An Attempt to board a Yacht off Portugal

[sailaboutvic]

Deutsche Segler von Piraten attackiert

 

[Deleted member 36384]

English

The attack took place last week on the edge of the Gulf of Cádiz off the southwest coast of Spain. Peter Fricke and his wife started in the morning with a catamaran of the type Lagoon 42 "Marianne" from an anchorage near the Portuguese port city of Faro and set course for the Strait of Gibraltar; the two are currently on a transfer voyage from France to Croatia.

Already in the early morning the skipper noticed a highly motorized rib that had driven through the anchor field. Apparently to spy on a later victim, as Fricke now suspects. When he and his wife lifted the anchor shortly afterwards to continue their voyage towards the Mediterranean, after a while they noticed two ribs that had followed them.

When the two of them left the coastal area with the “Marianne” around noon to instead sail across the Gulf of Cádiz, one of the two ribs quickly came up from the aft, reports Peter Fricke to the YACHT editorial team. And further: “After a while we could see that the men in the rib were wearing balaclavas. When they continued to approach us with undiminished speed, it was clear that they wanted to attack us. "

Fortunately for the German sailors, at the time of the attack, they were motoring under a machine against the wind and a wave about two meters high. “This went hand in hand with the corresponding movements of the ship, which made it difficult for the pirates to catch up to one of our stern in order to be able to climb over,” says Fricke. However, several times he still had to squeeze the rib with the boat hook.

Meanwhile, his wife made an emergency call via VHF, which was immediately forwarded to the Spanish coast guard by a nearby tanker. They sent a coast guard helicopter. "He was there ten minutes later and immediately went down on the attackers," reports Fricke. They then fled to the African coast.

“We can only be glad that the pirates didn't have any weapons with them, at least we didn't see any. Otherwise the story could have turned out very differently, ”says Fricke, relieved in retrospect. He is full of praise for the efforts of the Spanish coast guard, which reacted so promptly. As for the captains of two tankers who would have offered their help. "If necessary, they wanted to slide between us and the attackers," says Fricke. But that was no longer necessary.

Spanish Coast Guard takes incident very seriously

In Cádiz, where the German sailors gave their testimony to the Spanish police, they later had the feeling that the authorities were taking the incident very seriously. In addition to gangs of smugglers trying to bring migrants from Africa to the southern coast of Spain, the sea area is also a hotspot for international drug smuggling. The officials probably assumed that the men who attacked the "Marianne" could be assigned to this criminal milieu.

Peter Fricke later heard from fellow sailors that they had already noticed the ribs "patrolling" in the anchor fields and equipped with powerful outboards in the same place between the Faro and Olhão islands in the previous year. Fricke advises other sailors not to stray too far from the Portuguese and Spanish coasts in the sea area and, in particular, not to shorten the route by sailing across the Gulf of Cádiz like him and his wife.

Lioba and Peter Fricke have meanwhile crossed the Strait of Gibraltar unscathed and are currently continuing their way to Croatia.

 

[cherod]

English

worrying,, carry a spear gun.

 

[sailaboutvic]

English

Just goes to show no where is safe any more from these gangs .
If we carried flares which we don't any more , I would at fire one in the rib , the problem would had been if they had guns .

 

[RichardS]

I would have thought that provided the pirates continue to use ribs, a powerful air rifle with would suffice. My Son's will shoot clean through 10mm wood and would be legal on a boat, I assume. I don't think that PVC/Hypalon would pose a problem?

Richard

 

[Mei Mac]

English

When you said 'English' was that a direct order or a polite request? It could easily be taken either way.

 

[capnsensible]

Brave words, forum Rambos. What is likely in reality, is that lacking the ruthlessness of an active criminal, you will still get robbed but also receive a right good shoeing....

 

[johnalison]

When you said 'English' was that a direct order or a polite request? It could easily be taken either way.

I read it as a statement of fact, without any nuances.

 

[Graham376]

Very strange story. Plenty of ribs run through the anchorages day and night, including police sometimes with their high powered black one running without lights and everyone aboard well armed, in dry suits and wearing balaclavas. It's a drug smuggling area and recently illegal immigrants.

With the number of boats around the Bay of Cadiz, it seems very strange that anyone would look for targets in the Ria Formosa and then wait until they're west of Cadiz before attempting to board. I find it hard to believe the ribs they saw here were the same ones they had problems with later.

 

[[3889]]

We've been on board in various anchorages in Rio Formosa for the last 2 weeks and haven't seen anything suspicious. Plenty of ribs but certainly not crewed by pirates.

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

Brave words, forum Rambos. What is likely in reality, is that lacking the ruthlessness of an active criminal, you will still get robbed but also receive a right good shoeing....

Yes, Sir Peter Blake had a rifle.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

When you said 'English' was that a direct order or a polite request? It could easily be taken either way.

If you read from the top of the thread and clicked on the link you would see that it is in German. I provided an English translation, using Google Translate, so that other forumites could read the article in English. I think it is pretty obvious to anyone who is reading the thread what I was meaning. It is a shame that you feel the need to imply some negativity about my intentions, instead of thinking, that my post was useful or helpful. Quite often forumites post foreign language links which many people are comfortable with. As I found the subject matter interesting and personally know someone sailing towards that area, I made the effort to post the translation I was using from Google in this thread.

 

[RichardS]

Brave words, forum Rambos. What is likely in reality, is that lacking the ruthlessness of an active criminal, you will still get robbed but also receive a right good shoeing....

I would hardy say that popping an air rifle pellet into a rib float counts as Rambo action.

The skipper in the video was apparently fending the rib off the stern with a boat hook. If one had an air rifle on board, why would "popping a cap" into the rib need any more ruthlessness than poking it with the boat hook?

Richard

 

[cherod]

I would hardy say that popping an air rifle pellet into a rib float counts as Rambo action.

The skipper in the video was apparently fending the rib off the stern with a boat hook. If one had an air rifle on board, why would "popping a cap" into the rib need any more ruthlessness than poking it with the boat hook?

Richard

not " ruthless " enough i would say and perfectly understandable ,, i know the accepted procedure is not to introduce fire arms into a situation but from this one an air gun ( if legal ) or a spear gun seems perfectly applicable

 

[Graham376]

I would hardy say that popping an air rifle pellet into a rib float counts as Rambo action.

The skipper in the video was apparently fending the rib off the stern with a boat hook. If one had an air rifle on board, why would "popping a cap" into the rib need any more ruthlessness than poking it with the boat hook?

Richard

Parachute flare into their spare petrol cans would give the message Joking apart, no-one of knows what we would do unless it happens to us.

 

[Kelpie]

Worrying. I wonder if they just hoped to make off with cash, laptops etc, or whether they had bigger plans.

I'd be tempted to trail long floating warps over the stern, to try and entangle the props on the following boat.

 

[cherod]

Worrying. I wonder if they just hoped to make off with cash, laptops etc, or whether they had bigger plans.

I'd be tempted to trail long floating warps over the stern, to try and entangle the props on the following boat.

i have often thot that

 

[Sea-Fever]

i have often thot that

They're in a rib, they'll just come beam on.

Bread Knife gaffa taped on to the deck brush handle will suffice.....

Fix bayonets!

As for Rambo, not even he would get as riled as a man protecting his boat/children/wife (in order of decreasing importance).

 

[Kelpie]

They're in a rib, they'll just come beam on.

Hmmm, yes. Maybe a last second turn to force them to cross your wake.
Got to be worth a try though. And a 220m coil of polyprop is very cheap. In my experience (ahem!) even a 10mm rope can stop a 60hp outboard. Might need to go up a size or two if faced with something bigger.
I do quite like the idea of hooking their prop, and then dragging them backwards by the engine. Would make it extremely uncomfortable aboard the RIB, even at a relatively low speed. And if you think they're a bit too close for comfort, just add another length of warp and keep towing until the authorities turn up.

 

[Wansworth]

Self defense unless you have had some training or have been in the armed services means you don’t full have the killer instinct to follow through