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Engine stole of boat Lancaster canal


Alan Ashe

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Hi I'm alan of the little cruiser rainbow

At some point yesterday or early this morning near Brock garage on Lancaster canal someone took our Honda 5 engine of the boat,,last month the driver's seat an petrol tank were taken outside moon's bridge marina,plz let's keep our eyes peeled and catch these people who are spoiling the canal for all of us.

Unfortunately I don't think we will be able to afford a new engine ,or the repair bill for a while we really are gutted.

So be aware boater's,play safe .

Alan

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45 minutes ago, Alan Ashe said:

Hi I'm alan of the little cruiser rainbow

At some point yesterday or early this morning near Brock garage on Lancaster canal someone took our Honda 5 engine of the boat,,last month the driver's seat an petrol tank were taken outside moon's bridge marina,plz let's keep our eyes peeled and catch these people who are spoiling the canal for all of us.

Unfortunately I don't think we will be able to afford a new engine ,or the repair bill for a while we really are gutted.

So be aware boater's,play safe .

Alan

Keep an eye on ebay/gumtree as in the fullness of time they will try to sell it on there! [stolen electric bike recovered by police]

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Sad news. I've heard a good  way to stop them being pinched is to take the cover off and replace it with one those bright fluorescent engine covers. Engine not saleable unless complete. 

What security devices did you fit? My outboard has a tube and padlock over the clamps and is also bolted to the transom. 

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3 hours ago, Graham Davis said:

Sorry to hear this, but isn't your engine covered by insurance?

Unlikely - unless it is fitted with an insurance approved anti-theft clamp (normally) bolted thru' the transom.

 

Image result for outboard anti theft clamp

 

 

There are ones that cover the transom clamps but their 'quality' depends on the price.

 

Image result for outboard anti theft clamp

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Ours had slots in the brackets the clamp screws worked against on the outside of the hull so we drilled right through the transom and fitted suitable coach bolts from the outside so the squares   fitted into the slots and used nuts and penny washers on the inside, cutting the bolts off just proud of flush.. We the lightly glassed over the nuts and later because we had about 12 OB hire launches just covered the nuts with body filler.

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A mate of mine made his own some years ago but I’m struggling to recall exactly how it worked. I remember that it involved a length of scaffold pole with two hacksawed slits in it that slid over the clamps and was then padlocked. But the clever bit was that the padlock hasp was somehow inside the tube so that there’s no way it could have been attacked with bolt cutters. You had to reach into the tube with the key if you wanted to remove it. 

 

Edited by WotEver
Typo
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9 hours ago, Alan Ashe said:

Unfortunately I don't think we will be able to afford a new engine ,or the repair bill for a while we really are gutted.

 

If you need to be moving, then you could do a lot worse than picking up an old British Seagull for fifty odd quid from Ebay.

 

They're very crude and basic, but they're absolutely bomb proof, and that's why there's so many available at such low prices.

 

I'm in a similar situation with regards to affording a new permanent engine, so I've picked up a Seagull to use temporarily and it's absolutely amazed me. It's only a couple of horsepower at best but it's managing to propell a 25ft narrowboat to keep me out of trouble with CRT and buy me a bit of time to get the money together for a more practical permanent engine... if I bother. I might actually keep the Seagull.

 

Just a suggestion.

 

I hope the w***er who nicked your motor treads on a rusty nail and gets gangrene.

Edited by Kernunnos
Spelling mistake.
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My sympathies go to the OP, it's a horrible thing to have happen.

 

The two part locks that go over the clamps, and where the lock is an integral part, do the job. You can't just use a pair of bolt cutters like on a padlock.

However, the sad thing is that the scrotes will just use an angle grinder to remove part of the transom along with the engine. Years ago that happened to a boat my dad had and they made off with a 40hp Johnson. The OP's post mentioned a repair bill in addition to the engine so it didn't sound as though they had removed it cleanly.

 

That said, it's easier for the amateur to do GRP repairs than work with steel and like Kernunnos points out even the smallest, cheapest engine will move a small cruiser. I'm a big fan of Seagull engines but the direct drive single gear ones (no neutral or reverse on models like the forty plus) could get a bit hairy in some situations on the canal. I tried it with a small Mariner  3.3hp engine with only neutral and forward, having to spin it for reverse. A bit too difficult on a cruiser where you can't reach too far over the back and I ended up running bow on into the armco trying to spin the engine round. A cheap two stroke with forward and reverse gears, old but working, seems to be in the region of £120+.

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15 hours ago, Kernunnos said:

 

If you need to be moving, then you could do a lot worse than picking up an old British Seagull for fifty odd quid from Ebay.

 

They're very crude and basic, but they're absolutely bomb proof, and that's why there's so many available at such low prices.

 

I'm in a similar situation with regards to affording a new permanent engine, so I've picked up a Seagull to use temporarily and it's absolutely amazed me. It's only a couple of horsepower at best but it's managing to propell a 25ft narrowboat to keep me out of trouble with CRT and buy me a bit of time to get the money together for a more practical permanent engine... if I bother. I might actually keep the Seagull.

 

Just a suggestion.

 

I hope the w***er who nicked your motor treads on a rusty nail and gets gangrene.

Yes we have seen Seagulls pushing ridiculously large boats, albeit slowly. We have a quite modern 40plus (1978) somewhere. Will fire up after long periods of disuse :)

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Locks and chains may deter oportunist thieves,but as has been pointed out the determined scrote will cut away part of the transom with an angle grinder.

A tip I received was to paint the whole outboard in some garish colour or bright stripes to make it harder to sell.

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It was a major problem here on the Norfolk Broads. The local police who have a Broads specialist said they were stolen for export. When stolen they were containerised and then sent abroad and yes there were cases of chopping the transom out. The Norfolk Police, known as Broads Beat have come up with this idea. https://www.norfolk.police.uk/sites/norfolk/files/page/downloads/outboard_engine_cover_poster.pdf 

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3 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

Is an engine stole some kind of device you can wrap around the engine to stop it freezing?

 

(It might also hide it from potential thieves)

You'll have the vegan, anti-hunting, tree huggers up in arms ……………………………….

 

Image result for mink stole

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2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

You'll have the vegan, anti-hunting, tree huggers up in arms ……………………………….

 

Image result for mink stole

Not really, if a mink stole is made out of mink then I guess an engine stole is made out of engine...

 

To the OP - what size of cruiser have you got, as has been commented there are many small, perfectly good, second hand engines available at low prices on ebay.

 

Comments about having the transom cut make me wonder whether it's work having an outboard lock, although I guess if the engine and boat are insured then the insurance company should pay for the repairs.

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16 hours ago, Kernunnos said:

 

If you need to be moving, then you could do a lot worse than picking up an old British Seagull for fifty odd quid from Ebay.

 

They're very crude and basic, but they're absolutely bomb proof, and that's why there's so many available at such low prices.

 

I'm in a similar situation with regards to affording a new permanent engine, so I've picked up a Seagull to use temporarily and it's absolutely amazed me. It's only a couple of horsepower at best but it's managing to propell a 25ft narrowboat to keep me out of trouble with CRT and buy me a bit of time to get the money together for a more practical permanent engine... if I bother. I might actually keep the Seagull.

 

Just a suggestion.

 

I hope the w***er who nicked your motor treads on a rusty nail and gets gangrene.

Red hot mooring pins in the eyes are a boaters weapon of choice!

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47 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

It was a major problem here on the Norfolk Broads. The local police who have a Broads specialist said they were stolen for export. When stolen they were containerised and then sent abroad and yes there were cases of chopping the transom out. The Norfolk Police, known as Broads Beat have come up with this idea. https://www.norfolk.police.uk/sites/norfolk/files/page/downloads/outboard_engine_cover_poster.pdf 

Ah, a free source for the cover I suggested in post 4. I got the idea from some yoghurt pot forum or other where outboards are common.

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4 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Not really, if a mink stole is made out of mink then I guess an engine stole is made out of engine...

 

To the OP - what size of cruiser have you got, as has been commented there are many small, perfectly good, second hand engines available at low prices on ebay.

 

Comments about having the transom cut make me wonder whether it's work having an outboard lock, although I guess if the engine and boat are insured then the insurance company should pay for the repairs.

If he gets lucky he might buy his own back ?

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  • 1 month later...

Going onto the Lancaster next week. Today I have spoken to an other narrowboat owner who has just come off it. He said two narrowboats had been burnt out on the towpath. Both within around one mile of bridge 16 going north.

 

Is anyone aware of a crime spike or places to avoid?

 

Thanks 

 

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4 hours ago, Steve Manc said:

Going onto the Lancaster next week. Today I have spoken to an other narrowboat owner who has just come off it. He said two narrowboats had been burnt out on the towpath. Both within around one mile of bridge 16 going north.

 

Is anyone aware of a crime spike or places to avoid?

 

Thanks 

 

There was a burnt out cruiser on the towpath near to bridge 17 as we passed by, I don't know how long it had been there but we first saw it on 2nd June and it had already been pulled up onto the towpath by then, didn't see any other burnt out boats at that time. When we did the crossing it was my intention to go above bridge 23 going north, near to Salwick, had no problems with the mooring there or anywhere else going North. There is a sunken boat in Glasson Basin, but that isn't a narrow boat and there is a story behind it. It is (was) a wooden boat moored on the north-eastern dockside (where we moored:huh:), apparently in strong south-westerly winds reasonable waves can be created across the basin and the boat was repeatedly struck against the dockside until a plank 'sprung' and the boat went down; it has been there about 4 - 5 years.

 

The only other issue we were told about by another cruiser that we had been meeting during the week was that from bridge 109 (north of Lancaster) some choice little oik threw some dog sh*t at him, his wife on the tow path walking the dog gave chase but they were a bit quick for her (not sure she'd have done with them if she'd caught them since they were aged about 10). He said he has subsequently been told there is a bit of a 'dodgy' estate not far from that bridge, but that is purely anecdotal since I personally have no knowledge of that area.

 

I don't think I'd bother mooring south of bridge 23 (except when you overnight in the basin waiting to go down the locks ) since there isn't much to see and you are getting closer to Preston where if there are any troublemakers (and I think it is now school holidays), that is where you are most likely to find them 

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