Piracy and Firearms - Another View

[cabo_sailor]

I hold a concealed weapons permit as does my wife. For coastal cruising I carry on board. As much as I would like to carry further afield, I won't. I don't feel that the cost/benefit is worth the risk of running afoul of different governments and different cultures.

Personally, if and when that time comes, I will look into non-lethal solutions. The ones I have in mind to investigate are electronic in nature and 99.9% of the people that would see them, would not even recognize them. One that I'm rather fond of but have not built sends an EMP pulse into obnoxious stereo players. Naturally, I have no idea how well it works.

Rich

[Solitude]

Originally Posted by cabo_sailor

The ones I have in mind to investigate are electronic in nature and 99.9% of the people that would see them, would not even recognize them.
Rich

Please do tell....

[Cheechako]

If confronted by the more prevalent deck thief, or guy with a machete... this might be the answer.... I use thsi stuff every year to get rid o f the Yellowjackets and it does send a healthy stream a long ways....

"I guess I can get rid of the baseball bat.

Wasp Spray
A friend who is a receptionist in a church in a high risk area was
concerned about someone coming into the office on Monday to rob them
when they were counting the collection. She asked the local police
department about using pepper spray and they recommended to her that
she get a can of wasp spray instead.

The wasp spray, they told her, can shoot up to twenty feet away and is
a lot more accurate, while with the pepper
spray, they have to get too close to you and could overpower you. The
wasp spray temporarily blinds an attacker until they get to the
hospital for an antidote. She keeps a can on her desk in the office
and it doesn't attract attention from people like a can of pepper
spray would. She also keeps one nearby at home for home protection.
Thought this was interesting and might be of use.

On the heels of a break in and beating that left an elderly woman in
Toledo dead, self defense experts have a tip that could save
yourlife.

Val Glinka teaches self-defense to students at
Sylvania Southview High School . For decades, he's suggested putting a
can of wasp and hornet spray near your door or bed.

Glinka says, "This is better than anything I can teach them."

Glinka considers it inexpensive, easy to find, and more effective than
mace or pepper spray. The cans typically shoot 20 to 30 feet; so
if someone tries to break into your home, Glinka says "spray the
culprit in the eyes". It's a tip he's given to students for
decades.

It's also one he wants everyone to hear. If you're looking for
protection, Glinka says look to the spray."

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by sneuman

The reality is that the odds of successfully (as in living to tell about it) defending against a real pirate attack are nil; the chances of shooting an innocent fisherman and ending up in a Third World jail, much higher.

Would you care to provide some citations for that? I have a good one that shows the opposite: the book "Pirates aboard" takes 40 "recent" cases of piracy against yachts and it clearly shows that armed and barricaded inside the boat (slow their entry) is 100% effective against pirates. It also shows that unarmed in the sense of no fire-arms but resisting the pirates results in almost certain death (so forget the molotov cocktails, flare guns, pepper spray etc) and unarmed and asking for mercy is a 50/50 kind of thing but often abuse, molest and rape are not prevented with that technique.

I can supply the ISBN number if you can't find the book. Ah there it is:

Amazon.com: Pirates Aboard!: Forty Cases of Piracy Today And What Bluewater Cruisers Can Do About It (9781574092301): Klaus Hympendahl: Books

Like with so many of these threads, posters just add stories and safety procedures that they make up while writing them. The only way to make sense is to bring forward facts that are relevant (number of murders in the US has absolutely nothing to do with pirates!).

cheers,
Nick.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Dune

a pickle jar filled with gasoline and a flare gun will take the fight out of just about anyone.

We tried that with water bombs on the yacht race on Dan's boat (Ex-Calif) in Singapore a few weeks ago.

Can I tell you we did much better in the sailing than the throwing of water bombs!!!!!

[David M]

Originally Posted by Nirvava

QUOTE . It is also one of those topics which must be closely babysat by the moderation team because of its emotional nature.

Thank goodness they are watching out/over us for our/their own good.

Bickering is something we discourage. We like to be better than the other sites. I think most members agree.

[John A]

When I lived in the SF bay for 31 years, there were places that I wouldn't go because to do so I'd need to carry a gun to protect myself. I'm sure that each of the members of this forum live in cities that have simular areas.

Could anyone give me one good reason why you would but your loved ones and yourself in harms way? STAY HOME

If you feel the need to arm yourselves to protect yourselves at all times and to be ready to take another life, at any minute, to prove your right to walk in harms way, then where is the enjoyment of going cruising?

Your going to give up all the comforts of shore life to invest $200,000 plus, to sit in your locked boat waiting to shoot a boarder? Boy, what a great way to enjoy your retirement.

TaoJones or another mod would you please copy my experiences from another gun thread? Thanks

[Chief Engineer]

Maryland does not recognize CCW permits from other states

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Wasp Spray
A friend who is a receptionist in a church in a high risk area was
concerned about someone coming into the office on Monday to rob them

snopes.com: Wasp Spray

[bobfnbw]

In the end, its to each of us to decide how we choose to live. anyone that lives in constant fear of being attacked, boarded, raped etc has a problem.
Anyone that never thinks about the same, has a problem.

Truth is, the world is a wonderful and dangerous place. Filled with all sorts of miracles, and evil. Both coexist together.

My advise to anyone that cares, is to walk softly and carry a big friggen stick.
Don't go in harms way if you can avoid it, but if it comes to you be prepared.

There are many ways to protect oneself. Frankly as a gun owner, I am not sure I would bring one on a world cruise. The prospect of ending up in a Mexican prison or in a Turkish prison because of a weapon is not one I would relish. Yet I would not venture out without some method of protecting my family, my self, and my property.
As has been said, there are a number of ways of doing that without having a firearm.
It would be nice to plink a rib with a boatload of pirates but the truth is, they would make a boat a mess in a short time. and I don't even what to think of what a RPG would do to a 40 foot FRP sloop. Of course they would have to hit it, and RPGs are pretty inaccurate in a good day, on the high seas... it might be kind of funny.
Yeah, in a movie that is.

[GMac]

Are these pirates are now killing 1000's of people in the US or are we just starting to wonder off topic? Surely we would be wondering would we, he says in a pointed tone

These pirates do seem to be well organised so I'd think an average cruiser would be lucky to get away if they did decide they wanted you.

Probably the best option is to get all the countries to stop stealing their fish and get them back into fishing boats rather than gun boats. But I don't see that happening sadly.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by bobfnbw

and I don't even what to think of what a RPG would do to a 40 foot FRP sloop. .

I don't know, but I have fired an 84mm Carl Gustav and both the HEAT and the HE point detonating would probably go through boat sides and explode somewhere outside the boat on the other side

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by skipmac

So what is the preferred route? NW from the southern tip of India, head towards Oman/Yemen and down the middle of the GOA, or hug the Yemen coastline?

From the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (free advice even for those desendants of pirates who sort independence from the UK and caused a war two hundred years ago)

We also advise against all but essential travel to the rest of Yemen due to the threat of terrorism and tribal violence. Unless you have an essential reason to be in Yemen you should consider whether you need to remain.

Piracy remains a major problem on the seas off Somalia even as far as international waters and to the territorial waters of Yemen.

Travel advice by country

I was under the impression that they started learning there trade by using stake boats out from both Somalia and Yemen like a fishing net waiting to see what came along.

So forget about the guns, put your boat on a ship in India and send it to one of the upper Red Sea ports. Alternatively go to UAE and truck across the desert into Saudi. Your insurance company will thank you too

[MarkJ]

Well this thread has gotten interesting! Lok up and see the Google ads selected for us to view!!!!!

By our own discussion we are supporting the gun mob!!!!!!!!

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by cabo_sailor

... I will look into non-lethal solutions. The ones I have in mind to investigate are electronic in nature and 99.9% of the people that would see them, would not even recognize them. One that I'm rather fond of but have not built sends an EMP pulse into obnoxious stereo players. Naturally, I have no idea how well it works.
Rich

The "Mosquito" is an electronic "anti-teen loitering" device that emits an annoying sound (17.5–18.5 kHz), akin to a mosquito buzzing in your ear, that can only be heard (range 50 - 70 feet) by teenagers and people in their 20s (13 - 25 year olds, who still have sensitive hair cells in their inner ear).

Combine the Mosquito with an EMP/HERF/Shock Pulse Generator, which might destroy the pirate’s computer, GPS, and I-pod, and we’d have an devastatingly annoying deterrent against younger pirates with clean ears!