Theft from dinghies alert

Concern has been expressed among the boating fraternity that despite the continuing downturn old traditionally made rove and rivet boats are attracting ever more attention from international criminal gangs. Several Folkboats from the 1950’s and even clinker dinghies from the 40’s and 50’s have been targeted with the owners only realising that they had been the subject of attack when starting to take on substantial amounts of water on launching.

“It’s no laughing matter” said one irate owner while up to his knees in water. “These people are showing scant regard for our safety. We leave our boats in the yard or dinghy park never thinking that we will be the subject of such wilful behaviour. There may be well over 1200 copper rivets in a Holt or Woottens Merlin Rocket so the thieves may well think there are some easy pickings. I blame the recovery and long for the days of the depths of the recession when nothing had a value. Since 2009 copper has gone through the roof”.

And the reason for these problems is the ever increasing value of many marine metals, leading common criminals to turn their attention from the Ferrari and Lamborghini black market to the sale of illegally obtained semi-precious metals from the hulls of boats. Loose planks and garboards coming adrift are not the only danger.

One unfortunate owner has had the gunwhale of his dinghy detached for the sake of thirty countersunk copper nails and four brass 11/2” size 10 slot head woodscrews and nearly fell overboard. “They’ll steal anything” said Nick Fasteners a bona fide scrap dealer. “They come in here with small plastic bags full of nails expecting to make their fortunes but to be honest with you the amount of work involved doesn’t seem worth it. The real ones we want are the silicon bronze grip nails but they seem to be more secure so they go for the easy copper stuff, brass and phosphor bronze fittings”.

His business partner Rob Emblind says there has been a sea shift away from lead being stolen from keels. “These guys don’t really know what they are pinching sometimes. One chap had obviously spent an age removing the keel from a Flying Fifteen thinking it was lead and that his luck was in. He was a bit shocked when we told him it was cast iron. He would have been better with a centreboard from an old Merlin. He lost his temper somewhat and was seen thumping anything he could get his fists on” he laughed. “I think the word got around on that one and so they are concentrating on the copper and bronze.”

There is a further worrying development in this trade. The next big thing, as there are fewer nails available will be copper based anti-fouling scrapings with the gangs likely to set up small home-based factories to extract the precious oxides and making fresh stuff to offer the economically hard pushed boat owners.

Detective Inspector Smelter a leading copper expert from the Solent Officers Department has said that the theft of antifouling is a worrying trend by ever desperate people but his men are slowly getting to the bottom of it. “If you are offered this bit of kit don’t touch it” he warned. “There can be all sorts of stuff in there which really won’t do you a lot of good. You might have the short term euphoria of a job well done but long term it’s a disaster“.

Regarding the theft of nails and screws the police on the South Coast are hoping they will get to grips with this trade in the near future but for the moment have warned classic boat owners of the dangers of going afloat without closely inspecting their fastenings. The only cure seems to be to smear the rivets with a small daub of epoxy to deter all but the most hardened of criminals.