Dinghies vanish in the night, leaving sailors stranded and furious. Whether it’s ransom demands or an engine gone missing, dinghy theft has become a costly headache in the Islands. But what if there were a way to outsmart the thieves? After some research and a quick test run, I found a simple, effective solution—and it works.
The obvious way to protect a dinghy from being stolen is to haul it out of the water on a halyard. When ashore, secure it to the dinghy dock with a stout chain and a robust lock—but then the thieves may just make off with the engine or the gas tank.
Another solution is to fit your dinghy with a tracker—one that will show you, on a map on your smartphone, where your dinghy has gone.
The Apple AirTag is one such device, but it has its shortcomings. It requires a Bluetooth connection to relay its location to your iPhone. If there are no smartphones nearby, there’s no signal and no tracking. If the thieves have a phone with Bluetooth enabled, they can detect the tracker, locate it, and throw it overboard—that is, if they’re smart enough.
So, the AirTag isn’t the answer. What’s needed is a GPS tracker. I found the LandAirSea 54 online. Since it only cost $10 on Amazon, I bought one. The LandAirSea.com website has plenty of useful information and subscription options. A month-to-month subscription is $20 for an upload ping every three minutes, or just $10 per month on a two-year contract.
The device itself is about the size of a hockey puck—small enough to hold in your hand. It came with a USB charging cable and a small tool for turning it on and off. It has a built-in magnet for attaching to cars and trucks. The 54 is waterproof and primarily designed for commercial vehicle fleets so businesses can track their trucks and cabs. If you want real-time tracking, you can upgrade to a subscription with more frequent updates, down to every few seconds.
I downloaded the app onto my iPhone, registered my tracker, and signed up for the one-month plan. To test it out, I stuck it on a friend’s dinghy and found it a day later. It hadn’t been stolen—the owner had simply moved it to another dock. But it worked, and it was more accurate than the Find My app on my iPhone.
There’s also a “fence” option on the app. You can draw a box around an area on the map, and the 54 will alert you if the tracker moves outside that boundary.
As for mounting it on your dinghy, don’t put it on top of the engine where it can be seen. Don’t mount it inside the engine cover, as the tracker needs to stay cool. Hide it under the seat or in the bow locker. I tried attaching it to the engine mounting bracket, but the tracker’s magnet didn’t find a good spot, so I stashed it in the PFD bag.
This tracker is secure—no one will be able to track your tracker. It doesn’t rely on WiFi or Bluetooth; it uses a GPS link, which works anywhere. The battery lasts up to six months on the three-minute uplink mode, and an accessory wiring harness is available to power the tracker via the dinghy’s battery.
There may be other GPS trackers out there, but for $10 upfront and $20 per month for the few months I’d need it, this seems like a cost-effective alternative to paying thieves a $500 ransom to get my dinghy back.
Now, if only we could get the local constabulary to accompany us when we confront the thieves, we might help reduce the number of dinghy thefts altogether.
Postscript: The author has never had a dinghy stolen but has had one or two go adrift—from improper cleating.
