There is somebody in the boat now.
Pick who before you sail: Kroket, blond and in a pastel jacket, or Tubbe, who owns a better suit than the boat deserves. They stand at the helm (or sit, in the boats that have a seat) and if you steal a hull out from under someone, your character walks across to it.
The bigger news is that you can get out. With a bank within reach, Space arcs you off the boat and onto the land. WASD walks, Shift runs, and the water's edge is a wall: a boat is the only way off an island. Yours stays moored where you left it, and nobody can take it while you are standing next to it.
The police cannot follow you ashore. Your stars still cool down while you are up there, faster than they would in open water, so land is somewhere to hide, not somewhere to win from. Your boat is sitting in plain sight, and they can wait.
You will also hear them coming. Sirens now belong to the boat making them: faint across the plas, loud on your transom, and silent when nobody is after you. The waterboswachter has her own, lower and slower than the police, so you can tell which of them found you before either one is in sight.
MeerBeter Vinkeveen Vice. Nine kilometres an hour, strictly enforced. Play in your browser: meerbeter.com