Dinghy Distress

[atavist]

So last night I come back from the pub after a couple, five, drinks and uh oh.... the dinghy is gone....

talk about livid....

I've been here in Hull for about a month and no one has messed with her... now I'm wanting to leave and my dinghy goes missing.....

so I call the harbor master... hopefully they impounded her because I left her on the quay for more than the 30 minute posted limit (no one has minded up till now)... of course it's 1 in the morning so I have to leave a message...

and from there I wander back into town to a friends house where I spend the night in his gazebo.... at least I'm not in the streets.....

this morning I rise with the sun and wander back down to the dock..... and low and behold there she is.... tied up on the beach about 200 yards away....some little sh#t must of snitched her last night and taken her for a ride.... my bet is he couldn't get my old 1954 evinrude to run for more than 2 minutes (only I can make the old dame squeel) and beeched her...

at least I got her back safe and sound....

Ever loose a dinghy? any other stories of dinghy distress out there?

[MMNETSEA]

Have you remembered the occasions that the O/B wouldn't start ? There is an O/b God out there! Remember the admonitions in Tarantino's "Kill Bill" regarding revenge ??

[Lighthouse]

Losing your dinghy is like having your legs cut off.

[atavist]

oh no.... my old girl always starts... .....

except when the pull rope breaks ...

[MMNETSEA]

What is this "Old Girl" ?? Are you referring to someone in your past ??

If she has been returned to you undamaged - there must be a reason. Spend the whole day in loving TLC - it will be rewarded

[atavist]

My "old girl" is my 1954 Lightwin Evinrude..... she's definitely a woman (persnickity as a hell and stops working altogether at least once a month )

I actually considered replacing her very recently, even bought a newer o/b but in the end it just couldn't match up to Blue (what I call my o/.... I couldn't find anything that matched up for weight to power (man does she push for a 20 odd pounder) and has the ability to do an "emergency start".

[JeanneP]

Losing dinghies is an almost-weekly event in the more popular cruising areas. *A few of our stories (yes, more than one!)

First one: *when we arrived in St. Martin, we had an old Avon dinghy. *We owned an apartment there, and during the high season we stayed in the apartment and visited with our friends and family who were down there to escape the winter cold. *We would bring the dinghy into the side garden of the condo building. *One morning we woke up to discover that the dinghy was missing. *Oh, drat, stolen!

We bought a new dinghy, and in April sailed up to the Virgin Islands to meet up with our cruising friends based there. *While at anchor, a French cruiser came by and tried to tell me something in French. *My French was worse than non-existant back then, and the fellow in frustration went back to his boat to use his dictionary to write out his message in English. *He wrote that while anchored in St. Martin a local fellow came by trying to sell a dinghy with "Watermelon" painted on it. *The cruiser said he wasn't interested in buying it, so the fellow went away. *Now that he saw our boat, he figured that the dinghy had been ours, and he gave us a description of the fellow so we could perhaps try to get the dinghy back from him. *Fat chance, but it was nice of the guy to try to help.

Next. *Two years later we were in Margarita Island, Venezuela with our new Caribe dinghy and our oldish (bought used) 3 HP outboard. *We had been visiting with another boat the night before we were leaving to sail to Puerto LaCruz to meet friends. *We got up in the morning to discover our dinghy and outboard gone. *Oh, Drat! *We put out on the VHF that our dinghy was gone, and was told that nobody had seen it. *Well, perhaps it had floated away, but we doubted it, probably stolen. *Hugh, our friend on the boat we had visited the night before came on the radio to tell us that about an hour after we left his boat he heard somebody trying to start an outboard unsuccessfully, and he said he called out to the person in the dark (very dark anchorage back then), "do you need some help?" *No answer, and no more attempts to start the outboard. *Our friend figured the fellow had decided to row and went to bed. *Oh, well, our dinghy was gone, so we hauled anchor and left. *

As we were sailing out of the bay we hear on the VHF "Watermelon, Watermelon, come back, they've found your dinghy!"

Whoopee! *So we turned around and anchored, got a ride to shore with our ownership papers to claim the dinghy from the authorities. *Our luck was that Peter would always turn off the fuel and close the air vent as he was motoring to the 'Melon, so that by the time we drifted into her stern there would be no fuel in the line and the outboard could be lifted onto the stern rail before we left. *(did I mention that we always deflated and stowed our dinghy before sailing?) *Apparently the fellow who took the dinghy off our stern after we went to bed didn't know how, in the dark, to find the fuel shutoff lever and so that was probably the outboard that our friend hear not starting. *When Hugh called out to the fellow, I guess he decided to give up on trying to get the outboard started and just slipped into the water and swam back to where he came from, and left the dinghy to float away. *The currents and the shape of the bay pushed the dinghy ashore right by the Guardia Costal base. *

Enough. *There are a few more stories, but I'll save them for another time.

*

[SeaVenture]

Has anyone ever lost a dinghy that was hoisted out of the water? I wasn't sure where Watermelon's dinghy was when the fellow tried to steal her--on deck, on davits, still in the water? We hoist our old RIB to deck level off the starboard side at night. I suppose someone could steal it, but I assume they'd make a lot of noise in the process. Splashdown is a good four and a half to five feet. For sailing, it fits on deck over the butterfly hatch with the motor on the stern rail.

[atavist]

I bought a 12 foot length of slim diameter wire rope today and crimped loops on the end... my new rule is that at the boat or the quay she gets locked up, and the engine is also now locked to the transom of the dinghy as well.... granted someone could still get her if they really wanter her but hopefully they'll just move on to an easier target...

paranoid, paranoid, every body's comin' to get me.... er my dinghy.

[JeanneP]

I don't know about recently, but back when Venezuela was a popular destination for hurricane season, Puerta La Cruz was infamous for the number of dinghies and outboards stolen off the stern of the boat. *So all the cruisers took to hauling the dingies up with their halyard, above the lifelines. *It did discourage most thieves, but even those dinghies were occasionally stolen. *Don't ask me how, though. *In Margarita the cruisers hired a local to guard our dinghies when we came ashore. *That worked. *Lots of Caribbean islands you'll find local kids offering to watch your dinghy for a couple dollars. *Irritating, because if you don't agree to pay their extortion, you are pretty much guaranteed that your dinghy won't be there when you return. *I haven't heard much about that recently, so maybe the officials are stomping down on the kids.

Our dinghy was just tied off the stern of our boat in Venezuela - I doubt that it was a local who tried to steal it - more likely another cruiser. *

However, we had an outboard stolen in Borneo, even though it was padlocked onto our stern rail. *The thieves came with a bolt cutter and removed it.

[Istioploos]

I have been spoiled. Most of my cruising is in Greece and Turkey where dinghy theft is a very rare phenomenon. My brother had his dinghy stolen about 15 years ago in the island of Ios.

When I visited the Caribbean, however, I was appalled by the draconian measures my fellow cruisers took to protect their dinghies. I joined them by locking the dinghy and its outboard with a wire rope and a lock.

[Apolima]

Apolima has 2 dinghies. The main one is a 10ft aluminum floored inflatable with a toqeedo electric o/b which we lift up to deck level every night. so far no one has bothered it at La Paz. The other is our throw away beatup 8ft hard dinghy which we use when the beach is a little sharp and when there is a risk of theft on shore.

This has worked ok so far.

Rowing is good for the body and soul.

Gary

[MMNETSEA]

This morning had a real tropical downpour for about 3 hours - which reminded me of the few times I had hoisted the dinghy to gunwale level only to forget to remove the drain plug at the bottom of the transom, and in the morning to find some 20 odd gallons of rain water.

[JeanneP]

Originally Posted by MMNETSEA

This morning had a real tropical downpour for about 3 hours - which reminded me of the few times I had hoisted the dinghy to gunwale level only to forget to remove the drain plug at the bottom of the transom, and in the morning to find some 20 odd gallons of rain water.

I miss our old dinghy with its self-drain via a rubber one-way insert into the self-drain plug. *I've been searching for one but can't find one on the Internet. *Perhaps they don't make them anymore. *One never had to remember to pull the plug with this thing inserted.

[atavist]

Just thought I'd give a dinghy update... .

Since my old jon boat was damaged and I got the flubadub (inflatable), which was temporarily stolen, I decided having two dinghies is the way to go...

Here's a picture of me in my new Technicolored Dream Boat.

[getlostonpurpose]

We lost our dinghy well over a month ago and it's going to catch up to us in Tonga next week!

How about this for a beginning - RIP DINGHY

And this for an ending - Dinghy Found?!?

And of course all the stress in between those posts. Something of a miracle I think.

Drew

Get Lost On Purpose

ps...first ever post here!

[Nausikaa]

Welcome aboard Drew.

Pop into the Tavern and introduce yourself if you have not done so already.

Aye // Stehen