Two Perception Pescador 10-foot SOTs are missing on our lake. They weigh 52# each (!) and were stored on a dock, a good half a mile away from the public access here. The owner claims they were on the dock Saturday and Sunday. Monday and Tuesday it was cold with torrential rain and high wind.
Carried a tow rope on my after work paddle, figuring I would find them and haul them back. Searched and came up with nothing but I was looking at the shoreline.
There were other paddle boards and kayaks stored on the shore between the access and that dock. My own rec Necky sits, unlocked, on my beach as well as a canoe being stored there for the winter. By chance, both my Eddylines were inside my back porch (chained to a metal table).
I called the owner and let her know I didn’t find them. She mentioned a paddle and flip-flops were in the water by the dock. They weren’t hers.
Could the missing SOTs possibly have sunk? I wasn’t looking IN the water but if that’s a possibility, I will tomorrow.
Given the available pickings, it makes no sense.
If they were stolen, then it had to have happened Sunday night. The extra paddle and flip-flops belonged the pathetic creeps who took the kayaks. They had to have come in by a boat hauled by a pickup truck.
I hate it when stuff like this happens.
Well…
…anything can sink, but two seems unlikely.
Is it possible a couple of kids borrowed the kayaks for a paddle, then left them stashed in some bushes somewhere else on the lake?
Nope.
One is yellow/green, the other blue/white. I searched, as did another guy earlier.
But I’ll look again tomorrow, this time paddling closer to shore in case they’ve been moved into the woods, unlikely as that is since I live on a kettle lake. It’s like a soup bowl with the homes on the rim and the water below. Steep climb up and down.
Can sink, but probably stolen
SOTS can sink if water gets inside their hulls. Not likely for 2 to go at once, unless both has missing hatch covers or the like. If they sunk, they’d probably be straight below where they last were. But given that they were on the dock, they’d have to both get into the water and flood.
Unfortunately my thefts off of docks aren’t that uncommon. That is what I suspect hapenned.
yes and no
even if they did sink, they would have to fill completely with water to totally disappear. It would take alot of water. If they filled mostly with water, they would still be at the surface bobbing around. I bet they got stolen. Bummer.
FWIW
SOTS can be much more easily paddled away by a couple of folks on a drunk than SINKs. Not that the latter don’t get stolen, but we found out years ago our sea kayaks were safe under the back porch. We were out back and overheard the neighbots from the diciest house in the block talk about how they didn’t want to die.
SOTs are a lot less scary and more accessible.
Probably a good point, but still
a mystery as to how and when.
The house in question is undergoing a major rebuild. I wonder if there’s a connection.
Couple who purchased it don’t live there but the summer people on one side haven’t left yet and the family on the other are one of the five full timers here.
I feel bad for the owner as she just had a birthday and one of her gifts was a kayak rack. And then there’s the new issue of vulnerability.
Yeah it stinks for the owners
If the house is undergoing a rebuild that means lots of burly guys with somewhat burly trucks have been through, and/or their friends. Probably indicates bad news, but it will inform them for how to keep their boats in the future so there is something.
Agree with Celia
Funny how when someone has work done on their place and something disappears shortly thereafter. What a coincidence. Happens all too often.
possibly, but
You also had adjacent residents whose kids may have found the kayaks attractive, given they knew the neighbor wasn’t home.
I don’t want to give contractors an unnecessarily bad rap. Rookie lives in a vacation region and it’s common practice for contractors to work on empty or even vacant structures.
No kids on either side.
Both retired couples. Come to think of it, of the full timers just two of us are employed.
I’m not sure about the contractors given that paddle and pair of flip flops in the water. Contractors wear steel toed boots.
Sadly the owner didn’t know anything about HINs. No ID in the kayaks and no record of the HIN unless it was on the sales receipts and she kept them.
Marshall had sent me a packet of the “if found” stickers. Didn’t pass any out to the ten-footers since they never leave the lake. Maybe I should.
Not saying it had to be contractor
Someone comes by to see their friend who is working on the site and sees the boats, or someone going by in a friend’s motor boat sees the place is under construction… Lots of options. New construction was never locked up when l was in high school. It usually is now as soon as they csn secure entrances.
or
it coulda just been trespassers that came in to fish some private land and decided to help themselves. In that case, you might get lucky and find the missing kayaks in the bushes around the lake somewhere. Good luck.
Contractors and day labor
Don't know what it is like in your neck of the woods, but with contractors here, many day laborers they pick up at the parking lot of home depot. They don't really do back ground checks on the guys they pay to do the grunt work. Most of the workers are probably honest but you get what you pay for. I had a company that was going to install some new flooring come into the small company I own, several of the workers looked pretty sketchy. I told the foreman we needed to photocopy picture IDs of anybody that came on site because we were paid by government contracts. All of his workers took off at that point. I've only done that once, I've never had a problem with anything being stolen.
Thanks for that reminder.
There is a chunk of private acreage around a cove. Accessible from the highway if you know which two-track to follow. Scanned the cove shoreline, but didn’t go in close.
Will after work. Paddling is a great antidote to the dregs of society.
Now there are four.
Got a call from a neighbor down the road asking if I’d go out and look for his two blue kayaks, which he discovered were missing. He had read a lake association email about the first two then went down to the shore to check. No kayaks or paddles.
Loaded my boat (no longer keep it on my dock), drove down to the lake and paddled over to his waterfront. Deputy sheriff was already there.
These missing boats were box store 10-foot Pelicans SINKS used by his grandchildren and kept on a stand. He had written his name inside each cockpit in permanent marker, but made no record of the HINs.
Evil lowlifes out there. Guess it’s time to buy another length of thick chain and two keyed-alike padlocks so I can lock my boat at bow and stern next season.
Check EBAY and CL for your area…
Yep
Check the online locations. I usually don’t like the Ohio registration requirements but it would cure this problem of no one knowing their HIN.
Pulled out my Necky Rip 10
to bring it up to the house. Had been stored hull up. Discovered the cockpit cover was missing. Looked in the hatch. Nope.
I guess I should be glad the kayak was still there.
Watching CL for the entire state and the upper peninsula. Will also look at eBay.
Would be nice if the [very bad word] are caught.
Sucks
Someone’s Christmas shopping is done. I’m surprised paddleboats don’t go missing from lakes and backyards more often then they do. Don’t let it make you paranoid doubt it will happen again. Of course don’t be stupid with high end gear.