Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Prevent Fuel Theft with this Simple Device


I have posted this before. Simple items can help us protect ourselves and our vessels.

From Marine Guard

Prevent Fuel Theft with this Simple Device
This product wins my beauty in simplicity award. With fuel prices soaring to highs never before experienced by most of us, crimes of fuel theft are on the rise. Our boats and RV’s are often easy targets for this type of crime. My own vessel carries 600 gallons of diesel which would be a substantial loss of money if I was to be siphoned by a quiet theft in the night.

In researching products to prevent this, my mind was on electronic devices that could be attached to vessel security systems. I laughed out loud when I found such a simple solution that could be easily used by anyone with a boat, RV, car or any other fuel holding vehicle. (Product is under $37.00 US)

Here is the information about the product on the Ahoy Captain website: www.ahoycaptain.com Ahoy captain is an online retail seller of this product.

Vetus Fuel Safe Anti Siphon "Spider"

Protect your fuel supply and gain peace of mind.
It is a sad fact of life that fuel prices have risen to such a level that siphoning the fuel from your boat is now an attractive proposition for thieves. With many boats holding hundreds of gallons of fuel, this is a lucrative activity.

In its range of practical accessories, VETUS has introduced a simple device to prevent a siphon hose being inserted into the deck filler and down into the tank

The VETUS "Fuel Safe" is supplied in a plastic tube, which is used to insert it quickly and easily into the fuel filler hose. There is no requirement to dismantle anything and the ingenious design ensures that it cannot subsequently be removed.

This synthetic device is suitable for both diesel and gasoline and it fits filling hoses of both 38 mm (1 ½") and 51 mm (2") internal diameter. There is no noticeable reduction in fuel flow when filling the tank.

Think about the value of the fuel in your tank or the inconvenience and danger of running out unexpectedly?

Features

* Simple installation
* No dismantling required
* Suitable for hoses with I.D. of 1-1/2'' (38mm) and 2'' (51mm).
* Made of diesel & gasoline resistant synthetic
* Dimensions: 2-3/16''x2-13/16''

www.MarineGuardSecurity.com

When you visit, drop them a line and let them know you found them through the site here. Thanks.

8 Hours From Theft to Recovery



From Marine Guard

Nav-Tracker Tracks Stolen Boat In The Bahamas
HydraSport Recovered 8 Hours Later
FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA (USA) - A 33-foot HydraSport equipped with the Nav-Tracker 1.0 wireless boat location and GPS tracking system from Paradox Marine, stolen from Treasure Cay in the Bahamas in the early morning hours last Wednesday (July 14), was located by the system and recovered in Bimini by authorities about eight hours later.
“There is no question that without Nav-Tracker, my boat would have never been found,” said Jose Mas, the owner. “I had just installed the system two weeks before and I was amazed at being able to track the boat and follow the thieves. In addition to the technology, the customer service provided by Paradox Marine in tracking my boat real time from theft to recovery was amazing. Everyone at Treasure Cay in the Bahamas was talking about an owner tracking the boat as it was stolen. Hopefully, more boat owners will install the Nav-Tracker to help deter boat thieves,” he added.
Paradox Marine’s Nav-Tracker 2.0 with an infrared beam sensor and a siren was responsible for protecting a second boat the same night - some 15 miles away from Treasure Cay, in the Marsh Harbor area. The owner received an ‘in alarm’ message from their boat as the thieves were trying to steal it. After the siren went off, the would-be thieves took off.
Last year, Paradox Marine received a service medal from the U.S. Coast Guard in recognition of the role Nav-Tracker 2.0 played in the recovery of a Contender stolen in the Bahamas in September, 2008. As many as 27,000 boats are stolen annually and the odds of recovery are only about 1 in 10, according to the International Association of Marine Investigators.
Nav-Tracker 2.0
When a Nav-Tracker 2.0 transmitter is mounted discreetly on a boat and armed, a wireless ‘fence’ with a 500-meter range can be created. If a boat is moved outside of this fence, Nav-Tracker 2.0 uses Inmarsat based GPS satellite technology to monitor a boat’s location and notify up to four people by email and/or text message every 15 minutes with the latitude/longitude, speed, heading and distance to closest city.
The message transmitted from Nav-Tracker on board the HydraSport when it was stolen would have been similar to this:

Message From Nav-Tracker
User: Paradox Marine
Asset: M/Y Island Time
Fleet: ETI
Date/Time: 2006-07-25 15:06:28 (EDT)
Event: Geo-fence breached;
Location: 26.05767,-80.1303.3 (0.75 mi NE of Hollywood, FL 33019)
Speed/heading: 9.2 Knots, 144 deg
Google Earth Map: [KML]

Some insurance companies now offer premium discounts or require GPS tracking devices to be installed on certain types of boats, including high performance boats and boats with triple high-horsepower outboards.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Mindset post from Surviving in Argentina Blog

The Survival Mindset
from Surviving in Argentina by FerFAL

The Survival Mindset

Ask anyone that is into survival and disaster preparedness what’s the single most important thing and if he knows just the slightest bit about it the answer you will get is mindset. Some will say it as if revealing a treasured secret, some will blurb it out without even processing it in their minds, probably saying it a couple times a week for the last few years.
Now, it is correct, the right mindset is where it all begins and it is indeed the most important part, yet so little is said about it. I’ll be the first one to raise the hand and accept I’m guilty as well. Most often I will talk in my blog about different gear I found or am currently testing or using. Its so much easier to talk about gear, tools, guns. Its not only fun, its interesting for the reader and not as much work for the writer. Tangible objects are obvious, determined, of this or that length, weight and use, while a philosophical concept is hard to define, its like trying too catch mist with a net.
Another common situation is that, right after claiming that mindset is the most important part, people will confidently admit that they themselves have such survival mindset. Yet this is like saying you’re Christian: The Catholic, the Protestant and the self claimed prophet nutcase that serves coolaid with rat poison, they all claim to be Christian yet they couldn’t be more different.

What does it mean to have a survival mindset?

Few things are as hard to define as survival mindset. I mean, I’ve been into survival and preparedness for a long time, thinking and writing about it for years and yet I have a hard time doing it and find it impossible to come up with a clean, short answer.
In my opinion , survival mindset includes but isn’t limited to:

Conviction. You are convinced of the wisdom in preparing and assimilate it as another part of your life.

Determination. To carry it through on the long run. The survival mindset is only legit if its something you’ve acquired and stays with you permanently once you’ve got it. Even if your dedication to preparedness is sometimes interrupted because of a tighter budget or particularly demanding times where your attention is mostly focused elsewhere, real survival mindset can never be uninstalled from your mind.

Humor. Without it you are doomed no matter what. In some cases you see people that lack it completely and just makes their lives miserable, in others you can even see its killing them, and anguish and negative thoughts will kill you if you can’t control them. During extraordinary stressful times its of great importance to have good humor, and its no coincidence that I’m placing humor near the top of the list.

Setting rational priorities. This is a common fail in many people who consider themselves to be survivalists and its an often discussed topic in my blog, the lack of common sense, real world approach to survival. Do you really focus on getting more guns instead of losing some of the weight that is killing you? Their failed logic goes, why worry about losing the extra 100 pounds worth of fat in your body when you can still shoot looters even if you’re fat. It never occur to them that they are a thousand times more likely to die of cardiac failure in their current state than anything else, and I’ve seen people actually get offended when a diet is respectfully suggested. The same applies to having tons of guns and no food. Tons of food and no water (but lots of empty containers with a post-it note that reads “fill me up when SHTF”). Ten thousand dollars worth of machinery but not a single dollar saved.

Self Discipline. To actually carry out through your actions what you claim and know to be important. To follow the path you set and not only do the things that are easy, but also have the will power to do the things that may be more unpleasant for you such as going into diet if you have to, working out, learning skills that you may not enjoy studying but you rationally recognize as important. This also includes financial sacrifices in some cases, saving money you would have otherwise spent in things you just don’t need, even ones that at some level you try to convince yourself as “must haves” for survival.

Differentiating fantasy from reality. This will usually end up with people preparing for the infamous “end of the world”, mistakenly thinking that if you’re ready for the worst case scenario, you’re ready for everything in between. Wrong. These people will have tons of supplies but wont have a sensible plan for when they retire, because everyone knows that money will be worth nothing… when the world ends.

Thirst for knowledge. Survival mindset also means you recognize the possibility of sometimes not having people there to help you, so its understandable that you’d like to accumulate as much skills and knowledge as you can. Time is limited and so are resources, you can’t know it all, but someone that has a survival mindset is ever curious and never wastes an opportunity to learn something new.

Awareness. Of your surroundings. Awareness implies conscious recognition of your immediate environment and the capability to detect potential threats within it as well as tactical advantages and disadvantages. This is again, a part of the survival mindset a lot of people claim to have but in reality they don’t. And I’m not using the term “tactical” loosely either, but referring to it as abstract analysis such as acknowledging the emergency exit sign in the restaurant where you’re having dinner, knowing your shoe soles are certified to provide electric shock resistance, or recognizing a pen or letter opened as a potential weapon when walking into an office. These are bits of knowledge you keep stored in your head and may give you an edge on different emergency situations. This is very different from the more “tacticool” concept of militarizing trinkets and other paraphernalia for no other reason than aesthetic appeal.

Having a plan. You’ve talked with your family regarding what you’d be doing during an emergency in case you get scattered. You all know where you’d get together and where you would go if that location is not an option. When defending yourself, you have a strategy to follow, when hitting you already have a simple yet effective combination of strikes you’ve practiced as default.

Redundancy and backups. Both in essential gear and planning. This will mean having several backups for things such as self defense, heat and cooking, several months worth of food, enough water to get by if the grid goes down. In planning it will mean having plan A, B and probably C as well. It basically means you’re already assuming the likelihood of failing and getting prepared for an alternative.

All constructive comments and suggestions are more than welcomed.

FerFAL

Thought this was a great article, thought provoking and in keeping with the spirit of this blog, preparedness and not obsessing over equipment.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Modern Civilian Self Protection

One of the issues I like to address is the aspect of a 'holistic' method of self protection. Not just firearms, not just empty hand skills. An eclectic approach and a scientific one, also - use the tools available, research them, if something does not work, determine why and move ahead.

"Self Protection' is never a static,

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Serious Attack and Robbery in St .Martin

More from Noonsite -

Seems there has been a rash of incidents lately. Please do your research prior to traveling, and use a lot of common sense while traveling.

We will attempt to bring you the latest news as often as we can.

Serious Attack and Robbery in St .Martin

From the folks at Noonsite

There has been a spate of incidents lately. Please take all sensible precautions.



Nav-Tracker GPS Tracking System To Track Progress of New York-to-Bermuda World Record Attempt, July 15-16

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA (USA) - Big Dog, A Contender 37 equipped with a Nav-Tracker GPS Tracking System from leading boat security systems supplier Paradox Marine, will shove off from the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on Thursday, July 15, in an attempt to set a new world record for the 673-nautical mile voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to Bermuda.

Big Dog Bermuda Challenge and Nav-Tracker

The current world record of 22 hours, 23 minutes was set in July 2002 by a Renaissance Prowler 306 catamaran, shattering the previous record by over seven hours. Big Dog will be captained by Chuck Arnold, northeast regional sales manager for Contender Boats. His crew will include Eddie Winder, President of Win-Tron Electronics, a leading distributor of marine electronics and accessories and Les Steward, Contender Northeast VP of Marketing. For more information about the Bermuda Challenge, visit www.bermudachallenge.com.

Nav-Tracker will report the position of Big Dog every ten minutes via Google Maps at www.bermudachallenge.com/map.html.

The Nav-Tracker GPS Tracking System keeps owners or captains informed of a boat’s location through a GPS tracking service using the Inmarsat satellite network. The system sets a 500 Meter geo-fence (radius) around the vessel when armed. In the event of geo-fence breach or if any of the optional sensors go into alarm mode, the system will send emails or text messages with latitude, longitude, speed and heading. It will continue to send messages until the vessel returns to the geo-fence area, or the system is disarmed. Optional sensors include door contacts, infrared beam sensors, deck pressure sensors, engine removal sensors and high water sensors. There is also an optional 130 decibel siren that can be added for extra protection.

For more information about Nav-Tracker and other Paradox Marine boat security, monitoring and tracking and surveillance products, visit www.paradoxmarine.com or call 1+954.565.9898.
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Paradox Marine - 1200 NE 7th Avenue - Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33304

I am also a dealer of their products in the Tampa Bay area. Drop me a line if interested.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Noonsite and IAMI sites


Noonsite continues to provide a wealth of information regarding current attacks against cruisers, as well as a lot of other great information.


The International Association of Marine Investigators is another great resource, specifically into stolen vessels. It appears there is currently another surge in boat thefts occurring, many taken from marinas and trailers.