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Old 09-04-2009, 14:23   #31
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Originally Posted by Lodesman View Post

It's likely that the pirates are using spotters in or near ports, and in fishing fleets - they give tracking info to the pirates to narrow the search area. .
Thanks for that. Cruising boats look pretty obvious anywhere there...
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Somalia Pirates and our Convoy
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Old 09-04-2009, 14:57   #32
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DIY Radar...

So military radar has the same capability as something I could put together with parts from my microwave?
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Old 09-04-2009, 16:05   #33
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Ask the old buggers on this forum about the pre-gps days when they used RDF Radio Direction Finders to get barings..

...Now advance that to GPS and Laptops...

Quote:
This page describes GPSS use for Radio Direction Finding - the location of a radio transmitter by "hunting it down", with a suitable radio receiver and antenna.

One of the first uses of GPSS in this way was by Gary Morris, a Falconer in UK who wanted to find his birds when they got lost. He simply typed the bearings into GPSS on the Laptop keyboard, read off a compass mounted to his hand-held directional receiver. ...
In more recent years, better systems appeared, initially in the USA, where the direction of the receiver antenna, relative to the car heading, was sent automatically, with data from the GPS, into GPSS - which could then do all the required processing, display and voice guidance automatically.
Radio Direction Finding <--- have a look at this website! Its funny but informative

"voice guidance automatically"!!!!!!!! Turn Left now to intercept boat!

In other words... use the VHF or HF and the pirates will get your Lat&Lon almost instantly!

And what did the French yacht do? Chatter to the French navy!
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Old 10-04-2009, 01:39   #34
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I found a website dedicated to the piracy issue
ICC Commercial Crime Services

Photos---> http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?opt...blog&Itemid=60

Thier piracy alert pages have photos of suspect mother ships and the boats that undertake the actual assuslts.One other little tib bit... one ship was attacket 900NM off the east coast of Somalia! 900 miles! stounding!

The websites current attack chart is... well, the last 2 months have been mind boggoling in the GOA in numbers and the East Coast for their long range.
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Old 10-04-2009, 05:30   #35
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Anyone have a contact number OR E-MAIL for the PIRATES? The seem that well organized. Perhaps one can prepay the ransome and avoid the hassle. (Just kidding!) I wonder if the french 3 year old knows how to properly clean an AK47 or RPG yet? Now thats an education!
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Old 10-04-2009, 06:39   #36
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At the risk of getting too political ( and mods can delete this post if they feel it is the right thing to do) it should be noted perhaps that
A)the previous Somalian Government was very firm about piracy, and did a lot to prevent it but the US administration did not like the fact that they were a strict muslim nation and contributed to its downfall in favour of a weaker but more pro western government , which goes a ways to explaining why the attacks have strengthened over the last 6 years
and B) the Somalis have lost a huge chunk of their GDP to illegal fishing that has wiped out a 200 million a year industry, and other nations have not done a lot to assist them recover from that.
This is not in the way of an apology for the Pirates, but perhaps a more nuanced look at the position of desperatly poor Somali's. An analogy might be the US/ western support of the Afghani's in their war against the soviets, the price for which we are only just beginning to pay.
I do agree that eliminating the pirates would seem to be a not hard thing to do given the current state of technology
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Old 10-04-2009, 06:48   #37
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Rhosyn Mor I second you and I don't think your post is political, it is just a reflection of the crude reality. I am aware many of the members here are from the US and I hope they understand opinions and positions are to be respected even if they differ from theirs. The US has a long and dark history of not only doing business with other countries but also imposing them its way of thinking and living or not doing business at all, the price of this is only just beginning to pay. I can somehow understand this may be a government position but what is even more surprising to me is when it becomes a person's position i.e. if one differs from the american way of thinking on a forum one can easily get banned or expelled, same thing but in a smaller case scenario.

As long as the above continues to happen we will not have global peace, we are all equal human beings regardless of our national origin, sex, race or religion. Forcing nations to change values will never bring anything good.

Hope my post is read in the same positive manner I created it.

Thanks
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Old 10-04-2009, 07:26   #38
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With mother ships like those they are able to conduct their business anywhere. I was reading that the naval task force is trying to cover millions of square miles, a very daunting task indeed.
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Old 10-04-2009, 09:05   #39
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.

As long as the above continues to happen we will not have global peace, we are all equal human beings regardless of our national origin, sex, race or religion. Forcing nations to change values will never bring anything good.

A lot of countries (most?) do not agree nor do they treat all equally.

In fact, I don't think humans are actually capable of that "dream".
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Old 10-04-2009, 10:15   #40
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Understanding the reasons for piracy is very important. It's something that happens anywhere when there are desperate people and no rule of law. It's astonishing how often those items coexist. That said, the coastal areas of Africa and the Middle East have a long tradition of fishing both for fish and anything else one can overpower. Piracy has been a significant threat in those areas since time out of mind and though the US can be an obnoxious boor at times (I can say that cause I am one) we didn't cause it. At least these days they aren't chaining captured slaves to the oars of their galleys as a propulsion system. Fortunately, we've got the tools to fix it these days because we've got the technology to find any ship they take really quickly. You just need to have the will to fight harder than the pirates.

The solution is simple and it was known and acted on for eons. When a pirate takes a ship from any country, you track it down. Then you retake, burn or sink it and any pirates with it. Loss of cargo and hostages is less of a concern than making sure that the pirates are exterminated. You don't try them or hand them over to their goverments. You kill them on the spot after you get what info you can out of them. Then you go after their nest and burn them out. Piracy is an act of war, and of brutal force. It can only really be countered by greater brutality. Sucks but it's true.

We should be using our navies to retake or destroy every siezed vessel regardless of nationality. Every vessel that is willing should be equipped with a remotely activatable GPS transponder so it can be found if taken. I give a crap if it's cheaper for the europeans to just pay a ransom. The ransoms are the fuel for the fire we need to put out. Payment of a ransom should be criminalized as being an accessory to piracy with the same penalties as the primary criminals.

About 6 months of uncompromised naval warfare against the pirates should remove the incentive to take ships and people hostage. If taking a boat gets you attacked by the world's navies, your house (If you have one) destroyed and (probably) your family blown up in the process, and then you don't get any money out of it why take the risk?


Then we can get back to the business of helping those nations that are willing, to become more self-sufficient.

Time to cowboy up and dust off the John Wayne routine again. There's good folks out there getting hurt by bad guys that need killin'.
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Old 10-04-2009, 10:52   #41
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As a new member, it doesn't feel right for me to jump into a politically charged discussion. However, I have two thoughts I would like to offer to the discussion of piracy one directly applicable to cruisers and one less so.

This first thought is, the ocean is a really really big place. So what are the odds of a pirate skiff being able to locate a sailboat which has no running lights and maintains radio silence? I have seen numerous posts about how sailboats don't show up on radar. At night, the sailboat would be virtually undetectable, especially during a new moon. Given pirates mostly attack at night, would this "security through obscurity" be adequate?

The second thought is on deterring general piracy. There are currently approximately 15 ships in the region from various navies. This force is/will be ineffectual at preventing piracy, because the reaction time is about 12 hours if not more. How can they get the reaction time down? Send in an aircraft carrier. A single aircraft carrier can probably keep 30 aircraft in the air at any given time. That would cut the average distance from help by 1/3. In addition, a jet can travel at more than 1000 knots, placing any needy vessel with help only a few minutes away. The aircraft could then destroy any vessel displaying hostile intentions before they were able to board a ship. The only requirement is that neutral vessels maintain a proper watch and can radio for help quickly. This also has relatively low risks of hitting anything that isn't a pirate, since you only attack if they are displaying hostile intentions. Thoughts?
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Old 10-04-2009, 12:10   #42
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Update -

France frees yacht off Somalia, hostage killed - Somalia- msnbc.com
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Old 10-04-2009, 12:16   #43
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In fact, I don't think humans are actually capable of that "dream".
After reading H Romberg's post I'm almost inclined to agree.
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Old 10-04-2009, 12:22   #44
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I wonder who was the hostage who died...

The news are not mentioning that yet...
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Old 10-04-2009, 12:59   #45
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Apparently it was the owner of the boat and father of the child who died.

It's very sad indeed.

France frees yacht off Somalia, hostage killed - Somalia- msnbc.com
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