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(Matt Lang) wrote in message . com...
Folks,

its now down to a few weeks til the boat will arrive and I have to
start makeing arrangements to make sure it stays where it belongs and
doesnt end up with some crook....
snip
The second scenario that requires some protection is when camping with
the boat. It should be made sure that nobody can pull the boat away at
night and I have to swim home ... What is the standard method to
protect for that? Lets leave aside that sometimes you DONT want to
know or be there if someone (armed) takes your boat....

I was thinking about an alarm in the boat ... it could be a simple
setup with a vibration sensor hooked to a siren or a thin wire going
from boat to shore and if the boat moves the wire rips and triggers
the siren ..
snip

Hi Matt,

The vibration sensor or wire solutions will probably cause false
alarms as the boat swings on it's mooring and is "shaken" by sea
conditions. You'd have to make it so insensitive to prevent these
that it might not trigger if there was a real problem.

This is nothing like a complete solution, but it's what we do in our
fairly low-crime, rural area:

There are a whole load of battery isolation switches available for
anti-theft use in cars.With most of these you go to the battery
negative post and remove a small T-handle, which isolates the battery.

These are available with a "loop around" connection. This is a small
fuse (5A?), which runs is in parallel to the switch, ie even when the
handle is removed, this connection will carry up to 5A to the boat.
This can be sized to carry whatever is required to keep house systems
running overnight (running lights, GPS anchor alarm, whatever).

We don't have our boat theft alarm or bilge pumps isolated by this
switch - these are on an independent connection to the battery -ve.
See many, many previous arguements (er, I mean discussions) about the
advisability of putting any kind of switch between your bilge pumps
and batteries.

We take the handle with us when leaving the boat, and it's an unusual
shape (a cranked over L), and needs to be inserted into the switch and
turned to make contact, so not it's not easy to replace with a
screwdriver or whatever. It clicks into place, and will not be shaken
loose while the boat is in use.

If someone tries to start then engine before inserting the handle, the
fuse blows immediately, and the boat is disabled (admitedly fairly
minimally disabled). If it's us and we have just been forgetful (it's
happened), we just put the handle back in, and can replace the fuse at
leisure.

We never pull the handle while there's anyone on board, even if just
staying put overnight - if there's a problem, and you need the engine
in a hurry, Murphy's law will ensure that you can't find the handle,
etc...

The hatch into the engine compartment is locked, and protected by an
alarm/magnetic proximity switch.

OK, as I said, it's nothing like fool-proof, but it's all cheap stuff
and easy to fit. The boat can still be towed away to be worked on at
the thief's leisure, but at least you need another (substantial) boat
to do so.

As for a locking point when on land, we have a pice of scrap anchor
chain, with one end cast into a hole filled with 200 kilos of
concrete, the other end long enough to lock to both the trailer and on
to the mooring post of the boat itself - I think another poster has
suggested somthing similar.

For over-winter storage, we block up the trailer every .5 meters along
each rail, remove the road wheels and the tow-ball receiver (just two
big olts).
This has the added benefits of keeping the tyres out of the weather,
and preventing them from developing flat spots. Obviously you need to
do something to protect the hubs (and brakes if you have them) from
the weather when the wheels are removed.

Again, none of this is foolproof, but it means that casual thieves
should be deterred. At least they'll have to make a second visit with
a big hacksaw, some wheels and a tow hitch.

Nothing will stop really determined theived. You just need to evaluate
the risk of theft and insurance requirements against the cost,
complication and reliability of what you can do, and come up with
what's a good compomise for you. Ask around with other boat owners in
the area. If theft/vandalism is a current problem in your area,
that's one thing. If nothing has been stolen in living memory, that's
another...

Regards,

Barry