River Yealm Boatwatch has made arrangements for all mooring holders and boat owners to securely mark their high value items of equipment. A kit can be purchased – for £15 – which enables the owner to secure up to 50 items of property in seconds (not just marine equipment) by simply brushing with a solution of non-toxic liquid containing a unique DNA code. The solution can only be seen under UV light. The unique code, and details of each item of marked equipment are recorded in a secure database dedicated to River Yealm Boatwatch.  In addition, tamper resistant warning stickers are supplied, instantly making all marked property too-hot-to-handle by would-be thieves. The secure marking procedure, and the secure database gives the Police – who carry UV torches - the ability to positively identify a recovered item and contact both the Harbour-Master and the registered owner of the recovered item.


Secure marking does not guarantee that a high value item will not be stolen, or that if stolen it will be recovered. However there is strong evidence that the combination of secure marking and the addition of tamper resistant warning stickers act as very effective deterrents.

Listed below are contact details of Boatwatch Officers who can supply kits of secure marking equipment and tamper resistant warning stickers. They will be happy to advise on how to mark high value items, register them in the dedicated secure database, and up-date the database with new entries or remove items that are sold.



Secure marking kits can be obtained from

Alan Winton   alanwinton@gmail.com     01752 872167

Harbourmaster   office@yealmharbourauthority.co.uk  01752 872533



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