STOLEN Eddyline Fathom and gear, Dunnelton, Florida

Hope it’s OK, but I’m posting this for a member of the Senior Kayakers Group from Facebook. I know there are a lot of Southeast paddlers here and maybe somebody will spot his distinctive boat and gear:

“My 16 ft. Eddyline Fathom was stolen from the Rainbow Springs State Park camping area/kayak launch (in Dunnellon, Florida) this past Monday night (January 21st) while on a PaddleFlorida.org trip on the Withlachoochee River. It had a Church of the Double Bladed Paddle sticker on the stern, a black rectangular Sweetwater Kayak Skull and Crossed Paddles sticker on the bow, and an orange Florida Paddling Trails sticker near the forward hatch with all my contact information. The Serial Number is EDY07864L617. The kayak has a navy blue top (this particular lighter blue color differs from the older darker navy color and very few Fathoms in the new color have as yet been sold in our area), white hull and black combing. The seat had a high (Infinity) backrest, and not a standard backband. It was loaded with gear when stolen, including a Warner Kalliste paddle, Seal Sneak sprayskirt, yellow Kokatat PFB with attached titanium knife, dry bags, orange Kokatat paddling jacket, and more…all the gear is marked with my name, SHEARER. If spotted please contact the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, Case No. 18001835, phone number 352-732-9111.”

Speaking of stolen kayaks, Riverside Kayak Connection of Wyandotte, MI, had a trailer with six kayaks stolen.

“The kayaks were the livery version of the Perception Tribe 11.5 and Tribe 13.5 (they do not have attached backrests or center round hatch.) Most of them were brand new kayaks that we were going to use this coming season. The trailer is 14.5’ long, v-nose and has a silver patch in the front on the driver’s side.”

All the kayaks are red.

Hope you get the scum

There was another boat stolen along with the Fathom.

@shiraz627 said:
There was another boat stolen along with the Fathom.

A Dagger Atlantis. Copied from owners Facebook post " My Atlantis has a FL Safety Inspection Sticker from 2015 on the right stern side just forward of the rudder. There was also an orange ACA sticker with my name and info inside the cockpit. The rudder release cable tee handle had been replaced with a stainless steel ring. I had removed the black thigh braces from the cockpit the day before, and they were stowed inside the aft hatch. Two AquaBound paddles were taken with the boat: an all black carbon fiber one, and another with a black shaft and white plastic blades. Also, a yellow spray skirt. If spotted please contact Deputy C. Hartigan at the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, Case No. 18001835, phone number 352-732-9111. Thanks"

It won’t let me post the pic of the Fathom, says file is already in the discussion… :confused:

I feel your anger and frustration.

All of this reinforces my policy of never letting my boats out of my eyesight and never more than maybe 100 feet away. Have you ever noticed that no matter how far out of everyone’s way that you park your boat on the beach, there will be some stooge with a dog who just has to pee on the boat and others who have to almost trip over the boat? One time somebody’s little kid even decided to kick the boat. They have no idea how close they came to having their kid drop kicked into the water.

If the missing boats are found in the possession of the crooks, they should be executed on the spot. Good luck

@DianeCetan said:
It won’t let me post the pic of the Fathom, says file is already in the discussion… :confused:

The stolen Fathom is blue, but not the darker blue of previous models. Eddyline recently lightened the shade and is sending the owner a sample of the plastic. Super of them to do that. I sure hope the owner carried insurance on that kayak and equipment.

The two kayaks were stolen at night, apparently picked from a number of boats during a paddling trip organized by a business that does multi-day adventures. That gives me second thoughts about leaving my kayak on the beach overnight during symposiums or other paddling events. But what could it be locked to on a beach?

@Rookie said:

@DianeCetan said:
It won’t let me post the pic of the Fathom, says file is already in the discussion… :confused:

The stolen Fathom is blue, but not the darker blue of previous models. Eddyline recently lightened the shade and is sending the owner a sample of the plastic. Super of them to do that. I sure hope the owner carried insurance on that kayak and equipment.

The two kayaks were stolen at night, apparently picked from a number of boats during a paddling trip organized by a business that does multi-day adventures. That gives me second thoughts about leaving my kayak on the beach overnight during symposiums or other paddling events. But what could it be locked to on a beach?

A couple of cinder blocks?

@Rookie said:

@DianeCetan said:
It won’t let me post the pic of the Fathom, says file is already in the discussion… :confused:

The stolen Fathom is blue, but not the darker blue of previous models. Eddyline recently lightened the shade and is sending the owner a sample of the plastic. Super of them to do that. I sure hope the owner carried insurance on that kayak and equipment.

The two kayaks were stolen at night, apparently picked from a number of boats during a paddling trip organized by a business that does multi-day adventures. That gives me second thoughts about leaving my kayak on the beach overnight during symposiums or other paddling events. But what could it be locked to on a beach?

I was thinking a long cable so three or more could be locked together, would only make it harder to snag them but still not impossible. Bummer as I’ve thought about their Suwannee trip and that was one of my worries.

Breaks my heart to see thieves take someone else’s belongings. We work hard for what we have and others think they have he right to liquidate our stuff. I’ll keep an eye on the ads to see if any of these kayaks surface.
I never let my boat out of my site. We had a thread here recently about keeping your kayak on your roof while staying in a hotel. Most said it was fine and I disagreed, for the reasons you all have listed above.

May justice be served.

The Suwannee has lots of trees to secure boats to.

@string said:
The Suwannee has lots of trees to secure boats to.

Thanks. Just wouldn’t know what was available where the stops were. But will see.

@Rookie
Re leaving your boat on the beach during a symposium or other event.
Jim and I never did so when we were at an event, and I don’t recall ever being at a symposium where that was a common habit. The boats went back onto the roof of a car at day’s end, either ours or someone else’s if were had combined boats to reduce parking issues at a launch area. The closest it came was one symposium where people could leave them on the lawn in the back yard of one of the organizers rather than haul them back to their rented space. Many years ago at the Castine Maritime Academy a few privately owned boats were left with the rentals for coaches to use, but that was only as needed. My recollection is that people were holding their breath for the brave soul who left his own boat for Wayne Horodowitch at Castine. He is a very big guy and had a reputation for using boats hard.

I have seen photos that have a lot of boats on the beach at some of the southern events, but that may not have been the case overnight. Personally, the most risk I would take would be to leave my boat on the beach long enough to grab a car pool ride back to my room and return to pick it up. I would not leave it overnight because it represents such an obvious target. Let them steal some outfitter’s rentals or demos instead.

A lot of it comes down to location. Here in the frozen north I have never bothered to lock my sea kayaks that are under the rear deck. But I live in a city and over the years Jim and I encountered enough of our neighbors to know that as much as they may admire the boats or the activity, most people are not remotely equipped to do anything with 17 feet of a kayak . One night we heard some of our shakier neighbors talking about the boats over a barbecue in the back yard. All of them agreed that they wouldn’t even think about getting into one of our sea kayaks because they “would die”. We liked that - scary boats are a good thing. I do lock the ultralight canoe when it is out - it weighs nothing and people aren’t so scared of canoes.

But for trips to Maine in paddling season, I am going to a area of obvious opportunity. So I travel with lasso locks, five straps per boat (two at each of the normal points even on the Hullivator side and one in the middle) and bow/stern line as needed. For the last, how many individual lines varies by length of drive since having a strap right in your face is more annoying over a 7 hour drive than one hour. I would do the same thing heading south. Not that a boat couldn’t be taken by someone with time and a decent wire cutter, but it’d take them so long they would likely look elsewhere. In a hotel, you could even find a motion-activated beeper of some kind to hide in the boat.

Locking a boat to a tree is only effective if there is a metal cleat on the boat to lock to, doesn’t take much to cut a perimeter line. If camping, probably best place would be right next to the tent.

I never left much stuff in the boat at symposiums because they were all at the ocean, and mold could start overnight if things were not aired out. Theft of the items never really entered the picture because of where I was paddling.

Hotels are a different risk, as above. Jim and I did that occasionally, but it was never a really commercial type place. More like cottage settings. In a Holiday Inn type place, I like the idea of putting a motion sensor in the boat that would scream, or just loading the cockpit with a bunch of loose cans that make noise.

And I live in Maine and nothing is locked up… Not for 28 years. With more city people coming that could change. That Rainbow Springs area is difficult to tote boats to and from the campground. The campground is half a mile from the launch and not accessible by vehicle. So someone probably struck from the water.

We’ve always had symposia where our canoes were safe… That is one of the criteria…safe storage and not having the symposia be a boat loading exercise’
But this was a commercial trip. Not a symposium. And I do think the organizers have some responsibility

More on above - to clarify, I do not lock my boat once I arrive in Maine. Just for the trip there and back, especially south with more tourists and transient folks. Once in Maine, it is a protected cove and midcoast is not a destination area compared to north or south. I would be more cautious for long time periods if I was talking about Kittery or Ogunquit.

I would be nervous with my boat half a mile away wherever I stayed though. Agree with above, that situation really puts it on the trip organizers to secure the boats.

Keep searching by using this website to see if the crook is trying to sell it. http://www.paddleswap.com/latest_external.html?ck_within=&ck_within=&lat=&lon=&withinzip=&keywords=Valley and this site to search craigs list http://www.searchtempest.com/

Maybe you will catch them that way Good Luck.

@Celia said:
@Rookie

Locking a boat to a tree is only effective if there is a metal cleat on the boat to lock to, doesn’t take much to cut a perimeter line. If camping, probably best place would be right next to the tent.

Unless you use a Lasso Lock rig on an appropriate size tree. (smallish)