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?

"Paul English" wrote
Suggestions for anything I can do?

Locking fuel cap? (I just did a google search on that and the first two hits
are sold out. Maybe I'm not the first person to think of it.)

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?

Check your bilge?

Sorry, I (and I assume many others) have been the victim of minor theft
over the years; there really isn't anything to do about it. It might be
different if your boat was in indoor storage, and you had a record of an
end of season fillup, and you checked your fuel before launch. But if
it was outdoors, in a yard accessible, anyone could have slipped a
siphon into your tank. In fact, a boat below yours could siphon
directly into his tank.

If you were really convinced your yard was guilty, or negligent, you
could reveal their name here.

"Paul English" wrote in message
...
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?



It's only a paltry four hundred bucks. No big deal! Chicken feed! Get over
it. Somebody stole the fuel in the storage yard. Probably some Rube on a
boat stored next to it. Consider installing a ball valve on the filler hose
that can only be operated from inside the boat, close it and lock the boat.
Anybody who tries to stick a siphon hose into your fill won't get very far.


Wilbur Hubbard

Leave only 20 gallons or so in the tank but add octane booster to get it up
to about 200 octane. If it gets stolen and used it will damage the engine in
goes into. In the spring just fill the tank up and the octane level will go
down.

Have a "dummy" fill cap going to a tank of gasoline mixed with styrofoam.
Let them try to run on that.

Kapt Krunch brought forth on stone tablets:
Leave only 20 gallons or so in the tank but add octane booster to get it up
to about 200 octane. If it gets stolen and used it will damage the engine in
goes into. In the spring just fill the tank up and the octane level will go
down.

You are confused, Wilbur, as to what the octane rating of gasoline
means. Higher octane rating means that the gasoline is *less*
explosive, not more explosive.

Have a "dummy" fill cap going to a tank of gasoline mixed with styrofoam.
Let them try to run on that.


Now that would work.

On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:04:07 -0600, "Kapt Krunch"
wrote:

Leave only 20 gallons or so in the tank but add octane booster to get it up
to about 200 octane. If it gets stolen and used it will damage the engine in
goes into. In the spring just fill the tank up and the octane level will go
down.

Octane booster is only good for five points, or so. Triptane has a
rating of 170 when blended with tetraethyl lead. That is as high as it
gets. Propane is 100, methanol and ethanol about 110 as is toluene.
Acetone is over 100. So called low lead 100 avgas is 115 and is the
highest you can buy from a pump. The closest small town gas station
has racing gas during the season, but I don't know how it rates. There
will be a quiz.

Casady

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.