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Boat security, advice would be hugely appreciated


JollyWonker

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3 hours ago, Mike Todd said:

But it was a CC boater moored next to us in a line that most probably did the latter breakin.

It was one of them wot stole my genny, many years ago. He was notorious for nicking coal as well, but the organised raid on the mooring was the last straw. Not long after, someone set fire to his boat and sorted it. Not as far as we could tell, anyone we knew but probably a falling out among thieves.

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I was on the K&A in 2013 when there was a few break ins where someone was helping themselves to food and clothes. 
I think they may even have been cooking themselves a meal in the boat, sleeping over and washing up. 
 

There was a poster of some bloke pasted about too. 
 

Could be getting separate events mixed together but there was definitely thieving going on from the fortnightly ‘dumped’ boats. 

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23 minutes ago, zimzim said:

Does the panel think that there is any value in having a (well secured) safe on a boat?

We built in a hidden safe on all the hire boats for the benefit of the hirers. It was much appreciated.

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Those little keypad safes are easy to crack. I recently found one on an allotment we have just taken on, it was locked but rattled when shook. 

It was surprisingly easy to open, bypassing the key pad. 

Turned out to be the batteries from the electronic keypad that were rattling. No gold bars😥

Edited by Jim Riley
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On 23/05/2022 at 00:24, MtB said:

 

Making it look occupied is not as easy as it sounds initially. 

 

 

Making a boat look occupied is one strategy to avoid unwanted attention, but it only takes a knock on a window from an unscrupulous boater with some excuse to completely nullify that plan. And then of course the fact that you've tried to make the boat look occupied will only convince the would be thief that the boat contains something worth stealing and is worth breaking into - much like an external padlock!

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Which all makes me think my original belief is still correct - you simply cannot make a boat, left unattended on a public footpath, secure. You can make it harder to break into than the next boat along, and label it solidly enough to make stealing it impractical, but that's it.

It's a matter of calculating the odds, being a person who doesn't worry too much, and being able to afford to write off the loss or repair cost if anything happens, which  to most people, it doesn't. Much probably also depends on whether the boat is of critical importance to you, or just one of many hobbies.

I suppose if someone can afford fifty odd thousand to buy a boat, the licence costs of a thousand a year plus the maintenance costs, for something they intend to use relatively occasionally, perhaps the money side simply isn't a factor. I'd not thought of that before, though I suppose it's true of most boat owners, leisure ones anyway, less so for those for whom it's their sole home or main lifestyle. Me, I've never been in that financial position - if anything drastic happened to my old tub I'd never be able to refit it again or buy another.

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11 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Which all makes me think my original belief is still correct - you simply cannot make a boat, left unattended on a public footpath, secure. You can make it harder to break into than the next boat along, and label it solidly enough to make stealing it impractical, but that's it.

It's a matter of calculating the odds, being a person who doesn't worry too much, and being able to afford to write off the loss or repair cost if anything happens, which  to most people, it doesn't. Much probably also depends on whether the boat is of critical importance to you, or just one of many hobbies.

I suppose if someone can afford fifty odd thousand to buy a boat, the licence costs of a thousand a year plus the maintenance costs, for something they intend to use relatively occasionally, perhaps the money side simply isn't a factor. I'd not thought of that before, though I suppose it's true of most boat owners, leisure ones anyway, less so for those for whom it's their sole home or main lifestyle. Me, I've never been in that financial position - if anything drastic happened to my old tub I'd never be able to refit it again or buy another.

I agree very much with your first para.

 

However, do not underestimate the emotional impact of a breakin, on a boat or house for that matter. Whatever your income, it is still significant and can take some folk a long time to recover fully. It is, I think, the sense of invasion of privacy and the 'what might have happened' fear that compound a realisation of helplessness. To a large degree, our civilised society depends greatly on a belief that if someone wrongs you then you have means of redress, even if it is a token apology. But break ins are widely seen now as something that just has to be tolerated and that the police are actually helpless (and the victim certainly is) and unable to prioritise a resolution.

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We have cameras (Amazon Blink) that give us a live view and record movement so at least we'll know we've been broken into... not that we can do anything about it!  peace of mind and all that!  i mainly use it in the winter as they record temperature also.

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14 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

We have cameras (Amazon Blink) that give us a live view and record movement so at least we'll know we've been broken into... not that we can do anything about it!  peace of mind and all that!  i mainly use it in the winter as they record temperature also.

 

Until someone nicks your cameras 🤣

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We were moored up somewhere last year when a boat came and moored behind us who then proceeded to set up pir security lights and cameras on the roof of his boat pointing at the towpath.

 

Seemed a little over paranoid to me.

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1 hour ago, Mike Todd said:

I agree very much with your first para.

 

However, do not underestimate the emotional impact of a breakin, on a boat or house for that matter. Whatever your income, it is still significant and can take some folk a long time to recover fully. It is, I think, the sense of invasion of privacy and the 'what might have happened' fear that compound a realisation of helplessness. To a large degree, our civilised society depends greatly on a belief that if someone wrongs you then you have means of redress, even if it is a token apology. But break ins are widely seen now as something that just has to be tolerated and that the police are actually helpless (and the victim certainly is) and unable to prioritise a resolution.

I must say being broken into never bothered me much, it's just stuff, and in my cases, nobody got hurt. There again, I tend towards realism, not some fantasy idea where one's home is one's castle or that my self-image depends on my property.

One thing for the boat though, I always assume if there's a well tended flower box on the roof, someone must be there looking after it. One full of weeds gives the opposite impression.

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I must say being broken into never bothered me much, it's just stuff, and in my cases, nobody got hurt. There again, I tend towards realism, not some fantasy idea where one's home is one's castle or that my self-image depends on my property.

One thing for the boat though, I always assume if there's a well tended flower box on the roof, someone must be there looking after it. One full of weeds gives the opposite impression.

But what if your trombone was stolen or damaged? We all have items that are precious to us.

I have visited houses that have been totally trashed with everything smashed by vandal burglars. Its heartbreaking.

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2 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

But what if your trombone was stolen or damaged? We all have items that are precious to us.

It's idea that counts...Screenshot_20220525-151701.png.e411b53c1d6a6eb32c04bb3b656ef762.png

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18 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

if anything drastic happened to my old tub I'd never be able to refit it again or buy another.

 

Surely that is the point of having a minimum of third party, fire and theft insurance?

Edited by cuthound
To remove a space masquerading as a letter.
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2 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

But what if your trombone was stolen or damaged? We all have items that are precious to us.

I have visited houses that have been totally trashed with everything smashed by vandal burglars. Its heartbreaking.

I'd buy another. That's what insurance is for, apart from licensed theft. I'd miss my guitar and hand built fiddle, but they are just stuff, when all is said and done. My burglars never trashed the place,  though the tramp on the boat needed some cleaning up after. I do think people put too much importance on posessions - maybe it's because I've been relatively poor all my life that I don't, though some would think that would make what one had acquired more important.

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39 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

Surely that is the point of having a minimum of third party, fire and theft insurance?

Wouldn't help much if the boat got trashed, unless they set it on fire as well. Third party fire and theft, as I understand it, would cover theft of the boat but not it's contents or fittings. Anyway, what they'd give me for a fifty year old tub would probably buy me a bin liner to put the remnants in!

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5 hours ago, IanM said:

We were moored up somewhere last year when a boat came and moored behind us who then proceeded to set up pir security lights and cameras on the roof of his boat pointing at the towpath.

 

Seemed a little over paranoid to me.

Yes, I came across a boat a few days ago like that. 
Horrible when you walk past on the way back from the pub at night to have lights glare at you. 
There were 3 sets that lit up down the boat. 
I walked back and forth a few times because I’d had a few and thought I’d get some fun out of it. 

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On 25/05/2022 at 16:15, Goliath said:

the trick is to make the boat look as unoccupied as possible…

but still occupy the boat. 
Then when someone breaks in you’re there to stop them. 
 

 

Only if you are awake . . .

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If you have power? A bit like a house, we put lights on a timer to pop on and off and the same with the radio (use Radio 4 for voices). A few years back houses either side of us were burgled but even though we were away for a week we never got touched.

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