Outboard Security

[ppenman]

Does anybody know of any equipment i can buy to increase the security of my outboard ? Having just had an 8 month old Suzi DF150 nicked in the supposedly secure marina it would be nice to know of anything i can fit in addition to the useless engine locks mandated by insurance companies. As this is the second outboard i've had stolen from a rib in the past 8 years I'm thinking about giving up ribbing.

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by ppenman

supposedly secure marina

I am sorry to hear that

I think your problem is the marina, if thieves have the luxury of time then they will remove any preventative measures you put in place.

[actions]

Originally Posted by ppenman

Does anybody know of any equipment i can buy to increase the security of my outboard ? Having just had an 8 month old Suzi DF150 nicked in the supposedly secure marina it would be nice to know of anything i can fit in addition to the useless engine locks mandated by insurance companies. As this is the second outboard i've had stolen from a rib in the past 8 years I'm thinking about giving up ribbing.

Yup, Malthouse has it right, if the thieves have time on their hands it doesnt matter what security locks, bolts and or chains you have in place they are going to get what they want.

Maybe speak to your marina and see what they can do. Was your last outboard nicked from the same place?

[dubrus]

put a gps tracker in it would be my first option after speaking to the marina.

cheers

[achille2124]

Have you tried the lock nut? With this, they can't remove the bolts that keeps the outboard attached to the transom, they have to steal the whole boat....

http://www.mcgard.com/marineproducts/outboardmotorlocks

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by achille2124

Have you tried the lock nut? With this, they can't remove the bolts that keeps the outboard attached to the transom, they have to steal the whole boat.

Alas they can be ground off, really well tooled thieves will also have a set of sockets and can remove them silently.

The opportunist thief can be put off fairly readily, but the high value motors are worth the time and effort that can be required to remove them. Sometimes only the power heads or gearboxes are removed, such are the lengths they will go to.

It is a sad fact that the insurance companies just tally up the statistics, a few guys from the marine industry (me included) offered them a chance to identify and reduce the windows of opportunity for hard-core thieves. They were not interested.

[achille2124]

Originally Posted by malthouse

Alas they can be ground off, really well tooled thieves will also have a set of sockets and can remove them silently.

The opportunist thief can be put off fairly readily, but the high value motors are worth the time and effort that can be required to remove them. Sometimes only the power heads or gearboxes are removed, such are the lengths they will go to.

It is a sad fact that the insurance companies just tally up the statistics, a few guys from the marine industry (me included) offered them a chance to identify and reduce the windows of opportunity for hard-core thieves. They were not interested.

I know what you mean by "opportunistÉ. I worked with the Coast Guard when I was a student and we were dispatched in Montreal area with a Hurricane 733 with twin Mercury Optimax 150.

During one night, some thieves came on a boat, in the middle of our busy leisure marina and stole both engine....it was quite a shock when we came in the morning!

They were obviously very determined to get those!

[ppenman]

Hi,

thanks for your replies. Engines were stolen from different marinas although both were in South Essex. This time they drove through the security barrier, professionally covered the cctv cameras and then set about cutting/grinding through the outboard mountings of two other boats as well as mine. It would be nice to get something that would send me a text if it detected unauthorised movement. I wonder if keeping the boat on the water using versadock or similar would reduce the risk of theft.

[actions]

Originally Posted by ppenman

Hi,

thanks for your replies. Engines were stolen from different marinas although both were in South Essex. This time they drove through the security barrier, professionally covered the cctv cameras and then set about cutting/grinding through the outboard mountings of two other boats as well as mine. It would be nice to get something that would send me a text if it detected unauthorised movement. I wonder if keeping the boat on the water using versadock or similar would reduce the risk of theft.

I know that you can get trackers which have been mentioned already.

Tracker which is also the name of the company do several levels of alerting from simple tracking to letting you know if it is moved without permission and sending an alert, however i'm not sure if they can squeeze one in an outboard. http://www.tracker.co.uk/TRACKER/Default.aspx

[Turbodiesel]

We sell these locks, very very good, not the cheapest but they have been proving to be about the best on the market.

http://www.outboardmotorlocks.co.uk/...t-volcano.html


And you get discount with us so they are £50.54 plus poatage.