Shore power cord security

b_arrington

Well-Known Member
GOLD Sponsor
Feb 21, 2007
3,469
Setauket, NY
Boat Info
Back Cove 37
AB Ventus 9VL
Engines
Cummins QSC 8.3 600
Some absolute f$^#&* @$$hole stole all the shore power cables on my dock last night. Including my pair of 50 foot 30 amp cables.

Is there any way to secure a new set of cables so this doesn't happen again?
 
Any security cameras on site? How many other boats were hit? Thieves suck.
 
Dang man...that sucks. Time to change marinas?

I imagine you could find a way to fix a clamp around the cord before the connetor and attach it to the pedestal. What a bummer. Sorry you have to deal with this.

Another (lighthearted) security idea - when you buy the new cables wrap a 6" section with a good amount of black electrical tape every 5-10 feet on the cords :). Maybe they'll move on and skip yours worried about the splices you've made? :)
 
Any security cameras on site? How many other boats were hit? Thieves suck.
No cameras, and one other boat. Only us two had shore power, and the other guy is the marina owner. He's filed a police report and is looking into cameras.

The only thing I can think of to secure the cords is to put them in a dock box secured to the dock, with a hole for the cords. I'd have to put some sort of stop on it so you can't just pull the cord through.
 
I think anything you can do to make it less easy to walk away with them will help. I now some people who attach them to the dock with screw down clips -- mostly to keep them organized, but would help as a theft deterrent.
 
Dang man...that sucks. Time to change marinas?

I imagine you could find a way to fix a clamp around the cord before the connector and attach it to the pedestal. What a bummer. Sorry you have to deal with this.

Another (lighthearted) security idea - when you buy the new cables wrap a 6" section with a good amount of black electrical tape every 5-10 feet on the cords :). Maybe they'll move on and skip yours worried about the splices you've made? :)

Changing marinas really isn't an option. There are not many here and only one in the spot I'm located. It's really small, only about 7 slips total. The owner's cords were stolen too. Given the layout of the marina it would be quite hard to have effective physical barriers.

The marina owner was on the docks until about 9:30 last night. A workman discovered the theft at 6:30 AM when the theft was discovered. Apparently last year thieves hit to south shore, going from dock to dock stealing cords.
 
That really sucks. I like the idea of putting them through a dock box.
I am sure they are on ebay today.
 
If they were stealing them for the copper - through a dock box wont help that much. They would just take a big axe and cut.

Years ago when I kept the boat in the same marina I had secured a permanent cord with clips screwed into the dock. Did that mainly for the aesthetics, not security.
 
I figure that thieves are basically lazy, or they'd get a job and got buy what they need instead of stealing yours. I think your best security is to make the cord hard to get so the thieves will move on to another dock or boat.

On my travel cords, I have a 5/8" stainless steel splice link (https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Quick-Marine-Grade/dp/B01KYPOYSO) installed on the male end of each power cord. Each link as a 3/8" stainless splice link in it then I wrap a piece of scrap galvanized anchor chain around the power pedestal or pole and lock the smaller splice links together with a padlock that has a hardened steel shackle in it. I'm not worried about losing things at your marina because we have 24 hour security and the guard shack is about 30 ft from my boat. My worry was when we are in a transient slip on a trip somewhere and we don't know the security arrangements there.
 
IMG_4230.JPG
It's somewhat common to see galvanized chains wrapped around the cords at the dock pedestal and locked. Transient marinas often do this with their adapters so they do not go missing.
 
I used a lot of 1/2 two hole pipe strips with several different size bolt heads and screw heads to make it a challenge to get the cord. If they tried to cut it up they would have to cut 6" pieces, Hoping it was to much trouble for them and they would go some were it was easy to get the cord.
Had a few cords in my marine stolen but not mine.
I did not use tamper resistant screws as I wanted to remove it for the winter.
 
One final thought, along with the other ideas of securing the shore power cable, is possible installing a RFID chip so you can track it in your phone. If it does happen again, the technology will lead you right to it. Where i presume you will hopefully do some bodily harm and teach them a lesson. Just a thought.
 
You may be able to re-purpose some industrial "Lockout" devices. If shore power and/or your boat has a pigtail, something like this could work:
upload_2019-9-16_15-13-7.png
 
When we travel, I lock my 50a x 2-30a adaptor plug to the pedestal by attaching a padlock with a large enough hasp around the cord part of it and looping a bicycle cable lock through that and to the pedestal. Maybe you could do that with your cords. I don't lock my 30a cords but maybe I should. They can still cut though if they're just after scrap
 
When we travel, I lock my 50a x 2-30a adaptor plug to the pedestal by attaching a padlock with a large enough hasp around the cord part of it and looping a bicycle cable lock through that and to the pedestal. Maybe you could do that with your cords. I don't lock my 30a cords but maybe I should. They can still cut though if they're just after scrap

I'm thinking about doing something like this. Perhaps a couple U bolts to the dock, loop chain around the cord set and lock to the bolts.

Now my wife is freaked out. Wants to not even keep the boat connected to shore power when we're away. "We did fine without it for years on the mooring; why do we need it now?" she said. I think she's forgetting those times when the batteries were dead and we were couldn't go out. And replacing the batteries every 2 years because they weren't getting a regular charge. Not something I want to do now that we have massive house batteries.
 
My guess is it will lead you to the scrap yard
I thought to so, and said the same to the marina owner. He thought that copper recovery would mean an unreasonable amount of work stripping 2 50 foot cord sets. But it's still my guess too.
 
One final thought, along with the other ideas of securing the shore power cable, is possible installing a RFID chip so you can track it in your phone. If it does happen again, the technology will lead you right to it. Where i presume you will hopefully do some bodily harm and teach them a lesson. Just a thought.

I like that idea. Very much. Especially the finding the creep part.

I'm not sure an RFID tag is optimal, though. A passive tag has to be within range of the phone in order to find it. Ranges are roughly 25-50 feet. An active tag has a range of up to 100 yards, but is much larger because it has an onboard power source. Either way an RFID tag isn't going to phone home it's location.
 
How common of a problem is this?

I have no idea, have never heard of shore cables being stolen. It could be happening every day and I just have not heard about it.
 

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