Dealing with pirates

[D'ARTOIS]

The horn of Africa is since the Queen of Sheba - together with Nigeria as a beautiful 2nd - the worst hellhole in Africa.
They managed even to drive the US Troops out of the country, so you may conclude that there is no way to outgun them.

Specificly in Muslim controlled countries you will find this new activity rapidly coming up; followed by the drug-exporting countries.

I wonder if the particular governments are not involved. A yacht is an easy prey and in this respect somebdy told me about the grasshoppers in the Caribean.
What are "grasshoppers"?
According to my spokesman, a "grasshopper" is a drugrunner that is on the outlook for a yacht and when they have found something of their liking, they board, dump the crew and take the hijacked yacht to their country for loading it wit their cursed merchandise.
Somewhere I am tended to believe that in particular in the Caribean the number of yachts that dissappear, or people, is much higher than what happens to be presented in the statistics.

If I see the enormous volume of drugs that needs to be brought into the US and Europe, the Caribean area must be a terrible boiling pot of criminality.
There is not a single island where the local people are not involved in drugrunning, again according to my spokesman, a police officer specialised in organised crime.

A friend of mine recently visited Fortaleza in Brazil. I asked him if he had been sailing. No, he had not seen a yacht at all. Well, the previous posts have answered that.

There is a Muslim organised uprising in France at this moment. More than 5000 cars have been incenerated but the politicians don't dare to act, afraid they are of lifting the lid of the box of Pandora.

Slowly we are sinking back to medieval circumstances. Unfortunately we have no Adriaen de Ruyter from who the pirates were scared to death, because that's what their end becam........

[dannyb]

The magazine called Latitudes & Attitudes has a regular section on the latest pirate encounters. In there recently was an account of a firefight in which the cruising sailor seemed to come off best.

In my opinion, the best defense is speed. Perhaps not practical on a deep-keeled monohull sailing boat, but on a sailing cat this is a real option. I'd be inclined to overpower with a couple of four-stroke outboards. In many cases, it seems that the pirate vessel/s followed and caught up slowly, then made a last-minute dash for the victim. Being able to keep a decent distance sounds like the best tactic to me. It is hard for any pirate to shoot accurately from a bouncing powerboat, especially at another fast-moving vessel.

As far as carrying arms on board: if the stash-place is extremely well hidden, then I guess a simple shotgun is useful. Although trained as a marksman in the South African army, my own opinion of guns is very low.

Dan

[cyclops]

None of you are being real. You are want to invade their waters of control.

[chandler]

How about that sonic weapon? Cash? They gonna let you live after you give them all your cash???

[safewalrus]

How about the old system - some bloody big naval ships gunning the hell out of anything that moves for a few days. Ok use yachts as decoys to draw the buggers out then blast 'em Nothing like death to solve all sorts of problems!

[cyclops]

I would love to be Safewalrus's Weapons officer! Aarrrrr.

[marshmat]

Walrus- How about we just give all the pirates Canadian submarines? That'll get rid of them pretty quick!

[safewalrus]

Holdhard there marshmat, those submarines used to be ours! the old 'U' boats where the best diesel boats in the world, until the Labour Party sold 'em off! mores the pity! Hey they'd be good for sneaking up on Pirates - there again most of our old submariners where Pirates - the good thing was you could smell them coming miles away! with Modern boats they actually have enough water to wash with when submerged (nah I don't believe that, no fun in it!) sigh

[chandler]

There's an idea...travel with a navy escort.

[ron17571]

The rich looking yacht thing,no mention of the other pirates,the public officials,folks who want to steal your avon and how u leave your ship to go ashore.Im sure nobody watches ships in harbors for these things?ive always likes shotguns for the variety of things that can be fired from them,i likes the flare pistol idea and always considered some sort of flame thrower,mabe diguised as a scuba tank.Nice when u leave your country and are at the mercy of other countrys officials,ive read horror storys over the years from many countrys.tried by twelve or carried by six,good luck!

[seadogs20]

Its the small boat pirate you have to look out for

[saeble]

www.37mm.com

problem solved

any pirate willing to go after a boat when something is foaming up the sea across thier bow, deserves a fair fight for his prize.

[seadogs20]

In the most dangerous areas (sulu sea, Indonesia,anywhere se asia) are not small fishing boats thinking they might make a few bob if they try to board a yacht with a old rusty gun......No no these guys are in very fast boats 36-40 knts and have big machine guns on there bows. You come out brandishing a shot gun and your in more trouble than the early settlers. When I have been boarded in Indo it's has been by the Indo Navy and once by the phils coast guard, they want drink and money, cigs ...give it to them and get them off.

[seadogs20]

your boat

[saltydog98]

fire arms into foriegn countrys may end you up in thier jails, BUT there's a simple solution for self protection. A 12 guage flair pistole, a insert any machine can make you and a instant single shot pistol, legal everywhere. personally i chose a 45 cal colt long, yes it kicks but it has tremendous stopping power and it's already save my life off the coast of china near guemoy.