A NORTH Suffolk businessman has told how he may stop running popular sea and river boat trips after thieves stole two powerful engines worth thousands of pounds.

A NORTH Suffolk businessman has told how he may stop running popular sea and river boat trips after thieves stole two powerful engines worth thousands of pounds.

The thieves stole the two 2500cc V6 engines from the Coastal Voyager, which was based in Southwold Harbour, at some point between 5pm on Monday and 8am yesterday (Tuesday) morning.

It is believed that the 26ft-long inflatable boat was taken to Reydon before the thieves took the Mercury Optimax 200 outboard engines from the vessel. If bought new, the two engines would be worth more than �30,000.

The boat is owned by lifeboatman Marcus Gladwell and is used to take people on trips, including a cruise on the River Blyth and a high speed trip out to sea off Southwold.

Last night, Mr Gladwell said he was thinking about stopping the business.

'At the moment, I am not sure whether I will continue with the business,' he said.

'You have to put so much effort into it and then you get a blow like this.

'You just think there are so many other things that are making the job harder maybe you should go to do something else. People like that have no idea how hard you have to work to make something like that exist as a business. To do something mindless like that you think it is just not worth it with the effort that you have to go through.'

If anyone has any information, contact Sgt Nigel Thompsett at Suffolk police on 01473 613500.