Grifters! (watch out)

[markpj23]

Tom Hawks was a body builder who contributed articles to Latts & Atts about exercising while at sea. He was no 98lb weakling by any stretch of the imagination.

[Canibul]

Thinking hard about this whole firearms thing, my personal feeling is that having a handgun hidden on-board is really not the answer for a number of reasons. Perhaps someone can come up with another approach.

For example, the railings around a fiberglass deck would be pretty simple to electrically isolate from sea/ground. Would it be difficult to wire up the equivalent of an electric fence stepped up enough to double the jolt? With an arming switch in the cockpit, and another below, it might give you the extra few seconds you need to radio a mayday, activate an EPIRB, grab a baseball bat, fish the illegal gun out of hiding and load it, pull the tubing back on a speargun, scream, spray fire extinguisher, ram the boarders, throw rocks, whatever.

In the case of machete wielders, it might be enough in itself.

Would be easy to hide. Call it a Seagull Discouragement System, etc.

i dont know. But some other non-lethal solution, perhaps?

I mean, a 2000 psi pressure wash across the face will seriously stop someone, blinding and perhaps worse...

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by markpj23

Tom Hawks was a body builder who contributed articles to Latts & Atts about exercising while at sea. He was no 98lb weakling by any stretch of the imagination.

Yeah, I read that in the article. Did someone say he was small? He was a big guy.

[S/V Elusive]

Canibul - hard to argue with success ehhh? On the firearms thingy - someone started yet another firearm thread and Gord posted the links to the previous ones: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...1629#post51629

[Canibul]

yes, I have been thinking about a modified potato cannon that uses compressed air to fire full 12 oz. beer cans. Can use it for things other than blowing a sternum through a spine and a fiberglass hull..but it would do that, too....

I mean, I could dust off the old hand-to-hand dirty tricks, but it would just be SO much friendlier to hand them a cold beer, doncha think?

(just joking, of course. I have other ideas but am not going to post them here.)

[ssullivan]

So funny... Canibul. I was having the exact same thought! I used to love potato cannons as a kid (ok... we built a couple in college too). A nice 6' model will tear capboards off a house, using only a potato. Whoops! Got in trouble with that one.

[hellosailor]

Canibul, I like dogs and mainly trust them. But, I also know better than to leave one alone with a plate full of chicken.<G>

The difference between people and dogs being mainly that the dogs have more patience, I suppose.<G>

[Alan Wheeler]

I heard a very funny story someitme back. A guy who happend to be a martial arts expert was asleep in a Backpackers. Two guys tried to rob him in the night. The guy in the sleeping back kick the snott out of them while he was STILL in the sleeping bag. The two litteraly crawled out of the room moaning and groaning, while others woken in the night by the noise called the cops. Sleeping bag dude went back to sleep and the two assalters were locked up.

[Canibul]

AH, sweet justice. I signed both of my sons up for martial arts when they turned 6. My 25 year old is second Dan black belt, my 19 yr. old first Dan, in Uechi Ryu. I dont mind walking round the dark streets with my little boys at all...

[ssullivan]

And another funny one I saw the other day in the news. I saw a story that David Copperfield was robbed by 3 young adults. He was robbed as he left the stage of a show on the way to his trailer/motorcoach. He was with 2 assistants who gave over their money, etc... Copperfield pulled a trick on the robbers, turning his pockets inside out to show he had no money - all the while having his money, wallet, cell phone, keys, etc... in his pockets.

I had a good laugh at this one... robbing a magician of that caliber. ha ha ha No chance. I'd imagine he'd probably puff out some smoke and then he'd be holding the gun.

[Canibul]

Or better yet, just make them disappear..

[Rick]

What would it take to make a potato launcher powerful enough and compact enough to "get the job done"? What would it take to make a 2000psi "squirt gun" that was always at the ready? I also like the fence charger idea yet if the boat is all dewy it probably would not work very well with lots of leakage paths all over the deck.

[hellosailor]

" a potato launcher powerful enough "
Brings to mind the story, perhaps myth, perhaps truth, about the early days when US scientists were using a similar compressed gas cannon to fire chickens against aircraft windshields in order to test their survival against bird strikes.
Supposedly the Brits wanted to use the same tests for the same purpose, but every time they tried the test, they'd fire the chicken straight through the windshield. The two teams couldn't understand why the results were so different, until someone asked the Brits "But did you THAW the chickens?"

[GordMay]

Goto: The Spud Gun Technology Center
Specializing in pneumatic and combustion-based launchers including a variety of types, styles, sizes, and feature levels for potato vectoring.
Includes “Build Your Own Launcher”
http://www.spudtech.com/

or
http://www.trevorshp.com/cannon.htm

[Canibul]

A small potato cannon, say about 3 ft. long, with attached butane cylinder, would certainly kill someone hit in the upper body or head from ten yards away. If one got creative with single edge razor blades or nails in the leading end of the potato, it would shred an inflatable. cheap to build. Not an obvious firearm, especially to most foreign government officials.

As for a pressure washer, we have a small electric one that generates 2100 psi and is not much larger than a small vaccum cleaner. Weighs less than 10 lbs. Could be plugged in and turned on in 10 seconds if it was handy. Perfectly reasonable to have a pressure washer on board. Is IS 110 VAC, though.

Its amazing what a stream of water does at that pressure. It would permanently blind a boarder, as a minimum.

You can also do an AMAZING amount of damage with a Whamo Wrist-Rocket and steel ball bearings. quiet and legal, except in Massachusetts as I recall.