Is your trailer boat safe in a yard or street?

 Is your trailer boat safe in a yard or street?

This week a $400,000 (expensive) semi-ridge inflatable boat was towed out of a marina storage area on the southern shores of Sydney Harbour. Now this is no ordinary tinny but a rare imported Ribco Seafarer 36ft vessel with twin 350hp Mercury Verado engines on the back. Yes but trailable.

This is not the sort of rig one would sell on ebay or Google markets. The security video of the removal process showed a tradie’s ute hitch it up and just drive away down the road.

Could this happen to your prize possession out of your yard or front lawn?

Two sailing vessels have been stolen from the Batemans Bay marina in the last few years. One thief got six months jail the other still has legal action pending. Locally and particularly north up the coast there has been an increasing numbers of vessels gone missing. More concerning boat bits have been stolen. Some years ago there was a run on anchors as people move to more efficient high priced Rochna models. Now it looks like the targeted items are your tender, RIB or inflatable not only off your vessel but off the beach or marina dock.

So what can you do to secure your vessel either on a trailer or in a marina.

Firstly remove all valuable equipment and tackle from the vessel such as rods, reels, chartplotters, transducers, compass, radio and AIS. Don't just store them in a box in the garage but secure them properly.

Keep your vessel covered with a good well fitting cover secured to the trailer so thieves cant just lift and steal.

A very important action is to lock your tow hitch with a large strong device which can not be easily cut free by a portable grinder.

Consider a wheel locking device because if they can cut the tow hitch free they will be faced with this wheel lock. Think about removing a wheel but generally this is easily solved by a thief – most trailer wheel hubs have the same fittings.

Alarms are OK but do not work with flapping canvas and are useless on a mooring or marina.

If your vessel is more than a tinnie it may be worth stowing a GPS tracking transmitter hidden on the vessel to track where it is located. Leaving your AIS on while on the land is not a legal or good solution but good for vessel on moorings. Regularly visit MarineTraffic to see if it has moved. There are other devices which send out a signal on a regular schedule. The range is large and expensive.

Remove keys and documents from any vessel because they help the thief rebirth a stolen vessel.

The last thing is to select your marina or storage location with care. The theft of your vessel is not the only threat. Consider the fire risk from poorly maintain or designed floating pontoons or piles. What will happen to your vessel if a fire start on the dock or in the marina? Is the fuel station suitable located and equipped to handle a electrical or fuel fire? Many marinas will not install petrol bowser because of the very high risk of a fire. Check your insurance policy and berthing contract to see who is liable. Boat storage areas in a marina are not secure places neither is the grass verge in front of your house.

Ongoing maintenance over winter

Now that your vessel is secure what other things can you do to ensure it will be ready to go when the warm weather returns or the fish start biting again.

Old fuel with either sediment or algae in the tanks is one of the main causes of initial and out-at-sea failure to start problems. Drain the content of your fuel tanks at the end of the season. Petrol with ethanol additive is a sure fire way to cause problem with hoses and fuel systems. Don't use it. If you have diesel fuel then rather than drain the tanks keep them full so no condensation can form causing water and algae growth.

Keep your battery fully charged either in the vessel or in the garage but not sitting on a concrete floor because it will go flat. Consider a small solar panel directly connected to your battery on the boat or a high grade digital charger connected every few weeks.

Finally lock your trailer to your car when you go out on the water. A local trailer was recently stolen from off the back of a vehicle while the owner was out fishing.

The last thing is never ever consider acquiring a vessel or equipment in a deal that may be “to good to be true” especially fishing gear or boating equipment. You just foster the cycle which makes stealing a $400,000 vessel an easy target.