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Posted

I've not long fitted a £55 gsm alarm from eBay. Seems to be running ok and doesn't use much power. Comes with wireless door magnets and pir.

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Posted

Does anyone have a recommendation for a boat alarm?  

A rottweiller?  :naughty:

 

Seriously, I would ask Broads Beat what they may suggest.

 

 

cheers Iain

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Posted

I devised and installed my own. I can't tell you how it works, or I'd have to slaughter you all, but I have it sounding two 12 volt sirens as fitted to house external alarm boxes. If it goes off, you can NOT stay in the boat, it hurts your ears! So if you have the option try that.

Talking of security, anyone moor at Langley Dyke? I could have helped myself to your moorings "security camera", it's that obvious. Well it would be with a flashing blue light on it, wouldn't it? Pointless. Any ne'er-do-well returning with his armful of stolen swag will nick the camera as well, or chuck it in the river!

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Posted

One of the biggest problems, I suspect, is ensuring that an alarm, if it's wired to the boat's power system, doesn't drain the battery. Boats can be left for a long time (unlike cars) so I would be careful of power consumption. 

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Posted

You know how annoying it is when car alarms go of when they're not being stolen, well boats are left for months and if nobody knows how to stop it............Arrrgh!!!!

I might end up breaking in to someones boat just to shut the bloody alarm up! A silent alarm that alerts the local authority would be a better idea. 

 

Most boat that have had an alarm that I have seen have had it disabled.

Posted

I’ll not go into details because this is in the public domain, but Broad Ambition has just been fitted with a comprehensive alarm system.

 

We learnt rather a lot along the way, and have extended the units ‘out of box’ capabilities with other parts.

 

What you want is something that is not just a simple ’shed’ type alarm or car alarm I think they are far to susceptible to false alarms and don’t have the range on sensors other types can.

 

Proper home alarm systems in my view is the way to go – before you go out and part with your money though think about where you can install it on your boat and what sort of sensors you would need – also consider power consumption and cable runs.  There are many different types on the market so doing your home work takes a bit of time.

Posted

I devised and installed my own. I can't tell you how it works, or I'd have to slaughter you all, but I have it sounding two 12 volt sirens as fitted to house external alarm boxes. If it goes off, you can NOT stay in the boat, it hurts your ears! So if you have the option try that.

Talking of security, anyone moor at Langley Dyke? I could have helped myself to your moorings "security camera", it's that obvious. Well it would be with a flashing blue light on it, wouldn't it? Pointless. Any ne'er-do-well returning with his armful of stolen swag will nick the camera as well, or chuck it in the river!

Thing is while you were staring at that one did you see the others? Not everything is as it seems always!!

Posted

Thing is while you were staring at that one did you see the others? Not everything is as it seems always!!

No, I didn't! Can you tell us where they are? :twisted:  :twisted:  :twisted:

Posted

Just as an add on to this.

 

I know a guy who fitted an alarm linked to an old mobile so it called him rather than just made a loud noise. He also rigged it so that if he had a power failure in the winter (he relied on tube heaters to keep the engine warm) it also called him.

 

he did live close to where his boat was moored though so could respond fairly quickly. Not much use I guess if your several hours away, unless you have a friendly marina person to call to take a look for you. Bet most of these would happen at night though. 

And in Norfolk you would get a big mobile bill with all the power hits we seem to get :naughty:  :naughty:

  • Like 1
Posted

The problem is it does often come down to the boat owner to take all reasonable steps to protect their boat and its contents – no single system would be good, it needs a host of things from deterrents, capturing activity on CCTV and then alerting through the sounding of alarms and lights to make the potential thief not want to stick about even if they have broken in and grabbed something they are not being left in silence and darkness to continue pilfering items.

 

Sounds very good, but on a boat in a Marina on a berth you don’t actually own this becomes tricky.

 

It would be nice if Marina’s took security as seriously as provision of a water supply or electric points.

 

Many a Marina has CCTV but how good is it?  How many cameras are there and where are they placed? 

 

Having a camera or two on the edge of a building overlooking a car park, or entrance gate won’t capture enough detail of anyone but likely just that someone was there at a given time and date (which may be helpful to Police none the less.)

 

In my example below is how average outside Marina berths could be covered by CCTV, giving coverage from different directions at the actual berths with no single camera having to cover more than a few metres of the pontoon.

 

post-534-0-54287700-1438094895_thumb.jpg

 

Such systems now cost hundreds, not thousands of pounds and with offsite cloud based monitoring and storage, movement activated recording and more it should mean little hiding place for the would be criminal not to mention owners being able to monitor their boats when hundreds of miles away.

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Posted

Perhaps things have changed, but there was a time when insurance companies only accepted certain alarm systems to be covered by them?

 

Especially with business premises.

 

 

cheers Iain.

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Posted

Hi Iain,

 

The systems are usually Red Care that offer monitoring services be they on dedicated phone lines with or without wireless connections. These used to be three false callouts and Police support and attendance was withdrawn.

 

Regards

Alan

Posted

Thank you for the views.  The boat will be five minutes' walk (or two minutes' run with a cricket bat!) from home.  There's nothing of value on board; I just don't want some little ****** causing damage to find out there's nothing worth nicking.  

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Posted

I fitted a battery powered PIR alarm from Maplins - around  £30. The added deterrent is the 4 window stickers saying it's there that I got off e-bay.

 

Been on the boat 4 months and no reports of a false alarm. 115 db siren sounds for a minute if entered, and this time of year where I moor there are plenty of boats around.

 

I was thinking of upgrading to one of the ones off e-bay that call you, as like Liberty I'm only a short distance from the boat if the worst happens ( fully aware of the risks of tackling intruders and minimum force  )

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