How the Pros Steal Your Sailboat and What You Can do About It!

    With rampant theft of sailboat equipment or theft of the entire boat a continuing problem in the U.S. and throughout the world, there are some simple steps that can be taken to make your boat less interesting to the average thief, or to the professionals who regularly prey upon unguarded marinas and boat yards.

    A thief can't sail the boat without a wheel or tiller, or without sails. Remove these two things, and you have deterred most thefts. They'll go on down the pier to a boat that has those things on it. At the minimum, remove the wheel or tiller and put it below if you're in a port and going to spend a few hours on shore, or take it with you if you are going to leave the boat for a few days, a week, etc.

    It's probably a pain to remove the sails on a 35-40 foot sailboat. Think in terms of who should be sailing the boat-- you or the thief?

Ran across a guy in Annapolis, Maryland early last year. Hadn't seen him since the '70's. Thanks to some inside information he gave me back then, when I was a struggling writer--come to think about it I still am, struggling, that is-- I had earned a small sum for an article in Practical Sailor about how to prevent a sailboat being stolen. He was the "Deep Throat" of the waterfront. Knew what was going on, who was doing it, who was getting caught, and which thief was too scared to do it.

    Back then, at the Market Slip (City Dock) in Annapolis, a thief could be casting off the lines of a sailboat he was stealing and the cops would drive by, nod howdy to him, then keep right on making a circle of the Dock, perhaps wolfing down donuts, and sipping coffee.

    Don't recall if they had Dunkin' Donuts back then.

    Or the dude could be stripping everything from a sailboat: sails, outboard engine, instruments, anchor, whatever... and loading it into his car or truck. The cops would nod and drive on! I'm surprised some of them didn't stop and offer to help cast off the lines or load the stuff. Hell, maybe some of them did!

    I've heard from some folks recently, via the Internet, that this is still going on throughout the country and around the world. No, I ain't gonna tell you where, well, not exactly. That's all I need is to dock my sailboat somewhere and have some cop or marina manager say: "Oh, you're that RW, the one who wrote the article in that rag, Latitudes and Attitudes!" And, no, Bob Bitchin, our esteemed editor, did not insist that discretion be the better part of valor, or that I keep my big mouth shut when it comes to naming current places. It's just that when it comes to naming them, I ain't got two big brass ones. Bob might have 'em, not me! (Does He, Jody?) Plus, I've spent enough time in jail to last two lifetimes! Leavenworth comes to mind, which was far less interesting than the time Bob spent in jail in Costa Rica. For all those inquiring minds out there who gotta know: No, Leavenworth was not for stealing sailboats! Had a wife who just loved to walk into a Mall, hold up a dozen credit cards and yell: "Charge!" But that's another story, another time.

Back to how it was, and still is. Or is that: might be? Wouldn't want the City of Annapolis, the upstanding leaders of the community, or the cops, to get teed off at me. At the Yacht Club on Spa Creek , or across the river from there at a yard-- forgot the name of it but one entrance was on the left just after you crossed the bridge into Eastport --the same thing went on, except I don't know if the cops drove by and waved. Probably not, since they would have had to drive down a steep incline to get into the yard. That might have spilled their coffee!

Most of the boatyards were too cheap to hire guards, and Annapolis was thief heaven! Guys used to come from the Northeast, launch their small inflatable equipped with an outboard, cruise along the slips, choose the sailboat they wanted, undo the lines, tow it out to mid-channel of the Bay, board it, raise the sails, and head for home.

I never once heard of anyone getting caught with a boat under tow. They could have quickly released the tow line. I can just hear some thief saying to the water cops:

"Who me? Stole that boat? You gotta be crazy, officer. The thing just followed me out here! You don't see no line leading from the boat to it do you? Maybe it thinks my little boat is its baby and it's nursing time."

Same thing with manufacturer ID plates in the cockpit. Except that got thrown overboard before the boat left the slip. Two whacks with a screwdriver and hammer, heads of two rivets knocked off, and zip... the plate went over the side. With no name, no ID plate, or documentation number, only a serial number on an inboard engine could identify the boat... if the engine had a serial number that anyone could find. If there was an outboard on the stern, that got tossed once the boat was towed into deeper water. What the heck, the thief had his own outboard to use when he needed it!

One of those thief-type dudes had a bit of bad luck one night when he got a line wrapped around the propeller of his outboard engine as he was getting ready to grab a boat at the Yacht Club. He rowed across the creek, grabbed an engine from a boat on that side, rowed back to the Yacht Club, loosened his engine, dropped it over the side into the water, put the stolen engine on his boat, slipped the lines of the sailboat he wanted, took it in tow, and headed for the Bay. His engine might still be on the bottom! If anyone wants the location to try and salvage it, I'll ask Deep Throat for the exact location! If I ever see him again.

One 40' sailboat at a pier had a sign on it saying that an alarm would go off if anyone entered. A thief took the boat in tow, dragged it to the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, broke the lock, and opened the hatch! Silence! No alarm! Hog Heaven! He raised sail and headed North.

With apologies to our esteemed editor. There was the Poor Soul who stole a boat -- I forget which yard -- was rounding a point to go into the City Dock, and simultaneously ran aground and out of fuel! Damned fool apparently didn't know how to read a chart! The bow ended up in shallow water, facing the shore, along which were several houses. Like a real sailor, he stood in the cockpit facing aft toward the bay, waving his arms back and forth at other boats some distance away, hoping someone would tow him off the shallow.

It was an old, retired, Navy man who asked if there was anything he could do to help. After the thief spent a few more minutes fruitlessly trying to attract the attention of someone on the Bay, he accepted the offer, jumped into the water and waded ashore. The Ex-Navy guy took the now dripping thief up to a house, gave him a wool Navy jacket to put on, drove him back to within a couple of blocks from where the boat had been stolen, and dropped him off at a telephone booth where the thief said he was going to call a buddy to come and take the boat in tow.

Yeah, sure! I know you believe that, too! That the dude made a phone call and want back to tow the boat off the shallows!

His car was parked about a half block away. Soon as the old sailor was out of sight, it took the thief a few seconds to briskly walk to his car, jump in, and get the hell out of Dodge.

Been a lot of years since that incident was related to me. But the guy stole the right boat. From the name of it, it might have belonged to a judge or a lawyer. "Barrister" or some such name was on the transom. Present company-- lawyers and judges-- excepted as far as it being the right boat to steal. On the other hand... Maybe the dude did good!

Not every thief was successful on the first try. One Dude cruised the piers on Back Creek one night, saw a boat he liked, popped the lock, put the sails on, and got ready to fire up the outboard and leave. Something scared him, so he took off down the pier. He came back a week later, figuring he would get the same boat and make his getaway that time. First thing he noticed was a plastic covered, neatly typewritten piece of paper prominently attached to the cockpit seat.

I'm not making this up, folks!

It said, in effect: "We have removed everything from our boat-- tiller, sails, engine, radios... Please leave us alone!" Sho nuff! They had. So the dude went down to the end of the pier and grabbed a sailboat that had all the goodies on it. Fired the engine, hit the channel, raised the sails, and took off.

First time I met "Deep Throat" was one afternoon in a bar across the street from the City Dock, where I was lamenting-- over an ice cold glass of draft Bo-- my loss of an outboard motor from the transom of my boat that I had tied up there the night before.

"Hell, Dude", he laughed, "you're lucky they didn't come aboard and steal the wicks from your cabin lights. Bums what steal around here ain't got no respect!"

During our encounter last year, as we were downing a couple of beers in the cockpit of a boat he now sails, the conversation turned to how many boats he had bought over the years. His answer:

I didn't ask if his present sailboat was among the latter. Right good looking forty footer. Just popped another beer or three and talked about the good, old days in Annapolis and Baltimore. The Little Tavern just up the street from City Dock-- it ain't there any more-- that we would hit a little after 2AM, wolfing down a dozen 10 cent burgers ("Buy 'em by the Dozen!" or was that by the bag?) to feed the booze we had been consuming all night. The boogie joints on Ritchie Highway where the ladies were young, cute, and could appreciate us sailors "home from the harrowing sea"-- which was often a sail to Gibson Island, a few miles north of Annapolis-- a case of beer consumed along the way, and our tall tales about all the sea monsters we met on the way. Sometimes we didn't even get under the Bay Bridge, just outside Annapolis, before we just kicked back, drifted, and downed the brew. Then, hit the boogie joints... the Little Tavern...

Or, how nice "The Block" in Baltimore used to be before the tourists took it over... or did the city finally shut it down? The Two O'Clock Club... Blaze Starr, and a young thing, who was equally well-endowed and claimed to be her niece, or was it sister? Anyway, she used to just love all my tall stories about the huge waves and high winds us poor, young sailors had to endure during our sailing trips on the Chesapeake. One time she snuggled up real close to me, pushed her tall, warm body firmly against mine-- sigh, I can just feel it now-- wrapped her arms tightly around my neck, and whispered in my ear....

Now, what was that she said? Darn! What the years do to you! I've always heard that the memory is the second thing to go. The first thing to go? Ask some old salt on the pier.

Last time I saw Deep Throat he said he was headed North... or was that South... Maybe he said the South Seas... Darned hearing, again...

How many yards and marinas have night watchmen now? Whoops! Misspoke! Watch Persons. Gotta be politically correct these days! This old dude wouldn't want to be accused of being anything less. Check cruising books or guides to see if Watch Persons are listed. That should be a factor to consider before you leave your boat in a slip. Unless yards have night Watch Persons or plenty of alert folks who live aboard, the same thing can be done today. In fact, it is being done!

If worse comes to worse, and your boat is stolen, after you notify the cops put it on the sailing newsgroups on the Internet. Far as I know, Deep Throat ain't got no email account!