Suggestions on Securing Your Tender

Created by val. Last modified on 2009-09-07 14:55:00
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This is a reply we had from a cruising couple who had two tenders stolen and we think that their suggestions could be useful to others.

I wrote to Achilles and made a suggestion to them about their design and had a nice few emails with them. The RIB we had had an eye in the front. We thought it was a bolt that was moulded into the fiberglass of the RIB. However the head of the eye UNSCREWED! The thieves knew it, all they did was unscrew the eye where our lock cable was passed through and they had the entire think in minutes. Achilles said the focus is for the motors anyway and not the tenders...however I believe that anything designers can do to help us keep our tenders is good, whatever it is the thieves want.

We do things differently now, because our tender is older and NOT a RIB anymore, we have the typical eyebolt that screws through the wooden transom. We bought 8 mm stainless chain and run it through that eyebolt and THEN my husband took a chisel and destroyed the screws on the back of the eyebolt so the nuts cannot be unscrewed. We run the chain from the bolt, through the gas can and various other things we usually leave in the dinghy and then to the boat or dock. Then we heard that thieves will swim out to your boat in the middle of the night and CUT the wooden transom right out...but we'd still have our chain attached so they'd have to come with cutters, so at least that's one deterrent.

And also, we no longer use the traditional locking system on the motor. My husband took a separate piece of same chain and from the eyebolt ran it through the handle of the motor and we use a separate lock...this way the motor CANNOT be turned and therefore you go in circles. We got this idea because we used to own motorcycles and always locked the handlebars off to one side as well as using the traditional ignition/key lock. I tried to email Yamaha about the idea (maybe designing something similar on their new motors) but they don't seem to have email contacts, only snail mail and telephone. And I am in the Med so I figured it could wait till I got back. They seem to be the most popular outboards.

I think it would be a big help if the companies participated in our quest for more security.

Bill and Diane