Leanne wrote:
A couple of weeks ago I was in his place, and he had an inflatable that
looked like pure hell.
It had been painted with *something*, and the paint didn't turn out to
be as flexible as the
material underneath. It was cracked, chipped, dirty, and decidedly sad
looking. I was really surprised to learn that the totally un-bristol
cosmetic disaster belongs to a very successful yacht broker. Good
grief! What is he thinking? I don't know if he used a "proper" paint or
whether the available products are now improved, but that boat looked
so bad that if it were mine I'd toss it into the dumpster and shop for
something a lot less shameful looking.

When you dinghy in to the public dock, no one would ever think about
stealing it, as they wouldn't trust it.

Leanne


It surprises me that dinghy theft isn't a bigger problem, but at least
in the Pacific NW it's fairly rare. We still have $1mm yachts protected
by a $12 Home Depot padlock, and $30,000 dinghies on davits that an
enterprising 12 year old could figure out how to get launched without
"official" access.

I think that boaters in general don't steal from other boaters. Any
theft is likely to be goofy school kids out on a lark.

I think a bicycle lock cable passed through the eye of a cleat and back
through a handle or other solidly affixed fitting on the dinghy would
be a more suitabel deterrent if one were worried bout theft than using
a filthy and decrepit looking dinghy, but I guess that's just me. :-)