Wanted: Strong Floating Keychain

[boathealer]

Originally Posted by aboatman

Consider this - You're cruising a hundred miles or more from home. You lock the boat with the keys in it or you lose the keys. What now?

Consider hiding a set of boat keys on the boat somewhere. Use your imagination, I'm not going to tell you where mine are hidden.

Another advantage to this is, if you hire a contractor to work on your boat, you don't have to meet him at the boat, just tell him where they keys are.

I do this, but I put it in one of those realtor mechanical pushbutton combination lock cases. That way, even if someone finds my secret location, there's one more level of effort needed.

[HopCar]

This should do the trick.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...121X/205172508

We once ended up with about a hundred of these in our store. My Dad put a screw eye in the end, attached a length of bead chain and sold them as key floats. Ran out of them in about a month.

[Gumbalaya]

Originally Posted by aboatman

Consider this - You're cruising a hundred miles or more from home. You lock the boat with the keys in it or you lose the keys. What now?

Consider hiding a set of boat keys on the boat somewhere. Use your imagination, I'm not going to tell you where mine are hidden.

Another advantage to this is, if you hire a contractor to work on your boat, you don't have to meet him at the boat, just tell him where they keys are.

Yeah, I got that already, also on the camper van (after one of the electric keys gave out abroad). But: when I'd drop the keys in the water I'd still like to retrieve them as the security keys cost 800 bucks a piece (entire lock to be changed), times 4.

[BDofMSP]

Originally Posted by aboatman

Consider this - You're cruising a hundred miles or more from home. You lock the boat with the keys in it or you lose the keys. What now?

We once drove from Minneapolis to our boat which was transient slipped in Fish Creek WI - 350 miles each way - only to discover that we had forgotten the keys. We borrowed a drill and drilled out the cabin lock and we hotwired the boat for the weekend. We now have spare keys in both vehicles and a locking key holder with extras in a boat locker.

[Gumbalaya]

Originally Posted by BDofMSP

We once drove from Minneapolis to our boat which was transient slipped in Fish Creek WI - 350 miles each way - only to discover that we had forgotten the keys. We borrowed a drill and drilled out the cabin lock and we hotwired the boat for the weekend. We now have spare keys in both vehicles and a locking key holder with extras in a boat locker.

Yikes!

[Pieyed47]

What you really need to do is simplify your life and throw away the keys.

[diver dave]

Originally Posted by Pieyed47

What you really need to do is simplify your life and throw away the keys.

Agree. A lot of aircraft have no keys.
Houses have (10 second) doors. What does your boat have
Breakin damage to the door may exceed the value of what was stolen.
There are better ways to disable engines than with keys.

[FlyWright]

I only carry the marina digital scan key and my boat door key. Start keys remain aboard and a spare door key is hidden but accessible to anyone in the know.

Keeping it light allows me to use the Davis key float. It saved my bacon one night when I slipped on the steep dock ramp in a rainstorm. Went to the boat and grabbed the boat pole while the Admiral kept an eye on the MOB key buoy. Retrieval was easy and safe.

[aboatman]

Originally Posted by diver dave

................ There are better ways to disable engines than with keys.

My boat's engine doesn't need a key to run but it needs one to start. More importantly, it needs one to stop.

I think locking the cabin will cause most potential thieves to just move to an easier boat. Locking the door also gives us a sense of security when we're sleeping on it.