Vessel Security! How to remote disable a yacht!

Heres a question for you serious designers of blow boats!

If an owner of a big blow boat wanted to install some kind of remote activated alarm system to track their boat in the event of it being stolen and then remotely 'disable it' to allow authorities to intercept / recover same - how could such a system work!

OK - with a power boat you might fit a electronic servo / relay that cuts ignition - but how does one disable a sailing vessel?

Someone has nicked your 60 ft cat or monhull sailer and is headed for the open sea & eventually New Zealand!

Just what can one do to disable a sailing vessel - by relays / solenoids that can be remote activated?

There are a heap of available security / alarms systems for vessels (power boats) and some are GPS GSM cellular network activated, some are sattelite activated etc and some track and some send CCTV video of the perpetrators etc...so I'm not asking anyone to invent a alarm / secuirty system - it's already been done - just wondering what one could do to a yacht via these systems that might render it inoperable (send it in circles?) so it can be stopped / recovered?

Any bright idea's?

Cheers!

[Robert Gainer]

If the thief knows what he is doing it would be hard to stop him. Even if you disable the electric or hydraulic systems for winches and steering, if fitted, you can work around that. A sailboat does not depend on electronic systems very much.
Robert Gainer

[bhnautika]

Use a system like a deadlock on a household door. The lock can be pushed in to stay open, and then when the release button is pushed the lock springs out and can only be opened with a key. This could be set up on the rudder shaft.

[SamSam]

Maybe something that would disconnect whatever you call the line/rope that hauls the sail up the mast. A pin or something that would pull out and let loose the anchor point of that line. At the same time the engine would also have to be disabled. If you disable the rudder it would seem to endanger the boat as it couldn't be steered away from predicaments. Sam

[tspeer]

explosive keel bolts

[Wellydeckhand]

People or criminal that wanna steal boat and ship are high tech bunch and would already have mean to see this idea comming........... best way have your muscle newphew stay at the boat house with a water spear.

[Raggi_Thor]

Large boats in Oslo have a transmitter hidden inside and the alarm goes when the boat exits the fjord. This works when you are in a fjord with one narrow exit.

[Richard Hillsid]

Originally Posted by tspeer

explosive keel bolts

Yes or maybe a exploding mast step.

Trust me I like the way you guys think!

Unfortunately I guess owners of said vessels might not concur!

I see merit in the removable pin / sail hoisting idea and Also a deadlock rudder arrangement...they turn one way or another and the rudder "jams" in a circle!

As is pointed out, not much on a yacht depends on technology or electronics these days!

An interesting conundrum all the same!

How about "self detonating mast stays fixings" so the vessel dismasts itself?

Still open to idea's..

Cheers!

[Wellydeckhand]

Yeh................ put exposed electric cable around the ship and ask your mother-in-law for a cruise ,just in case it doesnt work with the thieves.

[mcollins07]

Release a cansiter of obnoxious gas, such as mercaptan in the cabin. Activate a circuit connecting a 12 volt fence charger to the helm. Activate a program in an electronic autohelm to steer into a circle. Activate an epirb hiden in the boat, also horns and lights to draw attention. All of these could be by passed, but if the crook is unknowing, thye should be a deterrent.

[aitchem]

Take your sails and steering wheel home with you.
Works for me.

[Sander Rave]

an easier system is a tracking system with for instance GPS/GSM triband. Doesn't work on open ocean, but works when comming closer to the coast. The system exists for other expensive stuff and is smaller than a beer can.

downside for cars is the lack of abillity to work through steel. so when you put a car in a 30ft container, your out of reach long enough to track the tracking device. One good point, most ships don't fit in a container....

[Rick Loheed]

Ha-Ha!! As I was scrolling down I was thinking, How about explosive sidestays!!?? Then I saw Tom's post!! Too cool, great sense of humor!
Made my morning, Tom.

I once had my leeward sidestay coil up on deck on an M-16....it seems the ringy dingy wasn't in the pin on the mast... results in instant realization the mast will come off if you tack. Also instant realization the main sheet is the only backstay on an M-16!

Indeed!

I think this is GOOD latteral thinking! Qute workable in all probability!

Maybe off topic but it reminds me of something I read recently i thought I'd share!

Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest.
The occasion was our 22nd anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Toni. What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety.... WAY TOO COOL!

Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home.

I loaded two triple-a batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button.

Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arch of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. Awesome!!!

Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Toni what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two triple-a batteries,... right?

There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat.

But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, taser in another.

The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water.

Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.

All the while I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5" long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-a batteries) thinking to myself, "no possible way!"

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best.....

I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, "don't do it master," reasoning that a one-second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad.... I decided to give myself a one-second burst just for the heck of it.

I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION@!@$$!%!@*!!!

I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again.

I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the foetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs.

The cat was standing over me making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, undoubtedly thinking to herself, "do it again, do it again!"

Note: If you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap yourself.

You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst would be considered conservative.

SON-OF-A-.... that hurt like hell!!! A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape.

My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. How did they up get there???

My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs.

I'm still looking for my testicles? I'm offering a significant reward for their safe return.

Still in shock,

Name withheld.

Fence charger - taysar...

You have me thinking now!!!

Cheers!