Stolen Boat(s)

[Arthur Marshall]

13 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

 

When you bought your boat what checks did you do to assure yourself it wasn't stolen?

 

Boat theft is rare, but as other types of organised crime become more & more difficult & risky then sooner or later they're going to take a look at it !

Bloke I gave the cash to said it was his... I trusted him because he said he was a second-hand car dealer.

Neither you nor I have any proof that we actually own our boats, so it's a bit daft expecting anyone else to have such a thing.

[Cha5]

2 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Bloke I gave the cash to said it was his... I trusted him because he said he was a second-hand car dealer.

Neither you nor I have any proof that we actually own our boats, so it's a bit daft expecting anyone else to have such a thing.

 

Exactly. There is no way of anyone knowing. I bought my boat from a bloke on the towpath, but a past experience of buying a stolen motorcycle & consequently having to give it back to the rightful owner, I did a few background checks into said 'bloke'. I'm confident he is who he said he is & I'm confidant he lives at the address he gave me. If someone ever did come & say "here, that's my boat that is" then I have a trail back to him . . . 

[Rob-M]

1 hour ago, Russ T said:

I thought a steel boat had similar faraday cage properties?

 

I don't really understand how trackers work. Do they require an external aerial and power supply, or are there more passive BT devices like the pod things that can use other people bluetooth?

The tag type trackers use other devices Bluetooth and the apple or Google find device services so just need someone close by with a mobile phone to update the location.

[MtB]

18 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

Exactly. There is no way of anyone knowing.

 

Of course there is. Well as near as dammit to knowing. A big fat file full of licence letters from BW and CRT, various maintenance invoices addressed to who they said they were at their home address spread over the 10 or 20 years they are telling you they've owned it for, instruction booklets for all the bits of kit in the boat, would take some forging. 

 

Another way is to ask them detailed questions that only an owner might know such as where is the stern gland greaser, what grease is in it, how much oil does the engine use, etc etc. Not that you want to know this info, you are asking more so you can judge how easily they can answer and not be rattled by a long series of questions. 

 

But of course if you are buying from a broker you might be a bit stuffed.

 

 

 

[Tony Brooks]

1 hour ago, Cha5 said:

The legitimate owner would struggle to ID it even if they were stood next to it. I can now sell it on to an unsuspecting punter.

 

 

Hm, someone seems never to have heard about HIN's, either official or self applied, engine numbers, and gearbox numbers. plus hidden features that sensible owner would know about.

 

I also don't think someone has taken notice of the times a swift request for help on here, plus police number, has resulted in the boat being found. That is not to say some aren't found, but that seems to be when there is a delay between the theft and the request for help.

[MtB]

36 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

If someone ever did come & say "here, that's my boat that is" then I have a trail back to him . . . 

 

And that helps you how, exactly? 

 

You'll still have to give the boat back. 

 

 

[Cha5]

6 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Hm, someone seems never to have heard about HIN's, either official or self applied, engine numbers, and gearbox numbers. plus hidden features that sensible owner would know about.

 

I also don't think someone has taken notice of the times a swift request for help on here, plus police number, has resulted in the boat being found. That is not to say some aren't found, but that seems to be when there is a delay between the theft and the request for help.

 

Imagine that my boat is your stolen boat. How are you going to read all my serial no's & inspect my boat for unique features??? You could ask me, in that case standard my reply would be GFY & I'm quite sure a thief wouldn't let you either. You could get a search warrant, snort ! On what basis?

 

Word of mouth within a community works well but I wouldn't like to rely on it. I buy & sell certain motorcycles & parts of 'em & if you steal one then it will be VERY difficult to convert that into £cash.

4 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

And that helps you how, exactly? 

 

You'll still have to give the boat back. 

 

 

 

Yes, but I can go back to the bloke that sold it to me . . . 

[MtB]

5 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

 

Yes, but I can go back to the bloke that sold it to me . . . 

 

And you expect him to still be there, at the end of your trail?!!

 

 

[nicknorman]

What I find a bit odd is why you would tow a widebeam with a narrowboat. That looks "odd". Boats are incredibly simple to hot-wire even assuming the engine ignition key isn't to hand. OK maybe tow it away a little bit to round the corner where the door can be forced and the engine started, but then chug it off under it's own steam, surely.

[Tonka]

1 hour ago, Cha5 said:

 

Imagine that my boat is your stolen boat. How are you going to read all my serial no's & inspect my boat for unique features??? You could ask me, in that case standard my reply would be GFY & I'm quite sure a thief wouldn't let you either. You could get a search warrant, snort ! On what basis?

 

Word of mouth within a community works well but I wouldn't like to rely on it. I buy & sell certain motorcycles & parts of 'em & if you steal one then it will be VERY difficult to convert that into £cash.

 

Yes, but I can go back to the bloke that sold it to me . . . 

And if you paid cash he can deny that he sold you a boat.

You may have no proof

 

[Alan de Enfield]

2 hours ago, Cha5 said:

When was the last time you saw a policeman on the towpath?

 

Why would you want to see a Polceman on the towpath - surely on a boat is better !

 

 

[MtB]

17 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Why would you want to see a Polceman on the towpath - surely on a boat is better !

 

 

 

 

Yes our old one is looking a little dated nowadays - but I'll post it anyway...

 

 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

3 hours ago, Cha5 said:

When you bought your boat what checks did you do to assure yourself it wasn't stolen?

I saw it being built from the baseplate up and paid for it to the guys who built it!

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

but it would be interesting to know where boats were mostly stolen from.

It would be more interesting to know where it has been stolen to. There's only a limited length of canal north of Milton Keynes where a wide boat can go, including arms, basins and marinas. And anyone hoiking the boat out of the water to take elsewhere is going to need a crane and other facilities which can easily be checked out. At this time of year there are boats on the move over the whole area, and nowhere a boat can be hidden for a few days while it is repainted - and a quick slap on of a different colour will be only too obvious. Someone could conceivably lift out the engine and strip the boat of other equipment, but if that had happened the abandoned empty shell would have been found by now.

[Cheese]

I'm confused about this report. What is the situation of Blue Moon? If it was a legitimate (if misguided) towing operation then presumably they know where they took Henry II.

 

Or was Blue Moon also stolen? If so, presumably it is being handled by a different loss adjuster, as not mentioned as such on the Missing poster. Which doesn't seem the most helpful approach to finding them. Still stolen? Or found?

[David Mack]

On 06/07/2026 at 14:05, MtB said:

Wasn't a boat called BLUE MOON involved in some illegality discussed on here about ten years ago? 

Curiouser and curiouser. The Canalplan boat search brings this up:

 

Those with long memories will recall that Que Sera Sera was a boat which was stolen and never found.

[MtB]

Blimey David, thats a turn up!!! 

 

 

 

[alan_fincher]

Hard to know what that data is trying to say,

The historical entry for the much famed Que Sera Sera has a newer update date (11ith April 2010) than the alleged more current record for Blue Moon (19th April 2008).

What does that tell us, (if at all).

[Naughty Cal]

4 hours ago, Cha5 said:

 

When you bought your boat what checks did you do to assure yourself it wasn't stolen?

 

 

Bought it from a brokerage with a full set of paperwork dating back to when the boat was built and spoke to the previous owners who just happened to be buying the boat next door.

3 hours ago, Rob-M said:

The tag type trackers use other devices Bluetooth and the apple or Google find device services so just need someone close by with a mobile phone to update the location.

They also let people nearby know that there is a tracker in the vicinity which kind of defeats the object!!

3 hours ago, Cha5 said:

 

Imagine that my boat is your stolen boat. How are you going to read all my serial no's & inspect my boat for unique features??? You could ask me, in that case standard my reply would be GFY & I'm quite sure a thief wouldn't let you either. You could get a search warrant, snort ! On what basis?

 

 

Our boat was one of several hundred of that model produced over a number of years. We would recognise it from a distance moored in a row of the same model boat.

 

No search warrant needed.

1 hour ago, MtB said:

Blimey David, thats a turn up!!! 

 

 

 

Quite the turn up indeed.

 

"Stolen" twice perhaps?

[wakey_wake]

Many boats have no HIN. Mine doesn't. Concocting an "old" history to justify wiping out an existing HIN might be harder if the age of the boat is more obvious?

 

Seem to me the time and place for marking a boat is when it's being blacked. Get your friendly welder to write on the underside of the baseplate in big letters (HIN, CRT regno, EA regno), in a place the next surveyor is sure to notice.

 

It's hard to see without spending serious money, and hard to remove without spending time and effort, and it should raise the question "where else is has this information been hidden?".

 

What are some other good places to do that?

[MtB]

1 minute ago, wakey_wake said:

Many boats have no HIN. Mine doesn't. Concocting an "old" history to justify wiping out an existing HIN might be harder if the age of the boat is more obvious?

 

Seem to me the time and place for marking a boat is when it's being blacked. Get your friendly welder to write on the underside of the baseplate in big letters (HIN, CRT regno, EA regno), in a place the next surveyor is sure to notice.

 

It's hard to see without spending serious money, and hard to remove without spending time and effort, and it should raise the question "where else is has this information been hidden?".

 

What are some other good places to do that?

 

 

There are NO "good places" to conceal a HIN unless you give some whopping big clues to whoever might need to find it to lead them to it. 

 

In which case it isn't 'hidden'. 

 

Hiding a HIN strikes me as monumentally futile if you do it properly. 

 

 

[wakey_wake]

1 minute ago, MtB said:

Hiding a HIN strikes me as monumentally futile if you do it properly. 

My initial idea was that there are degrees of hiding. Below the waterline being an excellent case.

 

Also I was finding cubbyholes and odd storage locations for months after getting mine. Also continuing to identify strange objects which clearly had a purpose, but were not documented.

 

The development of my idea is that if you make it clear the boat is peppered with such marks, then suddenly the prospect of finding and removing all of them might look like too much work.

[matty40s]

On 08/07/2026 at 10:12, nicknorman said:

What I find a bit odd is why you would tow a widebeam with a narrowboat. That looks "odd". 

Which is the only reason this stuck in my head, it went past and I thought that is a daft way of taking a boat to Whilton.

[IanD]

12 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

There are NO "good places" to conceal a HIN unless you give some whopping big clues to whoever might need to find it to lead them to it. 

 

In which case it isn't 'hidden'. 

 

Hiding a HIN strikes me as monumentally futile if you do it properly. 

 

Isn't there a standard defined place for the HIN on the hull so everyone knows where to look?

 

(I think some builders also put another one somewhere hidden in case the thief grinds off and replaces the known one)

Edited July 10 by IanD

[Alan de Enfield]

7 minutes ago, IanD said:

Isn't there a standard defined place for the HIN on the hull so everyone knows where to look?

 

 

 

Yes.

 

The exterior HIN: transom, starboard side, near the top

Stand at the back of the boat. Look at the right-hand side (starboard) of the transom, as close to the top edge as possible. The HIN should be stamped, engraved, or molded into the hull material at least 6 millimeters (about ¼ inch) tall. On most modern boats it's about 8–12 mm.

Edited July 10 by Alan de Enfield