piracy and the small yacht

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ghost

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is this a very real threat to small yachts sailing through suez bound for oz?
Would the threat put you off such an adventure?
Anyone with any experience of being approached while sailing, not merchantmen but sailing, out there willing to share their ordeal?
 
There was a story in one of the Yotting magazines recently regarding a couple of US yachts being chased by Kalashnikov wielding speedboaters off Yemen. One of the crew pulled out his 12 bore and blew away one of the pirates and they ran away. Probably more to do with the fact they were presumably flying the Stars & Stripes than any real attempt at piracy. Unfortunately you will find it difficult to get a shotgun certificate as a UK citizen unless you have a permanent UK address and a lockable steel box bolted to a brick wall to keep it in. You will also have to convince the police that you really need a shotgun for self defence, it may be easier to join a clay pigeon club and pretend its for that.
 
There are regular reports on www.noonsite.com

The hot spots for attacks on yachts are Yemen/Socotra (i.e. Red Sea entrance), Indonesia and N coast of S America.

Try a search on 'Bambola' on scuttlebutt - he was attacked a while back.

If you choose to carry arms you must be prepared to shoot first and take the consequences if they turn out to be innocent.
 
Last year tied up next to a yachtsman from Florida. He had constructed a 'Potato Cannon' out of pipe and hooked it up to a gas cylinder (don't understand the technical details). He used it for the Caribean and Gulf. He felt the biggest problem (I don't know how big) was drug runners taking over a yacht and setting it on its way under GPS autopilot to a prearranged rendevous where it would be met by accomplices- thereby reducing the possibility of arrest- The owners of the yacht were presumably despatched. He said he had used his cannon once when approached by guys in a speedboat who turned away. Presumably they went to look for easier prey.
 
As I said, if you have a gun you have to be prepared to shoot first and shoot to kill. Not many of us could do that and any half-hearted attempt could just escalate the situation. The guys coming after you have no morals and few scruples which puts you at a big disadvantage.

The original report may be a myth anyway.
 
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12 bore versus Kalashnikov? Seems a bit unequal!

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Not at all. I would much prefer to be shot with a 7.62 than a 12 bore.
Once outside the ridiculous UK regs you can buy a nice little plastic flare pistol which would seriously spoil your day if you copped a white one in the laughing gear (or other parts for that matter).
In France (sensible country, hates Blush + Blur) you can buy CS sprays for the animal rights sympathisers among you or a nifty 'derringer' pistol that fires 12 bore rubber bullets.
I like the idea of a potato cannon (a gas gun, uses propane/butane/air to produce an explosion which can lob big heavy projectiles some distance). Could be used (with a little ingenuity) to fire some nasty stuff. Greek Fire springs to mind........
 
well Michael,
You were very unfortunate and I sympathise, for you and the other boats.
I think you handled the situation well, far better than I would have, I would have have stabbed the first guy in the eye and took it from there ? Probably end up fish food eh.
I have listened to guys in port who claimed all sorts, from secret compartments for assault rifles and yes the trusty ol very light. I gave a demo with one on a pig carcass wrapped loosely in a blanket........impressive depth of damage by the way, kids, dont piss about with these.
What I find disturbing also that there's no safety in numbers and you posed the question - what would the other boats do when the slow boat got caught ? In civilian life I have come to trust / rely on no-one, so I dread to to imagine....
The precious cargo and your'e asumption tallies with reports of the slave trade, gut wrenching stuff. Opportunistic not pre meditated seems more likely judging by the reports of attacks on yachts, unlike the organised sorties on the tankers.
So, apart from chancing it in the dark, what's a viable solution.
What, when you start in convoy, then part company due to itinery or destination and find yourself alone, island hopping south toward's Indonesia.
Would the possibility deter you in an attempt to follow your'e dream?
 
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I would much prefer to be shot with a 7.62 than a 12 bore.


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I find this statement bizarre.

I have no wish to be shot, but at any sort of range after point blank or very close, I wonder if I would rather be shot with a shot gun than a 7.62?

The problem is that people see Hollywood films where people keep running after receiving flesh wounds and think that's what real; life is like.

It used to be that a round going through your arm or leg and not hitting the bone would be just a flesh wound so long as it didn't hit a major blood organ or the bone. Unfortunately, high velocity rounds when they enter you cause a shock wave that often fractures bone into many many bits WHETHER IT HITS THE BONE OR NOT.

I'll leave you to decide what they do when they hit your torso...

Are you still sure you would prefer to be hit with a 7.62?

I will make no comment about people, boats, arms and piracy. I just don't like to see posts that seem unconnected with the reality of modern weapons.
 
There is no reason not to follow your dream... ever.. but there are streets in NY and London I would not walk down alone at night. There are parts of the world that present a real and present danger - Do not go to Somalia, Haiti, Several West African countries - but The Red Sea (except Saudi where you are not welcome) is wonderful - Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Borneo etc all good to visit - alone -

So it becomes a matter of which route - whats wrong with the horn of Africa? Several wonderful places in the Indian Ocean then Thailand or Indonesia or India or... Just behave like any traveler - with a bit of common sense - be street wise - and do not think you can be macho against people who are life long experts in carrying arms and have nothing to loose.
 
If that were the case the armies of the world would have equipped themselves with shotguns.
Shotguns,CS,very flares,may put off the casual caller, but If I were an armed pirate,and came up against any of those weapons I would stand off 75 metres and spray you down with high velocity rounds,this usually has a calming effect on the opposition!
I would go down the don't go there in the first place route.
 
lets get deeper.......
If the round goes through the soft stuff. you are left with a small entry and a large exit hole. the insides between the holes are mush. Torso, face, thigh...you aint got long.
The shockwave around the round creates a huge void 'abeam and aft'. The vortex does most of the damage, the suction it creates in chasing the warhead is phenomenal, turning your well defined tissue into mush as your mush tries to exit behind the route of the warhead. the round is still travelling at plenty velocity after 1000 yds
A shotgun at 12' would be rough surgery, at 50' would spoil your day, at 100' would leave you with extruding metal pellets hanging around the dermis and edging into the body fat ( depends on what you're wearing ), above this, with sunglasses on it would just be paintball.
 
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12 bore versus Kalashnikov? Seems a bit unequal!

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Not if it's a pump action or auto load 12 bore with rifled slugs instead of shot, I saw a chimney stack demolished with one shot from one and they will stop a Rhino of hefalump dead in its tracks.

David
 
ok - so the original post was excluding ships ....... and I can see the point as ships are very different to yots ...... ships are worth many millions, carry many millions worth of cargo, they and their crews are ransommable .... yots are chicken feed in comparison.
unless the pirates are bored, pissedup, druggedup pirates with nothing else to do, or are on really lean times due to ships becomming more dangerous targets, yotties should offer meager pickings - hopefully ppl on yots dont travel with their life savings, so all they should have to offer is a cuplla hundred euros (bucks are crap nowadays), a watch and a gps ........
ok there is rape but thats another issue.
I am not sure if records of attacks on yots are kept - if not why not, there is an international co-ordinaion group collating and evaluating risk for ships, yots should figure innit.
and as for guns, most merch ships are unarmed, some carry armed and licensed guards in risky areas and many are being fitted evan now with hidden alarm systems to alert the authorities if there was an attack.
 
Perhaps I have the advantage having been shot several times.
A NATO 7.62 makes a fairly clean entry and exit wound. The Russian bullet is designed to tumble once it hits resistance so can make an unpleasant exit wound.
A 12 bore Brenneke (rifled slug) round will remove most of your chest or abdomen (or all of your head if the shootist is feeling lucky)
A 7.62 (or .303 or .45ACP or 9mm) hurts like hell when it hits you but no worse than being stung by a hornet. You can still get up (unless it went through your head) and suggest to your adversary that he goes hence and makes fruitful.
For those of you who don't understand the 12 bore is banned from use in war by the Geneva Convention.
The last time it was used was in 1915 as a trench clearing weapon.
By the Brits.
Anyone captured by the Germans with one of the little gadgets was given his testicles to eat before being soaked in petrol and burned alive.
 
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