wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:35:48 -0700 (PDT), Paul English
wrote:

My boat had 100 gallons of fuel drained sometime between when I stored
the boat (Boston area) and when they put it back in the water last
week.

Anyone else experienced something like this? What to do? The storage
place of course denied this happened while under their eye, yet they
had no suggestions for when this might have happened. (Perhaps the
night after they put it in the water but before I got on it the next
day?)

I asked them if they recorded the amount of fuel (and hours on
engines) when they got a boat for storage, and then when they launched
it (possibly after any repairs etc) and they said no.

Suggestions for anything I can do?

Just be glad they didn't do any real damage. Now that fuel is getting
so expensive, it's become a target for theft like it was back during
the 70's "shortages". The difference this time around is that thieves
who steal gas from cars no longer bother with a siphon. They just
punch a hole in the victim's gas tank.


What to do? Taking into account the actual economic situation we may have to
re-think the way we store our boat for a long period of time. The first
thing that comes to my mind is to store the boat with a minimum amount of
fuel. To do that we have to find a way to eliminate condensation within the
fuel tank. Locking fuel cap, cameras, secured and well lit boat yard may
act as deterrents do discourage the stealing of fuel.