Before finding this thread a little while ago I had never even thought about having firearms aboard. Of course I am not actually away on an extended trip, let alone in the
Caribbean, US of A or anywhere that I am likely to meet armed robbers or Pirates.
Having said that, it may well be that one day I will get off my backside and down to the
Med for a while, who knows!
Guns? no, but maybe some "dual use" weaponary and a bit of thought.
Agree that keeping folk off in the first place is the key. but accepting that if I am ever approach by a boat load of folk with AK47's then I am fooked whatever I do - all I can reasonably do is hope they only rob me.
Stopping folk coming on board when at sea who are not armed to the teeth, but "just" relying on numbers / edged weapons (or even "just" waving a handgun or rifle at me) is I guess down to assessing their "attitude" and giving them "attitude" back, but without forcing them to open fire at me by waving my own gun around - but to accept that if they start shooting even a warning, then for me it WILL work! I figure also the fact of not having a boat that looks like it contains a million dollars worth of goodies to count in my favour when trying to raise the aggravation vs reward factor. At night I would favour using a high powered spotlamp to both see who they were / what they had onboard weapons wise and to disorientate them about what / who I was.
In practice I think boarders are more likely when moored, to which the first line of defence is to be aware of the risks in the area and if assessed to be too great, not staying on my own in a secluded area. But I think that unless keeping a 24/7 watch that it would be impossible to rely on no one ever sneaking aboard, even with a couple of discreet but visible "Beware of the Dog" stickers (few folk like dealing with
dogs, too much aggro).
Now, I don't want to ever confront someone
head on in the dark. Cos' I am a natural born coward!, with a healthy sense of self preservation
Also I figure that if they do not know whether I am armed that if they have a gun and are confronted unexpectedly by me then it may be the "sensible" thing for them to open fire.
What I would want them to do is to f#ck off quickly and go and look for an easier target without being directly threatened by me. I have found that you do have to give folk a way to back out, preferably without losing "face". For this I think maybe having a strobe on the
mast that could be switched on from down below (I know it's against the Regs for use at sea
) and a manually triggered
alarm (and even a tape of a barking dog?!!).
Noise and flashing lights both to attract assistance, but mainly to unsettle the intruder and also make him unsure whether help is arriving - I figure if someone has chosen to sneak aboard that it means that they would prefer not to deal with a confrontation (of course even in a crowded anchorage I would not actually expect help to be arriving! - plenty of folk peering through
cabin windows, but probably not a lot of actual "help"
).
Weapons wise would really be as a last resort (and only against someone who had no gun! and won't take no for an answer or to help me "wave off" boarders at sea). Maybe a Machete (or even a Cutlass!) onboard and a speargun on the basis that both of these are easily explainable on board a yacht travelling as self sufficent and wouldn't be a disaster if ever confiscated. My thinking with idea of the Speargun is that it is a "distance" weapon, but is still not something that would automatically force an armed man to open fire from 30 feet away, just enough to make someone with a Machete think twice from 10 feet. and also a lot easier for me to use to injure someone than trying to plunge a knife into a person.
(I figure that it is best all round to avoid violence and to out of my way to do so, even at the "cost" of my pride (Fortunately I have no "pride"
and am quite happy with the maxim "he who turns and runs away lives to run another day"
) - Because I do
know that if if if it ever comes down to actually using violence then it has to be done "properly", no quarter expected and none given
Not really my cup of tea.......of course by then I would be wishing I had a gun. A big one
)
FWIW I have been in a couple of situations of having had
guns pointed at me which ended up ok (I am still here!) and strangely enough these incidents do not in anyway compare with other incidents where I have been truly in fear of my life (By that I mean truly truly terrified
) - where I know that if I had had access to a Nuclear Weapon let alone a hand gun I would have used it. Terror (true terror) will make someone do anything. Still, they were all incidents that I will admit (online and anon!) that I did play at least a small (??!!) part in getting myself into the sh#t - mainly by thinking I knew what I was doing / being far too cocky.
I also wouldn't mind making it down to
Thailand and then onto NZ, which I accept would take me through areas that were "of concern" - so perhaps my ideas would be changed, certainly the
route through the Suez
Canal and onto seas off
Somalia do seem to be somewhere that I would normally try and avoid! - not sure how the risks could be reduced, but that is something I can think of later! and will probably never happen!
Oh yeah and an American Flag off the stern!, with the boat plastered in the stickers supporting the NRA!
). Whilst a gun would have been nice to have onboard and I obviously can't say that it wouldn't have made a difference (who knows) in this case - I suspect not, as all 3 blokes have to do is wait for the their moment to strike first, with the advantage of total surprise. Once you have trusted someone enough to expose yourself like that I really can't see any way out if someones intentions are in fact totally murderous.
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