I think the irony of not insuring older boats is that they are less of a target than fancy modern stuff and as such should be less of a liability for theft and break ins.
When I moored my Swiftcaft in the early 90s we had fully renovated it and it was probably the nicest boat in my mooring area. First, the 140hp outboard was stolen. The police opined it was probably by professionals as it would have required a dedicated barge with a derrick to get it off on the water. Several years later, after it had been on the jetty being serviced by the local mechanoid for a week, some opportunist dimbulb took inventory while picking his nose and stripped all my gear the week after it went back on the mooring, including our new 750CCA monster battery.
We persevered, and as the bay became stocked with floating gin palaces and our swifty got less mainstream and less maintenance done nobody bothered touching it again. My theory anyway and MHO.Interestingly I did a search on the net by my boats name and it found it. It’s moved north and has had several owners and renovations since me but it’s older than the 563 and obviously still somebody’s pride and joy. Pic below , the blokes really looking after it.
I suppose they could take my sails but I think that would require brains and imagination to sell 40 year old antique trailer sailer sails so I’m probably safe . My lines, blocks and removable rigging are inside and there is far better stuff hanging out on deck on surrounding boats so why would they bother. I have basic old tools on board but my parrot beak cutters and sailing knife go home in the sailing bag as they would sell.
I appreciate that for yourself, your offshore equipment would be difficult to remove each time you sail but possibly a good alarm system would cut down on the odds . I have a basic Jaycar setup that terminates the eardrums with “extreme prejudice “ as they say in spy movies. So, what I’m saying is not having comprehensive is manageable if a tad inconvenient.
Bottom line is, after my two thefts, I used my cruiser far less and after it got a bit grotty we decided to sell and relinquish the mooring which we’d held for 15 or 16 years by that stage. On a spur of the moment decision we “came about”, decided to take up sailing and we are glad we did. If I’d let the scumbuckets win we’d have missed out on all the good times we’ve had sailing the Investigator.
Hope it works out
