Outboard Anti-thief Device

[brian eiland]

...courtesy of Sail World


There's nothing worse than the invaded feeling you get when something is stolen. But when it is your only mode of transport between boat and shore – ie. the dinghy – it's even worse. Crystal Blues crew, Ley and Neil Langford, cruising in South East Asian waters, have a simple solution, which they sought and found after having their dinghy outboard stolen from the Malaysian island of Labuan, near Brunei. The partially good news is that the thieves tried to steal the dinghy itself, but were prevented by the stainless steel wire attached. Here's their solution:

The thieves had simply smashed off the alloy transom screw toggles, eliminating our supposedly secure fixings. Friends Joe & Janet of SV Tegan have showed us a simple tube that can be padlocked over the transom screws, to eliminate the weak point. Whilst the tube can be purchased commercially, it wasn't available in Sarawak. So we had one made by a local stainless steel fabrication shop in Miri, from square section tube that is commonly used for legs on stainless steel kitchen furniture. The first one cost about $12 and worked really well, so we had a second one made for our smaller outboard. One slot, two holes, its really very simple. The slot was cut with a plasma cutter.

Lock detail .....

The padlock is a stainless steel Abus Mariner, which we've found to be bomb proof in a saltwater environment, though we needed a slightly longer shackle to go through both the tube and the stainless strop. The installed photo is at right. The rubber surround on the padlock stops it rattling against the boat – nice.'

[Manie B]

Good one thanks