When boats are docked at a marina how do owners “lock” them up to prevent people from boarding and stealing their stuff or causing mischief?
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The marina is locked and probably employs security to go check on things at night. People with boat money rarely visit their boats at 2:00am. The boats have locking compartments and require keys to start. There are police boats out looking for ne’er-do-wells who might approach by sea.
You could ask yourself the same question with owners of convertibles, motorcycles, and luxury cars. There is crime, but generally it boils down to “don’t be an idiot” with where you leave it.
Worked in an area near a marina a while ago. There is usually a lockable box at the front of the slip where valuables can go. Usually (not always) there was a locked gate into the dock. You also need a key to start the engine and some owners install something that alerts if the boat is started. Beyond that, there’s not much that can be done.
I have a boat I keep in a harbor in Chicago.
There’s a gate code to get on the dock that deters casual passers bye
anybody dedicated to get on can swim on or slip around it.
there’s also security that walks the grounds, but they’re less than amazing.
the actual below deck cabin of my boat is locked w/ a key. If you were to jump on & just have access to my cockpit & aft deck you could steal some PFDs, some lines, nothing of real value.
Some neighbors have a web cam on their boat or pointed at their boat & they’ve caught footage of people boarding & snooping around.
as much as that sucks, they’re not gonna get anything valuable.
If they discover the aft deck fridge, maybe they’ll find some beer.
Used to work surveillance for a private security firm, cameras in a few hundred places across town, marinas were popular clients for 24/7 video surveillance, with identity verification on unexpected visitors and response procedures laid out ahead of time.
So, in my experience, cameras and security, pretty much.
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