I've unlocked my cabin door for good......should you?

Quint4

Quint4

Well-Known Member
TECHNICAL Contributor
Oct 6, 2006
6,750
NC
Boat Info
CY 3375
Engines
7.4 MPI twin
Food for thought everybody. Last Spring I was at a busy fiberglass / boat repair shop to install some Infinity flooring in a Sea Ray 280. There were probably 15 - 20 boats in the yard.

I met with the shop owner before getting started and asked where the key to the cabin door of the 280 was hidden? He replied: "I tell all the boat owners to leave the doors unlocked, if thieves damage the doors it will maybe cost you many thousands of dollars to get it fixed......if it is even possible to repair/replace".

Whoa......unlocked?...what about my stuff inside? .....but he got me thinking.

Fast forward to now....... There is a post going on another site started by the owner of a 40' Silverton bridge boat. Thieves heavily damaged the sliding door to get in and ransack the boat.
Estimated repair bill?......try 15k!! What did they steal?.........DVD layer, some loose change, and a few other replaceable things.

My boat is winterized and in the water. I checked on it last week and left it unlocked. Nothing much in it right now anyway.

I gotta tell you, I may just start leaving it unlocked all the time.

Thoughts?
 
I guess it comes down to your insurance and whether or not you plan to make a claim. I'm not sure a police report that reads: "Owner left boat unlocked to minimize expected theft damage" would warm the heart of an insurance company. Most thieves try to find something unlocked prior to making noise that may attract attention. I agree that it can be expensive if someone destroys the cabin door but that is a thief who is determined to get in.
 
I hear you but would an insurance company prefer to pay thousands for repairs or hundreds for stolen items? I realize it depends on what you keep in your boat.

For us Northern boaters, most have little if anything in the boat over the Winter. Mine is unlocked at least for Winter....maybe for good.
 
I was told the same thing when I had my 280DA and always left it unlocked for the reasons mentioned. Everything inside was easily replaceable and reasonably inexpensive. The entire contents of my boat were less expensive than the cost of a new door or helm. Not worth the risk of costly damage and I figure a thief would get really pi$$ed and ransack the boat if he broke in only to find paper towels and misc necessities.

EDIT: With regard to insurance. My contents weren't worth the claim unless they trashed the inside and I wouldn't tell the police that I left it unlocked on purpose. In fact, I might leave a thank you note for the thieves if they took the KEC DVD player, crappy TV and the Clarion radio.
 
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No issue with 240DA 2004, too weak...

door.jpg
 
Hey, my cabin door lock functions just like roberteb's pictured above.

That said I leave my cabin unlocked all of the time for the exact reason in the OP. A busted cabin door is going to cost multiple thousands to repair verses hundreds in possessions to replace. We don't leave anything really valuable onboard when we are home during the week.

Though when we travel to other ports, I put on a little security theater and make a production out of locking my cabin door and putting my key into my pocket when we leave the boat for a few hours. That is when I feel we are most vulnerable as there are usually at least two laptops, an iPad and a Glock inside.
 
LTD.330 said:
Though when we travel to other ports, I put on a little security theater and make a production out of locking my cabin door and putting my key into my pocket when we leave the boat for a few hours. That is when I feel we are most vulnerable as there are usually at least two laptops, an iPad and a Glock inside.
Click to expand...

Not to mention that security system you mentioned, ahem, in another post. All those cameras with remote and local recording, motion sensors, siren, and the electric-shock booby trap was a stroke of genius...
 
As far as the OP's question: I use my lock. More than once I've had drunks stumble aboard "looking for their buddy". If someone more determined damages the door and lock, then I'll make an insurance claim.

I actually do have motion-sensing cameras. I get an alert on my phone if so much as a seagull lands on the salon hatch.
 
Everybody goes different routes on this.

Fact: the cabin door locks are pretty much useless, 1) they only have about 1/8 inch of fiberglass holding the lock in place, and 2) there's like, what, 10 different locks? Me and 2 of my dock mates have the same Mobella key. I'd think that most experienced boat thieves have the keys anyway and the rest of the scumbags will break the tiny piece of fiberglass by simply yanking hard enough.

When we are not around I use a cable lock to secure the door by the grab rail on the door and on the port side. My thought is that doing this makes my boat far more challenging to get in to than the 50 others on my dock, so the scum bag will just move to easier pickings. If they decide that it's me they want, well then that's why I have insurance.
 
Not me. Locked all the time. I think there are a lot of thieves looking for an easy game. They will try the door, and if its locked, move on to the net boat. I think that happens a whole lot more than you think. Like parked cars. A lot more thieves walk parking lots checking for unlocked cars compared to the number willing to break in.
 
I leave mine unlocked at the yacht club all the time. But, we have one live-aboard owner that acts as security for the docks. I have nothing inside worth as much as the door. But, I would be pissed if they took my Jack Daniels.
 
When I kept our boat at the marina, I initially locked it. One night, one of my dockmates boat was broken into. They destroyed the door to get a couple bottles of booze. We all decided to leave them unlocked, and I only had one incident, kids (grandkids of a friend...) looking for beer. He replaced it. We caught them on video. Video never showed anything else but that time.

Now, my boat is docked behind the house. I'm only there Friday nights until Monday morning, so I installed video again. Of course much more is being monitored than just my boat. I still leave it unlocked. No issues so far. And except for a couple early evening fisherman bouncing lures off my hull, video hasn't shown anything else.

But like someone said, it's a choice. Thieves are looking for "easy". I'm betting they will leave mine alone because of neighbors, lights and cameras. Not to mention I don't keep anything on board of value anymore.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My thought is that most of the minor thefts by me are kids looking for loose items or alcohol and a locked cabin will avoid a lot of those problems.
More ambitious thieves are looking for electronics and other items of value that they'll likely rip out of the helm and probably cause a lot of damage which will require an insurance claim.
I own my dock space which is located across the street from private single family homes in a suburban neighborhood. Homes are on one side of the street and dock properties are along a bulkhead on the opposite side. The other side of the canal is the same set up. Dock properties and boats are fully visible from the roadway on both sides of the canal.
Although I don't live there I do keep an eye out for my neighbors boats and they do the same for me. Not many are shy about challenging someone who trespasses on a neighbors dock property. While certainly not a foolproof deterrent, it's a little safer than in a typical marina.
 
my cabin door is so dang hard to open the thieves would think its locked anyways :)
 
Do you guys that leave your doors unlocked also remove your keys from the ignition? Most of the folks I boat with have keys that never move from the panel. Turn 'em on and off, but never taken out.

I agree with the value of contents vs value of door argument but I suppose that assumes they don't take the whole damn boat. ha.
 
To further bolster the argument that leaving doors unlocked is normal I'll share with you all that there is a contingent of hilarious boat owners at my marina that enjoy the opportunities offered by known unlocked friendly boats.

It is understood as fair play that if you are absent from your boat for a weekend and one of the aforementioned hilarious owners notices your absence, that owner is thereby obligated to drop a deuce in your vacuflush at some point during that weekend. Preferably after a night of moderate intoxication (or during). The next time the owner of that vessel is present it is required that the experience be reviewed, critiqued and/or otherwise discussed over a beverage.

Common highlights have included "kinda hot in there last weekend" and "your West Marine TP is absolute garbage" or "when was the last time you had that porthole serviced, you could die in there".

The first time I heard about this I almost wet myself. It's like a secret society of sneaky poopers. Black (or brown) Op's type stuff. Sooo funny.

If you're going to leave it unlocked at least leave some decent toilet paper in the head, friends...
 
Stee6043 said:
To further bolster the argument that leaving doors unlocked is normal I'll share with you all that there is a contingent of hilarious boat owners at my marina that enjoy the opportunities offered by known unlocked friendly boats.

It is understood as fair play that if you are absent from your boat for a weekend and one of the aforementioned hilarious owners notices your absence, that owner is thereby obligated to drop a deuce in your vacuflush at some point during that weekend. Preferably after a night of moderate intoxication (or during). The next time the owner of that vessel is present it is required that the experience be reviewed, critiqued and/or otherwise discussed over a beverage.

Common highlights have included "kinda hot in there last weekend" and "your West Marine TP is absolute garbage" or "when was the last time you had that porthole serviced, you could die in there".

The first time I heard about this I almost wet myself. It's like a secret society of sneaky poopers. Black (or brown) Op's type stuff. Sooo funny.

If you're going to leave it unlocked at least leave some decent toilet paper in the head, friends...
Click to expand...

Stee6043, this one just made me literally LOL as I have a buddy who has a similar mindset on our dock although he has yet to act on it. I think he fears the repercussions from his wife more so then our dock mates. As far as locking boats our dock is pretty much 50/50. Also those of us that lock, actually leave the key where it could be found if someone was desperate enough which I guess kind of defeats the purpose of locking the boat to begin with. We do have no issues stopping people who aren't familiar to us especially since we had kids get onto our dock a couple years ago and slash a bunch of dinghies and cut a couple of boats loose. Security has since been put on notice that if we see them just sitting in their car in the parking lot and not actually patrolling like they should be, the marina owner will be getting a call the next day.
 
Keep Chez-nous locked all the time. We share the dock with a yacht sales company and their boats are scattered in and among private boats. I've heard of and seen too many people comparison shopping boat sizes ("Gee look at the difference between a 340 and a 320"). Also seen idiots posing for photos on someone else's boat. So I lock the cabin door just to keep the casual lookie-loos out. Thieves won't be deterred but they're far less likely to come by.

We also put a "BEWARE of DOG" sign up in the cockpit facing the stern and visible from the dock. Just to let people know that Chez-nous is not part of the yacht sales inventory and is actually a private boat. No idea if that makes any difference.

Oh, and the "BEWARE of DOG" sign is a favorite joke to all my dockmates. Meet Henry.


Misc 318.jpg
 
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