Vessel Security! How to remote disable a yacht!

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by trouty, Mar 28, 2006.

  1. trouty

    trouty Guest

    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!
     
  2. Robert Gainer
    Joined: Jul 2004
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    Robert Gainer Designer/Builder

    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
     
  3. bhnautika
    Joined: Feb 2006
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    bhnautika Senior Member

    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.
     
  4. SamSam
    Joined: Feb 2005
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    Location: Coastal Georgia

    SamSam Senior Member

    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
     
  5. tspeer
    Joined: Feb 2002
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    tspeer Senior Member

    explosive keel bolts
     
  6. Wellydeckhand

    Wellydeckhand Previous Member

    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.:)
     
  7. Raggi_Thor
    Joined: Jan 2004
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    Location: Trondheim, NORWAY

    Raggi_Thor Nav.arch/Designer/Builder

    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.
     
  8. Richard Hillsid
    Joined: Mar 2006
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    Location: Scandinavia

    Richard Hillsid Senior Member

    Yes or maybe a exploding mast step.
     
  9. trouty

    trouty Guest

    Exploding Keel Bolts and Mast Step!

    :D :D

    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? :confused:

    Still open to idea's..

    Cheers!
     
  10. Wellydeckhand

    Wellydeckhand Previous Member

    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.
     
  11. mcollins07
    Joined: Jan 2006
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    mcollins07 Senior Member

    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.
     
  12. aitchem
    Joined: Sep 2003
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    aitchem Junior Member

    Take your sails and steering wheel home with you.
    Works for me.
     
  13. Sander Rave
    Joined: May 2005
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    Sander Rave Senior Member

    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....
     
  14. Rick Loheed
    Joined: Mar 2006
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    Rick Loheed Junior Member

    I Like It!

    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!

    :D
     

  15. trouty

    trouty Guest

    Activate a circuit connecting a 12 volt fence charger to the helm.

    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!

    :D :D

    Fence charger - taysar... :D :D

    You have me thinking now!!!

    Cheers!
     
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