At Last! Definitive Self Defense for Sailors

[capta]

Having circumnavigated in the 70's, voyaging to some pretty "dangerous" places like the Sudan and SE Asia, I always felt comfortable with a 30.30 carbine and a double barrel 12 gauge w/ 00 buckshot for defense.
However, with the new breed of "pirate" attacking sailing boats with evil intent, those weapons seem of little value against a handful of aggressors armed w/ AK's in a very fast, maneuverable craft.
As a professional captain, I am very familiar with the laws regarding firearms where I've traveled. Quite simply; "war weapons" including the ancient M1 carbine amazingly, are a definitely NOT acceptable ANYWHERE. Pistols are frowned on by most countries and if reported, may need to be held ashore.
Sporting weapons, on the other hand are not a huge problem anywhere.
After many hours of web-searching, numerous emails to chemists (I was considering some sort of napalm like defense) I really had not found anything I thought would be of real value.
Last evening I received an email from a friend with this link; Dragons Breath in action

DRAGON BREATH 3 - YouTube

DRAGON BREATH 3 - YouTube

This one MIGHT do the trick! Though they may be illegal in some places, with the shells secreted in a box of buckshot or whatever; they are pretty easy to hide, and they require only a single shot 12 gauge (I doubt that you'd need more than one shot if you delivered one of these on target). I'm impressed!
Any thoughts?

[downeast450]

Claymore fenders!

Down

[ShoalFinder]

I wish they'd have shown the shell. I like the whole flamethrower / napalm idea. If you get shipwrecked and have to start a fire using wet wood all would not be lost.

As far as defense, I wonder if we aren't overlooking the obvious? What about a high speed dinghy with 4 Nissan 5hp motors on the back? You could rig your sailboat for self destruct and escape on the dinghy. When the Somali pirates board your vessel it's curtains! I want one with a motion-detector timer. When the pirates enter the salon, the timer comes on and counts down in big digital letters... 3-2-1... just so they know their ass is grass before the fireball happens. Very Schwarzenneggar movie-esque, don't you think?

I don't know how you say, "Ga-aaha-aahh LET'S GET OWT UV EEEAAAHHHH!!! GAAA-AA-AAAH!" in Somali but I'm sure that's how it would go down.

About the time it explodes you sit up in your high speed dinghy as it zips along undetected by the pirate mother ship. Don't look back though. You can't look as though fireballs are unexpected.

[Fstbttms]

Originally Posted by capta

Any thoughts?

Looks like a good way to set your boat on fire.

[capta]

Originally Posted by Fstbttms

Looks like a good way to set your boat on fire.

I thought about that, but if they're coming alongside and you shove the shotgun outboard, you might get a few burns on the deck, but that seems preferable to the alternative. I played the video numerous times and the stuff that fell close to the muzzle appeared to extinguish pretty quickly even on grass?
Anyway you look at self defense on a small craft, it's going to be a very serious and potentially deadly situation and one's only chance for survival would be to totally incapacitate the bad guys immediately, as an AK can spit out an awful lot of lead pretty quickly. I for one am not going to limit my voyaging, within reason (I won't go near Venezuela right now!), because some assh*le wants to steal from us and take our lives.

[hellosailor]

It looks like someone shot that round into a pile of fuel-soaked wood, and I suspect the impact on a boat wouldn't be as dramatic. Also, if the target boat was carrying guys with AKs...they just might respond by opening up on full automatic and ignore the sparkles.

A sporting shotgun, a conventional double-barrel, isn't going to do much against automatic weapons. Those guys KNOW you've only got two shots. And, they have a much longer range than you do. They can fall back to a hundred yards, where your shotgun is useless, and pick their targets at leisure.

[dacap06]

Great googly moogly! What is that stuff? White Phosphorus?

[flyingwelshman]

Originally Posted by downeast450

Claymore fenders!

Down

Remember: "Front Toward Dock"

[IronSpinnaker]

Yeah they are just incendiary rounds... they contain Phosphorus. The down side is that they burn from the end of the barrel to about 200-300 ft out. The pile of wood had to have fuel on it and the round is just used for ignition. On their own they will not start much on fire... Probably could set a fiberglass boat on fire though... and they are scary as hell when fired.

[bigdogandy]

OK - I've gotta ask - there seems to have been a lot of these "what's the best weapon to carry for self-defense against pirates" threads lately....is that because there is an actual increase in piracy in the areas most people cruise?