Theft prevention? how do you store your boat?

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lugoismad

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I have a small backyard and live in town. Lots of tweekers around here like to thieve to feed their habits.

Registering my boat, motor and trailer with a hand written bill of sale was rather eye opening.

What do you do to keep from having your boat messed with? Someone could easily jump my fence and no matter how well I bolt it down and chain it, have my motor off my boat with a sawzall in about two minutes.

Besides that, two guys could pick the whole thing up and over the fence and be gone with it in no time.
How do you keep your boat safe?
 
I have no boat right now but when I did I had a cable lock wrapped around the motor fastened to the handles on the transom. I also had a hitch lock on the tongue of the trailer. I didn't have any problems with the boat or motor being messed with. If you are really worried you could fasten a cable lock around the spokes of your wheels to the trailer frame. I did have my gas can stolen from my porch one time while I was debating on how to get rid of the bad gas in it but I got the can back.
 
I live WAY out in the country - that "used to be" safe. Leave your front door unlocked
whenever you left for a few hours or the whole day.

Now, with the Disney Attractions and Central Florida booming like gangbusters,
nothing and nobody is safe anywhere anymore.
The crack heads steal very expensive tractors and 4-wheelers right out of the yard.
Home invasions are becoming more prevalent, which is scarey.
I keep a padlock on my trailer tongue which is only a deterrent to someone without a
18v grinder or sawsall.
the motor is thru bolted to the transom. I keep my FF inside the house with my rods, reels and tackle boxes.
NOTHING of value is left inside the carport. (I don't have a secure garage).
Some of my neighbors around me have been raped of their belongs.

Very sad to say, not much more than what you are doing now will stop a determined crack head.
Motion detectors with lights and loud beeper focused on your boat would be your next option.
Next aggressive option would be to hook up a 5 acre electric fence shocker to your boat hull.
But that would be the extreme.
I am afraid I would hurt myself LAUGHING if I heard some screams coming from the boat in the middle of the night. :LMFAO:


and after thinking about it, and having seen the photos of your boat . . . .
one or two crack heads could do a quick grab and run with your boat, motor and trailer.
pull it out to the street and hook the safety chains to their bumper and be gone with it.
Not even have to address the padlock or any kind of lock - - - just let it hang loose with the chains
pull it a few blocks then deal with any locks you may have on it.
Remove all your markings - get new papers - and sell it - - - just as you described.
Maybe if you can dig a deep hole where your trailer axle is routinely parked.
pour in a couple of bags of concrete and put some heavy duty chain in it - - - then after it hardens,
you can at least lock the chain around the axle - - - a little more difficult for the crack head to deal with.
 
Barefoot_Johnny said:
and after thinking about it, and having seen the photos of your boat . . . .

But you have to admit, you'd have to be a real idiot to steal the only smurf blue 14 foot sea nymph in existence. :LOL2:

I think I'm just going to leave it in the garage, and put up with the wife complaining about not having her parking spot.

Same for the camper. Any idiot with a cordless sawzall could steal the $900 low profile air conditioner off the top of it in about 5 minutes. Not worth putting it out there.
 
Tallpine said:
Do you rent your home or own? I would think your insurance should cover it if it is stolen.

Own.

My deductible is more than a new boat would cost. Its more for "oh shoot, the roof just blew off", not petty theft.

Deductible is $1000, and it would jack my payments way up after that.

A coworker of mine had to put in a claim a few years ago, pipe burst and destroyed his hardwood floors. Insurance paid it, and then dropped him. His payments are now 5x as much as before because he had to go with a high risk insurance plan now.
 
just a word of advice. homeowners will not cover your boat. you would have to get a rider. been there done that. i have a policy on the boat itself. good luck
 
Just insurance. Anything else is not really protecting yourself, it's a false sense of security. If you truly want to eliminate risk, get a rock solid insurance policy.
 
Brine said:
What size motor?

25hp. I can pick it up. I had it off the boat and was carrying it around the garage earlier this year.

Granted, I'm a pretty big guy. But regardless, without the motor installed me and my neighbor picked the boat up off the trailer and set it on tires so I could wire wheel the bottom and paint it.

Three guys would have that thing out of my backyard in no time and into the back of a pickup truck.
 
My weld-Craft at the fishcamp is chained around a trailer frame rail to a steel support beam of the big metal shed it's stored under. Same for the Pro-Line except it's chained around a steel support beam for the house here.
 
I had a 2007 Honda 5hp that was six months old stolen off my boat while I went into WalMart to get bait.... Called the cops watched the security tapes its been 8 years still haven't found it or seen it and believe me I have been looking I now have a 91 9.9 gamfisher and its padlocked twice to the boat and when its not in use my wife's grandmother has a cinderblock bomb shelter 2 car garage with massive locks ... (her husband restored rare cars) and my boat is the only thing in there and I'm the only one with the only key so unless they have a bulldozer my boat is safe in my eyes... I also have it insured.... Just in case
 

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