[tertim]

Hello my fellow yachties, just like to share a few thoughts with you about piracy, it seems to invoke strong reactions from those who beleive that the Gulf of Aden, Malacca straights etc, are full of evil brigands waiting to plunder and send you to Davey Jones locker.
Of course being robbed and threathened or in extreme cases being killed is a very serious matter but you are more likely to be attacked walking at night in any big city ( In USA probably shot)
Don't be put off by all the negative stories you here 99% of yachts transit these so called danger areas quite safely.

Tertim

PS My cruising area is the Malacca straights

 

[Zanshin]

I wouldn't worry about those types of posts here. There is a small but very voluble group who discuss piracy as if it were commonplace and widespread. Notably, most of the members of that group have not (and most likely will not) ventured outside of their national waters. Those with first-hand experience of sailing in those waters are rare.

Do you take any particular precautions when sailing around Singapore and Malaysia?

 

[Naughtylus]

I was sailing down from Langkawi to Port Klang last year, and looked into this question at length to allay the fears of my wife (someone warned her that I would be in danger of pirates.)
First of all, there hasn't been a documented case of piracy involving a sailing yacht in the area between Thailand and Singapore for several decades.
The recent piracy incidents have all involved commercial vessels, where the captain's are obliged to carry a cash float for port dues etc, or where there was a valuable and disposable cargo.

Unfortunately, this is not the case around the Gulf of Aden - and now including the Seychelles area.
The (I believe justified) direct military action of certain governments on the pirates has caused a backlash, which has been felt by the unfortunate yachting individuals who happen to be from the same country, and who are targets of reprisal rather than useful commercial prizes.

The Indian Ocean is my backyard so to speak, and therefore pretty close to home.
Many sailors leaving Dubai for a major trip go South East towards the Maldives, then West across to Chagos and the Seychelles before heading North back to Muscat and Dubai.
This circuit has now become significantly less relaxed due to the influence of our Somalian friends.

 

[Omatako]

The Indian Ocean is my backyard so to speak, and therefore pretty close to home.
Many sailors leaving Dubai for a major trip go South East towards the Maldives, then West across to Chagos and the Seychelles before heading North back to Muscat and Dubai.

For a sailor who claims the Indian Ocean as his back yard you were probably just not thinking when you said that Chagos is west of the Maldives because in reality you would know that it is virtually due south.

Right?

 

[jerryrlitton]

The Ultimate Adventure Cruise

 

[rgscpat]

Staying at home won't protect you from Microsoft's piratical, predatory decision to quit supporting XP and force XP users to walk the plank off what had been their most reliable operating system and buy one of their supported products.

What, you don't call that piracy? I bet it affects many hundred times more sailors than the thugs off Somalia and such like.

And yes, a comment thread hijack is probably the closest thing to piracy that most folks here are ever going to see, grin.

Which leads into one of my favorite pet peeves, which is the utter failure of most people to assess risk with anything resembling accuracy. People worry about pirates, hurricanes, and rattlesnakes when they should be making more provision for traffic accidents, doldrums, and bee stings. Let's face it, if you're a boater in California, you're more likely to be killed by the Coast Guard (San Diego) or a deputy sheriff (Lake County) than molested by anything resembling pirates. (And most USCG folks do a professional and difficult job.)

Okay, ye scurvy dogs hae' paid yer ransom and yer free o' this hijack, aarrrr.

 

[ffiill]

Still love my Windows XP as on this my spare take to bed $100 ebay 1999 vintage IBM thinkpad!

 

[sailingdog]

LOL...nicely played.

Staying at home won't protect you from Microsoft's piratical, predatory decision to quit supporting XP and force XP users to walk the plank off what had been their most reliable operating system and buy one of their supported products.

What, you don't call that piracy? I bet it affects many hundred times more sailors than the thugs off Somalia and such like.

And yes, a comment thread hijack is probably the closest thing to piracy that most folks here are ever going to see, grin.

Which leads into one of my favorite pet peeves, which is the utter failure of most people to assess risk with anything resembling accuracy. People worry about pirates, hurricanes, and rattlesnakes when they should be making more provision for traffic accidents, doldrums, and bee stings. Let's face it, if you're a boater in California, you're more likely to be killed by the Coast Guard (San Diego) or a deputy sheriff (Lake County) than molested by anything resembling pirates. (And most USCG folks do a professional and difficult job.)

Okay, ye scurvy dogs hae' paid yer ransom and yer free o' this hijack, aarrrr.

 

[steel]

Sorry, but I think we live in an artifically "safe" world which is causing men to get away with being wimpy. In the long run, this is really hurting us a lot.

So, I like piracy.

As far as I know it really doesn't take much to make the pirates go away. Get an M1A with the high capacity magazine, put it out one of the windows and empty it in to their boat if need be. The pirates never attack ships which they know are armed.

 

[ffiill]

Yes pirates attack unarmed ships such as the one the Israeli pirates attacked in International Waters the Med. this summer.
Problem is that Pirates are and always were heavily armed so if you want to try out the bullet proof capability of perhaps at most several inches of GRP feel free!
Anyway if you flaunt perhaps $100,000 of yacht in front of people who think they are rich if they have a bicycle! let alone an oil tanker or bulk carrier!

 

[sailingdog]

Unless you're good enough to put a few rounds in the pirates boat, you're likely only going to piss them off... and they often have RPGs...

Also, carrying a firearm in many countries will get you thrown in jail and your boat impounded.

Sorry, but I think we live in an artifically "safe" world which is causing men to get away with being wimpy. In the long run, this is really hurting us a lot.

So, I like piracy.

As far as I know it really doesn't take much to make the pirates go away. Get an M1A with the high capacity magazine, put it out one of the windows and empty it in to their boat if need be. The pirates never attack ships which they know are armed.

 

[steel]

I think not allowing governments to disarm you is the most important thing. Anyone who disarms you is planning to kill you, once you're disarmed. That's how it's always been. In this case their plans seem to be very long term. If I have to be disarmed to go some place I would rather not go there at all, except for maybe a short visit. I'm not interested in any kind of long term involvement with such a country.

Here's a story that was in the Reader's Digest a while back. It's about a pirate incident in the Gulf of Aden. They rammed a pirate boat and he fired his shotgun 6 times then the pirates went away. I don't think the pirates knew he had a shotgun until they had come real close trying to board

Adventures on the High Seas | Action Stories | Reader's Digest

And I hope everyone here can do better than this:

Rod Nowlin lifted his weapon to fire back, but found himself face-to-face with another pirate. This one was no more than 17 years old.

"He was a young kid, on a boat filled with men," Nowlin says. "And I was looking at him, right in the eye, and I couldn't shoot him."

 

[ffiill]

Looks like you will never be leaving the USA then!
Believe as I recall that something like 90% of all homicides involving firearms in the US are domestic in their nature.
Just too easy when you loose your temper to pull out the gun and squeese the trigger.

 

[steel]

Believe as I recall that something like 90% of all homicides involving firearms in the US are domestic in their nature.
Just too easy when you loose your temper to pull out the gun and squeese the trigger.

How do stastics about firearms misuse in America have anything to do with sailing, or ocean piracy? I know you're probably anti-gun, but why not do it in the off topic section?

 

[Sapperwhite]

if you guys are a-scared you can come cruising with me

and that's just my dingy

 

[steel]

Are you sure you're not one of the pirates!!!

 

[nasomi]

I'd say carry a weapon. It can't hurt unless you do something completely retarded. I have 2 stashed in my rv when traveling, they're both registered to me. When in a remote location where no one can hear you scream, and encountering someone at random, what stops you from robbing them? Human decency. However not everyone has that.

 

[rgscpat]

How would Customs and border officials in various countries rate for "human decency" on your scale?

 

[Stuff4Toys]

if you guys are a-scared you can come cruising with me

and that's just my dingy

I like your style, also wondering what a carefully placed grenade would do to the tenacity of the pirates?

 

[rgscpat]

Pyrat Fantasy

I'll admit to the fantasy of building Q-ships -- vessels that look like yachts or commercial vessels but which are heavily armored and armed -- to patrol the Somali coastline and nearby areas. Of course, stopping individual pirates doesn't accomplish much unless the chief thugs who profit from the piracy can be stopped and some measure of law can be restored to that part of the world.

How does one make piracy not pay for the people who direct the piracy?

In reality, avoiding the whole area seems best, unfortunately, even if it means several thousand miles of additional voyaging and missing an opportunity to see an interesting part of the world.