What do you do with your gear when leaving your boat in a slip overnight?

[That Guy]

This is the second year where we are not renting a houseboat for our lake vacations and this has us leaving the boat in a slip at a marina on the water approximately a mile from the house we are staying in.  It appears most everyone just leaves there equipment out without any concerns but I don't want to be the dope that does that and comes out in the morning to find all my gear missing, which would not only be expensive but a real downer on vacation.

On our houseboat trips we're tucked away in a cove and while it is possible someone could come by in the night, that's not nearly as easy/likely that someone just walks out on a dock and picks up the nicest board/gear/etc they can get their hands on in no time.  Call me wary but I'm curious how everyone else thinks.

Edited July 7, 2016 by That Guy

[RyanB]

I do a combination.  I take everything off the tower, put it under the cover.  Sky Ski gets taken apart and left in the truck.

[Pnwrider]

Anything that I would be upset about losing comes out. Usually boards, ski vests, coolers, etc. Why risk it? I'm on vacation to have fun and that's hard to do if someone steals my wakeboard, surfboard, etc... 

[95echelon]

52 minutes ago, That Guy said:

This is the second year where we are not renting a houseboat for our lake vacations and this has us leaving the boat in a slip at a marina on the water approximately a mile from the house we are staying in.  It appears most everyone just leaves there equipment out without any concerns but I don't want to be the dope that does that and comes out in the morning to find all my gear missing, which would not only be expensive but a real downer on vacation.

On our houseboat trips we're tucked away in a cove and while it is possible someone could come by in the night, that's not nearly as easy/likely that someone just walks out on a dock and picks up the nicest board/gear/etc they can get their hands on in no time.  Call me wary but I'm curious how everyone else thinks.

Where is this slip exactly? What kind of gear are we talking about?

[That Guy]

37 minutes ago, RyanB said:

I do a combination.  I take everything off the tower, put it under the cover.  Sky Ski gets taken apart and left in the truck.

Sounds like what I did last year, just felt like everyone was watching me make a few trips to the parking lot past the bar and was wondering if I was the only one that locked up my few thousand dollars worth of stuff every night. 

 

16 minutes ago, 95echelon said:

Where is this slip exactly? What kind of gear are we talking about?

Haha...almost got me to give you the combo to my safe as well! LOL 

21 minutes ago, Pnwrider said:

Anything that I would be upset about losing comes out. Usually boards, ski vests, coolers, etc. Why risk it? I'm on vacation to have fun and that's hard to do if someone steals my wakeboard, surfboard, etc... 

Agreed, the stuff isn't cheap and I can't imagine the headache in trying to replace it immediately so I could continue our vacation. 

[95echelon]

But seriously to me it depends on a lot of things. Alternatives being the big one. If everyone leaves their stuff there are odds in numbers. I have left the keys in every car and boat I have owned and never locked my doors in my house either. I used to leave a cabin cruiser full of goodies and a jet ski with keys in them right at the marina. But that marina had a guard shack and a 5 mile road in and out. 

Dont make it easy for the thief. Toss it all under the cover and leave it at that. What takes longer: schlepping that crap on the daily or making one unlikely insurance claim?

take your salary and divide it by 2080 (hours in a n American work year)  every 100k is roughly 50 per hour. Say your household is 200k per year  that's 100 an hour (what I call quality time dollars).  Even if you have to pay for a surfboard a year you are ahead in quality time dollars in lieu of moving all your crap around morning and night.

 

[Pnwrider]

10 minutes ago, 95echelon said:

But seriously to me it depends on a lot of things. Alternatives being the big one. If everyone leaves their stuff there are odds in numbers. I have left the keys in every car and boat I have owned and never locked my doors in my house either. I used to leave a cabin cruiser full of goodies and a jet ski with keys in them right at the marina. But that marina had a guard shack and a 5 mile road in and out. 

Dont make it easy for the thief. Toss it all under the cover and leave it at that. What takes longer: schlepping that crap on the daily or making one unlikely insurance claim?

Income has nothing to do with it. I have played the scramble game on vacation before and it seriously sucks. It's not that hard to have people grab things on the way back from the dock. Using your example, let's say someone steals your surfboard day one of vacation while camping far away from a watersports dealer. How much quality time have you just lost? 

Lakehouse is different, but I thought we were talking about camping and docking...

Edited July 7, 2016 by Pnwrider

[Sixball]

I take my ski and gear out. I will not leave my ski in the sun for long. The sticks just cost way to much not to take care of them.

[95echelon]

34 minutes ago, Pnwrider said:

Income has nothing to do with it. I have played the scramble game on vacation before and it seriously sucks. It's not that hard to have people grab things on the way back from the dock. Using your example, let's say someone steals your surfboard day one of vacation while camping far away from a watersports dealer. How much quality time have you just lost? 

Lakehouse is different, but I thought we were talking about camping and docking...

I was confused perhaps. I thought we were talking about a slip (summer rental). This might be a week rental.  

I would still leave it under a cover. Just not out in the open. If you don't have a cover then it's worth schlepping to me. Just my vote. 

 

34 minutes ago, Pnwrider said:

Income has nothing to do with it. I have played the scramble game on vacation before and it seriously sucks. It's not that hard to have people grab things on the way back from the dock. Using your example, let's say someone steals your surfboard day one of vacation while camping far away from a watersports dealer. How much quality time have you just lost? 

Lakehouse is different, but I thought we were talking about camping and docking...

I think crime is higher where you guys are than the Midwest...

edit: never mind I forgot Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit screwing up statistics (mostly Chicago and Detroit): https://goo.gl/images/G4l5b2

Edited July 7, 2016 by 95echelon

[Bill_AirJunky]

SkySki locked to the tower with a bike lock. Most of the gear locked in the back... including the tower speakers. Cooler, wet gear & stereo faceplate with me.

[dlb]

There are 6 of us so each grabs something....  

[oldjeep]

Even when we rent a house on the water, expensive stuff comes out of boat. Sure there is not much crime up here but there is some and it doesn't take much effort to secure things.

[dalt1]

8 hours ago, Bill_AirJunky said:

SkySki locked to the tower with a bike lock. Most of the gear locked in the back... including the tower speakers. Cooler, wet gear & stereo faceplate with me.

My Sky Ski always goes to room or truck locked up. Everything else stays in boat but out of site in lockers.

[Swivel]

11 hours ago, Sixball said:

I take my ski and gear out. I will not leave my ski in the sun for long. The sticks just cost way to much not to take care of them.

Very true.  Even when we leave stuff on the boat during the day, we throw towels over the bindings and such.  That's why my 35-year-old Taperflex Apex still looks like new.  This year I'll begin taking similarly-good care of a new Radar Senate. 

At night most stuff -- my ski, surf, wakeboards -- gets carried out by the crew and is locked in the RV/truck overnight.  A few of the less-valuable things like pair skis, ropes, stay in the boat, under cover.

[Technicallyabu]

Depends. If when I look around I see stuff nicer than mine I leave it. If not I take it in at the end of the day. Except for stuff that i secretly hope gets stolen so I can replace it with something better.

[carguy79ta]

Boards come out.  If I pull boat out at end of day, amd pull back to where we are staying, i leave the boards in the rack then.

[MystiikVLX]

I usually leave most stuff in the boat and put the cover on the boat sitting on the lift. In 10 years had one episode when someone got into the boat and stole everything, amps, batteries, wakeboard, speakers. Wakeboard was old and looking to be replaced anyway.

I'm more worried about my stereo now than vests, and wakeboards.

Edited July 7, 2016 by MystiikVLX

[bbattiste247]

Our marina is also a tourist destination, but the tourists must pay $20 to enter the national park before they can get to the marina. At least this will keep many of the theives out. Security at our marina told me last week that they will catch anyone stealing from the boats. I am not sure how they can assure me of this, but I still don't like leaving the expensive stuff in the boat. Although, I do leave the wakeboards in the racks, but only on the side oppisite of the dock. We don't wakeboard as much as we used to, so we are not as concerned about them as the surfboards.

[DarkSide]

I do a mix depending on the marina,  soulcraft goes with me.  Off the shelf hyperlite stays on the boat,  sometimes even in the rack.   Jackets get hung from the racks to dry.  Tablet (music source) and camera go. 

In others all boards go,  jackets never go.   I pay attention to what others leave out.   If none of the boats leave anything out.   I take that as a sign not to use that marina again. 

[ID AX]

I used to rent a slip years ago and the marina had gates to all the docks.  You had to have a code to get on the dock.  Cameras and security guard as well.  We regularly left gear under the cover but wet stuff came home to dry.  Never had a problem and I don't know anyone that has.  

If I did the slip thing again I would probably leave the old gear under the cover and take the nice gear with.