Boat Security when Away

How many people live separately from where their boat is kept during boating season?


  • Total voters
    33
I’ll have to check out those cameras. I have the “blink” system. Motion activated. No camera zoom. Also can’t pan, which drives me crazy wanting to look around. Has a mic, but not a speaker so one way communication. And about double the price of what you paid. Also motion activation is about 3-5 seconds delayed, so action is gone before seeing the action.

Our place is up north from us. But we have a full time neighbor next door, and he doesn’t let anything go by unnoticed. I don’t leave anything of value on boat, and keep the keys off the boat, unlike many around me (which I don’t understand...but trying out different boats all the time is fun....and my gas mileage is great!!).
 
20D0FABC-BB10-4CA4-9D8D-339AC3D763FB.jpeg 25A232B0-86C2-482E-B130-1BDA650C9473.jpeg 43160D82-973A-4A49-94F2-EA6321614168.jpeg Mine is on one of our driveways. I have a cam watching it from the side of the house, one watching the driveway someone would have to enter to get to it,and another that would show them if they happened to make it out of my drive without being shot.
 
Our community is being overtaken by meth users, and many are burglars and thieves. Their favorite places to wreak havoc is the couple of thousand lake homes that are not inhabited full time. They also love to take props, lower units, electronics and sound systems out of boats.

One doctor has a 50' Sea Ray cabin cruiser, and loud alarms blow when anyone gets within 100' of his boathouse. Many have game cameras and other security cameras recording motion. We have a local Stolen Items website on Facebook showing the crooks faces--and hundreds of thieves have been identified. Of course, our homes are alarmed--but the police are 15 miles away so monitoring won't help much.
 
.....SNIP.....
Of course, our homes are alarmed--but the police are 15 miles away so monitoring won't help much.

A decent alarm/camera system will pay for itself in the form of piece of mind.
Set up some hunting stands, then take turns manning it. Open season on thieves. After they know you’re there, set up a dummy watchman to give the real ones a break every once in a while. Sometimes you just have to be your own police force. Hope those crack heads are caught.
 
Darn, Bamaman, what a situation to be in. Of course, while I'm aware of the meth problem in general, I really don't have any first hand knowledge of the effects it has on the community at large, not to mention the users and their families. Stay vigilant!
 
Darn, Bamaman, what a situation to be in. Of course, while I'm aware of the meth problem in general, I really don't have any first hand knowledge of the effects it has on the community at large, not to mention the users and their families. Stay vigilant!
Let’s just say meth makes people lose the ability to be rational. While they may seem somewhat normal, maybe with more energy in the beginning, eventually they become manic, and become irrational. My ex became a meth addict, and it destroyed a 16 year relationship. The lack of rational thought reduces or eliminates their ability to know what’s right or wrong, and the only thing that matters like all other addictions, is how they are going to get their next fix.
 
Everything happens for a reason! Family friends and boating helped me heal! That’s why I had to get one! Now I’m the proud papa of a fantastic Bennington! Gotta let the good times roll and pay the therapy forward to my family and friends.
 
My boat is kept in a slip across the street from our house for 6 months and in a locked fenced in boat storage area for the other 6 months about 15 miles away. Of course I'm super security conscious being retired law enforcement. But this is our 12th season with this boat. I'm at the point now I feel if anything happens to it we've got insurance. Ha! Don't get me wrong we're always down at the boat checking on it and our waterfront neighbor calls me if fishermen get too close or if anybody goes on the dock. We've been lucky to have great neighbors who really watch out for each other .....
 
Good News: Security camera’s are already paying off. :)
Bad News: Security camera’s already have to be paying off. :mad:

First instance of my new security camera’s catching a problem. My daughter and I were out to eat at a restaurant after having arrived up at our cottage a couple hours earlier. I notice there are new renters next door with a docked inboard V-haul. While out to dinner, I get an alert of motion popping up on our new dockside camera. I see the renters are starting to load onto the boat, so I pull up our full camera feed on my phone and watch the following:

Cottage renters next door in the boat below backing out of the dock. Their tale end starts drifting towards our pontoon (as seen in the picture). 2-3 seconds after this picture they are about to hit our boat. The son in the back leans out and braces against our boat to prevent the collision; pushing their boat off from ours.

I just sat there watching it with a LUMP IN MY THROAT. I spoke to them when they got back to their dock at about 9 p.m. They were polite, apologetic, etc... However, conditions were about as calm as they could be. No wind. No waves. No unsavory conditions. Dead calm out. AND they still made physical contact with our boat. They are lucky has heck their son prevented so much as a scratch from happening by bracing against our pontoon.

I am SO RESENTFUL right now of the new owners next door turning that beautiful cottage into a rental. It has only been FIVE weeks so far of this situation, and I am so displeased. I think the owners are supposed to be up for a week vacation this upcoming week. We are up until Tuesday. I HOPE they come up while we are here so I can share a litany of concerns - culminating with the current renters actually making physical contact with my docked boat.

I’m a bit hot this evening, and it’s sure not from the weather. :mad:

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This sucks. Next year, which also sucks, is that I would move my dock to the other side of property. More important would be to put in some type of buoy and rope “swim” boundary on that side of the water line, along the conceptual property line. At least they would be bouncing against a rope vs. bouncing against your boat. I would do that this year.

And remind the owners, that they are liable for any damage (to boat or to swim rope boundary).

And tell them to extend their freaking dock. If they don’t have cameras, that short dock would be washed ashore.
 
Agree with TomC about moving the dock further away, probably cost quite a bit but worth it for peace of mind
 
My security system hard at work patrolling the docks. Took this last night when I got home. Had a couple of dolphins out there supervising too!
 

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What about moving your boat to the other side of the dock? Or moving your dock towards the other lot line? These rentals make good money so don't expect the new owners to really give 2 sh!ts. If you miss them leave your contact information including email in their mailbox so they can call you etc.

I feel for you Jeff. A vacation house should be for relaxation and fun, not dealing with morons.
 
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My security system hard at work patrolling the docks. Took this last night when I got home. Had a couple of dolphins out there supervising too!

My security system has been removed by a trapper. FWC sent someone out after a neighbor called.
 
My security system has been removed by a trapper. FWC sent someone out after a neighbor called.

Wow! Some stole your security camera? Dang.
 
Some good ideas above! My wife and I are talking about a lot of dock change up scenarios next year vs. various expenses of ideas. 1-2 ideas really should be cheap, and the 1-2 ideas we prefer would add a bit more cost. o_O

In the meantime, I am for sure going to ask the rental owner if they will put their dock at the rental properties cement dock notch on their sea wall. The previous owners put in a bracket and located the dock where it is now near the property line. However, their actual built in sea wall notch for a dock is another 30 feet further away from their current dock’s location. IF they do this, that would put somewhere around 50-55’ between the boats as they have a 100’ lot with a centered dock notch. I have a 50’ shoreline with my dock notch near their property line.

IF they are not willing to just have their dock put in at it’s actual sea wall notch, then I really wont have any choice but to install some Sea Wall brackets and relocate our dock to the other side of our property line.

Either way, I like the swim rope idea as a visual boundary/barrier. I’ll put some thought into doing something nice, but easy to put in and take out seasonally. I am thinking to boat mooring auger pole with loops for ropes. Maybe install 2-3 of them 12’ apart extending from the sea wall with a bright colored rope looping through them. Thoughts?

In the end I am hoping the fact our dock is in it’s actual built in Sea Wall notch + theirs is not + they don’t stay or live there more than a couple weeks a year + the associated problems so far with THEIR renters = them being agreeable to relocating there dock to it’s actual sea wall notch. Time will tell. My expectations are somewhere between 0 and a weak maybe... :(
 
I was referring to the gator I posted a video on.

You can run some rope through some pool noodles so they float and create a line. Shouldn't cost much.
 
Since the rental dock does not have a lift, should you be concerned that an inadequately tied off rental boat might come loose in a night storm, and bang into yours? In which case, since your boat has sealegs, can’t you park it on the other side of the dock? Or would that make getting into your boat more difficult?
 
Some good ideas above! My wife and I are talking about a lot of dock change up scenarios next year vs. various expenses of ideas. 1-2 ideas really should be cheap, and the 1-2 ideas we prefer would add a bit more cost.

Either way, I like the swim rope idea as a visual boundary/barrier. I’ll put some thought into doing something nice, but easy to put in and take out seasonally. I am thinking to boat mooring auger pole with loops for ropes. Maybe install 2-3 of them 12’ apart extending from the sea wall with a bright colored rope looping through them. Thoughts?.

Mooring auger pole would work or I would use cinder blocks with chain (around blocks) and rope from chain to tie off (and you can untie and leave the blocks and chain in the water through the winter). We do this to hold a sculling rowboat and neighbor does the same for a sunfish. Im lazy and wouldn’t want to screw and unscrew the augers every year.

I would go as far out with this line as your dock length. (Doesn’t look like 36 feet would be long enough).

And tell the neighbor to move and lengthen his dock.
 
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