the ribs on the water  . We know these guys use grinders so padlocks and chains are unlikely to hold them up. I like the idea of the smart pens and the loud noise to disorientate so we'll investigate those two. Anything else worth considering?
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Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 17 Nov 19 at 1:39pm
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Etch club and post code onto the metal. Anything to make them harder to sell on. ------------- Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686 |
Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 17 Nov 19 at 5:45pm
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In many cases they'll be going abroad where buyers won't be bothered about engraved postcodes or WHY. But you have to do whatever you can. When thieves targeted the boat compound at the caravan site a few years ago they just chainsawed the transoms out of the boats........ ------------- Spice 346 "Flat Broke" Blaze 671 "supersonic soap dish" |
Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 9:47am
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We welded the attachment bolts on our which saved us a couple of engines. The only one they got was one that had been recently refitted and not welded. its a pain as you need new bolts each time the engines come off but this is a rare occurrence The other ideas like painting the covers and using smart markers are great as it means they are identifiable. ------------- Paul ---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74 |
Posted By: 423zero
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 9:50am
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Also stops engine falling off. ------------- Robert |
Posted By: ian.r.mcdonald
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 10:02am
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The sad fact is that our depleted police will often not even come out for house break ins and accidents if no injury. So the thieves know that it's very unlikely that they will be caught, and that they can spend extra time overcoming any obstacles.
How about offering free membership for your local Police social club? |
Posted By: PeterG
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 10:03am
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Fine until people start cutting transoms off, as has happened round here in the past. Though I agree it does reduce the likelihood a lot.. ------------- Peter Ex Cont 707 Ex Laser 189635 DY 59 |
Posted By: zimbob
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 11:02am
| Jeffers - can you clarify what you mean by welding the bolts in? How would this prevent the transom being chainsawed off as we have also heard that this tends to be a popular approach? |
Posted By: jeffers
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 12:30pm
We may have been lucky in that they didn't have a chainsaw with them. There wee spanners all over the place there they had tried and failed. They used a hiab to get the engine they got over the compound fence and turned all the cameras away so they couldn't be observed (don't even get me started on that). We have been visited since and they stole the tractor we use to launch and recover (which was ony a few months old). At least the club has made some changes to try and mitigate that including an alarm that directly calls various committee members when it gets triggered. ------------- Paul ---------------------- D-Zero GBR 74 |
Posted By: 423zero
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 12:35pm
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Not sure people turning up to a robbery in progress a very good idea, likely to end badly. ------------- Robert |
Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 12:56pm
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No but they can call the police while it's happening rather than next weekend when it is discovered. ------------- Spice 346 "Flat Broke" Blaze 671 "supersonic soap dish" |
Posted By: 423zero
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 1:17pm
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True, to make sure Police actually turn up, tell them a couple of female members have gone to investigate. ------------- Robert |
Posted By: davidyacht
Date Posted: 18 Nov 19 at 9:21pm
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I believe that Google Earth makes the crims work so much easier; I worked for insurers on a case where a load of engines were chain sawed off off. The access was through a neighbouring field which was only obvious by the aerial view provided by Google Earth. More recently a load of boats were launched in the middle of the night from a local yard and floated away to an isolated location, where the engines were chain sawed off. On another occasion the crims were caught red handed, but the police were unable to attend because the only patrol was 20 miles away. To summarise, outboard engine theft is a professional operation and if the tea leaves have targeted you there is little to be done in this day and age. It also beggars the question as to whether many of the outboard engines offered by a well known marketplace website are “legal”? ------------- Happily living in the past |
Posted By: The Moo
Date Posted: 01 Dec 19 at 8:31pm
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The Harbour Commissioners at Wells Next The Sea in conjunction I think with Norfolk Constabulary sell weatherproof plastic covers which replace the engine cowling when not in use which is taken home. An engine without a cowling is not an attractive proposition to criminals.
The scheme has been running for a number of years and outboard theft in the harbour has been virtually eliminated |
Posted By: 423zero
Date Posted: 11 Jan 20 at 3:47pm
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Well our New Year off to a good start, thieves have broken in, destroyed a £2000 security system, including taking DVR, 2 newish outboards including half sawing through one of the boats transom, plus damage to building.
No sailing till we get new outboards. ------------- Robert |
Posted By: Do Different
Date Posted: 11 Jan 20 at 9:03pm
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Posted By: marwen
Date Posted: 04 Jun 20 at 1:19pm
Agree
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Posted By: marwen
Date Posted: 08 Jun 20 at 9:42am
As well as network!
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