MorningBird said..
Don't have the best boat in the area, lock it up securely, don't tell people you have a new expensive something or other onboard.
I keep getting told of thieves in our area but I haven't (yet) met anyone who has had their boat broken into.
Has anybody on the forum been broken into? What were the circumstances?
I had my fishing vessel broken into several times tied up at the main wharf. Even with bright lights and pensioners watching on. A regular occurrence was amateur fishermen reversing their ute down the wharf and they would scoop live bait out of the tanks and load them into inflatable tanks in the back of the ute. I made lockable lids and they moved onto the next boat. This of course made me unpopular and they eventually did the same. The pensioners who were there fishing try to stop them but end up getting threatened. Never lost any electronics, mostly fishing gear and it was usually stuff they could not use like poling squids!
One Sunday afternoon I got a call from a local lad to tell me some low life was breaking in. Raced down the wharf with my eldest son. Wharf was crowded and the ars#wipe was still there! Stole knives and lures.
Local woman who worked for me as a deckhand was fishing off the boat one night. She watched this car drive down the wharf and parked along side a trawler at the end of the wharf. When they broke into the cabin she went and got her car and parked it at the T section of the wharf and called the police and then retired to my boat. Cops turned up and caught them in the park near the wharf, they had stolen a laptop and were armed with a pistol!
I have had my truck broken into and nothing taken but cash. I have also had my truck battery stolen by some amatuer fisherman who discovered his runabout had a flat battery. I have sprung another amatuer fisherman stealing an anchor of the deck of one of the boats one morning.
Saturday afternoon during the football season I had my dinghy stolen off the boat several times by our indigenous friends on their way home to the mission, even when I started putting the oars down below.
I have had no problem with my yacht on a mooring. Many years ago we had a Sydney based team turn up and they broke into a few moored boats but they were mainly involved with a water based break in of the bowling club. There is not much you can do to avoid professionals.
Aerials and antennas usually indicate what's in side a yacht but really there is not much of a market for this stuff these days. Most crooks are after cash or stuff that's easy to get rid of. Use a mooring and have your mooring next to expensive boats. There is always a pensioner watching. Get to know the locals.
Expensive anchors are the most common stolen item off boats.
