Magnum Powerboat in the Carribean? Screenplay writer asks...

[SuttonLounge]

I am a writer doing research for a movie screenplay. I've got a serious question and I hope those in the know will blow away my cloud or tell me I am on to something that is plausible.

Bascially I want to know if a chap can cruise the Carribean in a Magnum Powerboat and if so what magnum may do the best job? Can it cruise the Windwards, Martinique to Grenada? Can it moor in St. Lucia close to the Pitons?
What could such a chap encounter with such a boat (reactions by locals, pirates, possible moorings and issues with morring a power yacht, reactions by other yacht-going people).

This screenplay involves a chap and a girl on the run from their past. The law isn't after them, but they both lost their spouses and decide to cruise and find a new way of life. The run afoul of St. Vincentian bad guys. There is murder, intrigue, and lots of local color.

Research will be made real by my taking a boat trip to the Windwards after I collect material. Nice to make new friends here and there!

Props in advance to any and all who reply, incl acknowledgements if the story gets bought.

Cheers !
Kevin N.

[Steve H]

Many Magnums could make the trip. some would need long range tanks installed. I would be confident in the 40 Sport as below

http://yachtworld.com/core/listing/b...ck&searchtype=

This is a trip I've always wanted to make.

You might want to post this question at offshoreonly.com

A much larger website of offshore performance boaters

[USCGRET/E8]

It sounds feasible if they are rich, as that would be a lot of expensive gas getting guzzled. As for pirates, I doubt they could catch a Mag. They might get boarded by the USCG regulary, as all go fasts out and about are suspect as smugglers.
I was stationed on a USCG 95' Patrol Cutter in the mid-80's out of Key West.
Back in the day of Crockett and Tubbs!

[SuttonLounge]

Thanks Steve. I was thinking even too of a bigger Magnum like the 50. Isn't it very fast? Magnum literature states too that it can handle distance and rough sea:

"Very impressive is her unbelievable seaworthiness in all weather conditions. She slices through the waves and can safely and comfortably make long crossings in rough seas."

Thanks for the tip on "offshoreonly.com". I posted there too and already received a reply. FYI - My posting there has the exact same thread title and content, and I used the same user name (SuttonLounge).

Much thanks!

Kevin

[SuttonLounge]

Hi USCGRET/E8,

Thanks for the reply. Yes the owner of the boat (currently thinking it could be a Magnum 50) has loads of cash and connections with USCG and Royal Navy.

The fictional owner is a British ex-pat who was involved in ship-building, has alot of money and is former British Royal Navy, at least as his character is sketched out currently. His company provided assets (maybe go-fast boats?) to US and UK law enforcement entities. Then he sold his company and took off to cruise around the Caribbean.

I'm def. interested in your feedback as retired CG. I need to verify what this man would be capable of and what he can handle. Who he would know and how he could operate now that he is no longer involved. I would imagine USCG and such entities know him, know his boat. Maybe he doesn't get boarded bec. of this.

Curious too if I'm realistic about the "bad guys" and he runs into (spec. I'm thinking St. V. drug traffickers). He's got a high profile rig. But it's so fast (a Magnum 50) he can outrun trouble (I hope).

I read the USCG uses a go-fast boat w/ a rigid-hulled inflatable boat equipped with radar and powerful engines. The RHIB is armed with several types of non-lethal weapons and M240 GPMG. Somehow it may be capable of disabling a smugglers engines?

In any case, small-time smugglers or "sub-contractors" may use a diff craft to do their business. I imagine there are not alot of boats like Magnum 50 in the hands of smugglers in the Winward islands?

Feel free to reply anyway you can. Love to get a dialog going on it.

Best!

Kevin

[USCGRET/E8]

There was a similar show with a boat like that with Hulk Hogan as one of the stars, oh back early 90's maybe...anyway, it was quite cheezy having the boat do impossible things. Also, when they went below, the boat was a about 3 times it's actual size. The cabins on Go Fasts aren't known for there roominess and (usually) barely have standing headroom (if I remember right).
The public is pretty savy these days and can spot photographic nonsense.
There are many ways to outrun trouble in the water, like tossing in some mooring lines behind you to foul up the chasers props.
I have watched the off shore races in Key West, and yes sir those boats can really cook and spend a lot of time airborn.
The main character could have his connection with the CG be an old salty retired Coastie that has an old fishing boat or something and they befriend each other in Capt. Tony's Bar in Key West. Oh yea, I'd be a wealth of ideas for sure.. ;-)
Wayne

[eponodyne]

The Travis McGee in me wants to suggest that maybe this chap has a couple of Barrett .50s in pedestal mounts and can lay down a screen of fire that will let him blow up the bad guys in the first scene so you can concentrate on story and plot instead of chase scenes.

Sorry man. It's just that I've seen this movie before.

[SuttonLounge]

eponodyne,

That is some opening scene. I'd prefer to think our ex-pat hero/anti-hero keeps a Barrett 50 under cover in his master state room. He is discrete. Still that is some piece of weaponry. Thanks for the link.

One clarification: This is not an action movie, tho it does contain at least two powerful and violent scenes, esp. the climax. It is more of a drama about two human beings adrift together, numb and wounded from their spouses, losing their pain in the Windward Islands, with the ancient beauty of the Caribbean violence drawing them further away from their past lives, until they meet with violence that shocks them into confronting their emotions.

But a good point. Could and would a former Royal Navy chat who is wealthy own a Barrett 50 (would it be legal on a powerboat in the Caribbean?). Would he be more likely to own a revolver (similar gun to maybe my Dad's Springfield XD-9). I guess he could own a Barrett 50 too. Would he really though?

[SuttonLounge]

Wayne,

I'll get back to you. You gave me some good food for thought.

Kevin

[eponodyne]

Originally Posted by SuttonLounge

eponodyne,

That is some opening scene. I'd prefer to think our ex-pat hero/anti-hero keeps a Barrett 50 under cover in his master state room. He is discrete. Still that is some piece of weaponry. Thanks for the link.

One clarification: This is not an action movie, tho it does contain at least two powerful and violent scenes, esp. the climax. It is more of a drama about two human beings adrift together, numb and wounded from their spouses, losing their pain in the Windward Islands, with the ancient beauty of the Caribbean violence drawing them further away from their past lives, until they meet with violence that shocks them into confronting their emotions.

But a good point. Could and would a former Royal Navy chat who is wealthy own a Barrett 50 (would it be legal on a powerboat in the Caribbean?). Would he be more likely to own a revolver (similar gun to maybe my Dad's Springfield XD-9). I guess he could own a Barrett 50 too. Would he really though?

Well, it's been my (limited) experience with ex-RN types that they are very practical, no-nonsense people. Now, Great Britain doesn't have the firearms culture that the US has (obviously) but if one of these fellas felt himself to be under threat, just how far along the path of self-protection would he take himself? Just how numb is he? Can't be too emotionally scarred if he wants to live and fight back, and fight to save another....

As far as legality; well, the oceans are free for the passage of all. I've never tried to take a firearm of any sort out of the United States so I can't speak to what other countries do/do not want to see in their harbors.

[USCGRET/E8]

Firearms are highly frowned upon in almost all countries in Carib and Mexico.

[SuttonLounge]

I would assume our male lead (Dirk) keeps his firearms in the boat secured. He is a serious man with a deep sense of irony. Yes he is scarred, and keep to himself alot. He does love women and has one when he needs contact and it gets to him. His ex-wife burned him so bad (we never know exactly why tho). However, he's not met his match until he meets this American whose husband was killed in an accident. She's willing to throw caution from her and develops an irrational and dangerous compulsion with the Magnum and Dirk. In a way, she fuels the Magnum with her willingness to push the envelop with Dirk and get emtionally tangled and involved with him, to go out to a relative place beyond where she has ever ever gone before. Course he has the money to physically fuel it with deisel.

When it comes down to the climax scene with drug smugglers, I'm not sure yet if he acts or protects her better by not going into action (action = brandish a firearm and kill bad guy(s). Sometimes a gun like a Barrett 50 could neutralize psychologically. It depends if the enemy is crazier than you calculate. And this scene is not written yet, so it could go either way.

But wouldn't a man with such a background and such a boat own at least a hangun. Excellent point, Eponodyne, about Brits and gun culture ( or lack thereof). But I still think, esp. as the chap is ex RN and has worked with DEA-like organziations to supply boats, that he would be a very un-prepared and blind-to-violence bloke if he didn't have some firearm(s) aboard for protection. As for a Barrett 50, well maybe as Wayne said, he knows a crusty old retired CG type who turned him on to American firearms.

Speaking of firearms on his Magnum 50: Where would he store a hangun and a Barret 50-type firearm in a Magnum 50? Again factual integrity is very imp. to me. Everything is realistic and "can" happen. It's a drama after all, not an action movie. NO Rambo stuff, no James Bond stuff.

[USCGRET/E8]

Originally Posted by SuttonLounge

Speaking of firearms on his Magnum 50: Where would he store a hangun and a Barret 50-type firearm in a Magnum 50? Again factual integrity is very imp. to me. Everything is realistic and "can" happen. It's a drama after all, not an action movie. NO Rambo stuff, no James Bond stuff.

It would be very easy to hide a lot of and/or big guns on a 50' boat.
The drug smugglers are very creative in making false bottoms, transoms, water tanks, fuel tanks, etc. His boat could actually be an ex-smuggler boat, as they do sell them at auction when caught.

Being ex-RN and a Brit is very James Bondish, to me anyway. To be more of a drama, they might ply the waters with a hi-tech sailboat. In the final scene, this kind of boat sailing into a sunset is moving , to say the least..haha!
Dirk might also be retired US Special Forces. Kind of a guy like Jason Bourne.
A nice guy, but good god don't piss him off!

[KCook]

I know of someone who bought a smuggler's boat at auction. Hardly a goldplater, the poor thing was built for a single run! For example, no stringers at all! And this was a 30' deep-V.

Kelly Cook

[helpful boater]

After spending time on a Magnum 44, it would not be my first choice for living aboard for more than a couple of days. It and other similar sized Magnums, just do not have the space that encourages longer trips, IMO.

I also think that boats are just one part of a smugglers plan. And the boats that they use tend to be very open or stripped out to carry more product.

A dual purpose ( drug action as well as a cruiser) boat may not be in touch with todays real world.

I tend to agree with KCook's post above.