Tom,

I think cchesler is on the point. Some time back the Mexican gov passed a law that the fishing pangas had to have a spare "get home" engine aboard. So... small outboards were in big demand. By the time we got there most of the fishermen had gotten there spares and the law was fading from memory so that also put less of demand on them. In most of the cases we know about, the dink was found floating some back water place with no motor on it.

That is NOT to say that dinks/motors are not still being stolen, they are. As a matter of fact the old harbor in Mazatlan is temporarily closed due to dink theft until the locals can figure out how to stop it.

I always told everyone that I did not worry as my PB was so ugly that no one would want it! AND, it's unique! So ANYONE with it would be recognizable instantly! Also, we use a 3.5 To-hot-to and that is NOT in a desirable size for thieves, way to small.

Now, JUST MY EXPERIENCE, I never heard of one dink taken from shore. EVERY one I know of as being stolen was from a boat at anchor. Sooooo we used the bridal (as shown in our Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IlrPW0pz0U&feature=share&list=UUyGH1-xOhCotpV_zhSzQq7g ) EVERY night at anchor. Also, we tend to like isolated anchorage, so when using our dink to go ashore, we were often in very remote places and did not often see any one else around for miles.

The other thing I have to say, from our point of view, we always felt safer in Mexico than we did in the US! There are bad people everywhere, but it just seemed to be less of them down around the Sea. It's a frontier, and people are for more into helping each other than is steeling.

When we departed the US I bought a heavy duty covered chain lock to use on our PB. I dropped it in the spares locker and decided that if I felt like I needed to use it, I would dig it out. Want to purchase a "never used" heavy duty lock?

If you still feel that you must lock up the dink, just decide on the lock you need and drill a hole in the dink stern for the lock. It's easy to mod the PB. We did a number of them over the years with no ill effect.

Good luck and have a GREAT TIME in the Sea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We sure did and LOVED it!