Rio Dulce Chisme Vindicator

[dennysbeach]

You know, I´ve been up here on the beach talking to the coconut trees so long that I decided to share a little knowledge about dinghy thieves.
First of all, you have to understand that if you place youself in the shoes of a run-of-the-mill dinghy thief you will see that what he wants is a shiny new motor to put on the back of his cayuco in some isolated village or to sell en Puerto Barrios or even the south coast. If he rips off your motor and it is identified in the future by you or a friend and the receipt is produced, the owner of this newly bought hot motor has to give it up and will be forced to eat what he spent to buy it.
Thus the object is to make the motor as identifiable as possible or make it the most nasty-looking thing that he has ever seen so he won´t be inclined to do the evil deed.
I did charters for many years raising my family on the beach and could ill affort to have my dingy stolen, so this is what I did.
If I saw another motor identical to mine that was years old and the top was beaten to a pulp and looked absolutely disgusting, I would offer to change his top with mine. No cost, and a good precaution, providing that you don´t mind driving around with a nasty-looking motor on your dinghy.
The next step was to buy a can of fluorescent spray paint, choose your own color, and paint the inside of the cover, the block, the outside of the cover, and every part of the motor that you could with the ugliest designs and of course your name or the name of your boat. The potential thief is going to have a hard time selling that motor, believe me.
Some people stamp their names with a punch, but if you can´t pick your motor out of a crowd almost instantly, this is not much help as it might be sold anywhere down the coast. Imagine you motor up the Sarstoon river or in another country. Not much to hope for.
Remember that the thief is not at all interested in your dinghy. He wants only the motor.
I also used to find a nice piece of standing rigging, make two small loops in the ends and attach it to the two tightening screws on the transom of the dinghy witha huge lock and likewise to my stern. This is a pretty good deterrent to your average every-day dinghy thief. He just has to make some noise cutting that thing off.
In particularly dangerous areas such as the outside anchorage at French Harbour and Livingston I would go so far as to lift the motor onboard and attatch it to the stern pulpit with yet another large lock.
I guess, basically what I as saying is, I didn´t give a hoot what people said about my ugly motor just so long as it was still mine in the morning.
Hasta looego,
Denny
_________________
Dennis Gulck
Manager
Dennys Beach Resort Hotel
La Costa de Oro
Lago de Izabal
4636-6156 / 5171-7477
denny@dennysbeach.com

[Scoop]

Good info, Denny. Thanks!

Perhaps our admin guys will move this post to the Ground Truth forum. I'm not smart enough to do it.

[ElJeem]

Agreed.... this needs to migrate..
Thanks Denny...

To me its about maintaining ownership... as much as it is preventing theft. I have to do something on my end to make this less desirable.

Cheers Amigo
_________________
El Jeem
Chief Gringo
Marios Marina & Cayuco Club
www.mariosmarina.com