Inspired by this thread, what about the guy who owns a small cabin cruiser and wants to sail it internationally with family or maybe with another couple? I’m thinking that a boat that sleeps 9 might have 6 adults on board at best.
I can see storing properly licenced shotguns and pistols, but what will the Coast Guard, the Harbor Master, the Miami PD, the local country PD, or even the ‘West Palm Image-Posier Yacht Club’ allow beyond that? (Or will they even allow that? Remember, this is the same gutless administration that’d crap its pants if a nail clipper actually made it onboard an airplane…)
Lets assume that 45 foot yacht with all the bangs & whistles is worth about a million profit once ‘privateered’, that piracy with intent to resell / run drugs is a very real possibility, and that leaving captured live witnesses might be considered to be a very real liability.
Ever see the conclusion of The Big Chill? I would really NOT want to take a flare gun round to the stomach while trying to board a boat, and if the boarding boat is close enough, and not particularly armored a very round to teh fuel tank would have nasty results. Also very pistols tend to be common boating equipment [there is even an international flare color ‘language’ ]
If I were a real rich guy, I would try to strike a deal with a poor country, and get the boat flagged as a naval vessel for the country. Then mount a deck cannon and a couple of .5" Brownings.
There is no convention governing the carriage of weapons in international waters by private vessels. The possession of privately owned firearms on private vessels are governed by the applicable laws of their home port(s). Commercial flag vessels are similarly governed by the applicable laws of their nation of registry as to registry, type and storage of weapons; however, the IMO International Ship and Port Facility Security Code further assigns or restricts the possession and storage of weapons on commercial vessels.
Inside territorial waters, the governing law of the country in question generally prevails, except where modified by code adopted from ISPS or international treaties. For the sake of convenience most nations, even those with highly restrictive firearm laws, permit ships carrying a small number of weapons to enter territorial waters. However, weapons usually either have to be handed over to maritime authorities for storage or stored in a bonded onboard safe as dictated by the customs requirements of the nation in question. In general, as a private person you can’t keep accessible firearms at access inside the territorial waters of another nation.
The practice of carrying firearms for defense on the high seas is a somewhat dubious proposition. Piracy of private vessels is relatively rare and mostly limited to areas in which violent conflict is endemic; even then, the preference is to attack commercial vessels carrying valuable cargo or large payrolls. Pirates who raid private vessels are at the bottom of the totum poll, essentially the equivilent of liquor store holdup men; usually not well armed or equipped. Such types usually remain in littoral waters; as such, actions that occur in defense are regulated under the applicable nation’s law, and many nations do not recogize the use of firearms for self-defense, which may place you in the nasty position of being rightous and in a foriegn prison for the rest of your life. Attacks on the high seas are virually unheard of, given the vast amount of space and unlikelyhood of running across a suitable target for piracy.
The best bet for avoiding being the victim of pirates is to remain on regular shipping lines which are routinely patrolled by the nation’s coastal forces. Firing on pirates may drive some unsophisticated members of that community away; it may also encourage retaliatory fire. I don’t think I’d want to play Horatio Hornblower with a Mossburg 500 Marinier in a fiberglass hull boat versus Somali bandits armed with AK-47s and RPG-7s; better to make best sail away and radio for assistance. I’m not trying to argue for passivity as a principle, but quite frankly your chances of standing up against a concerted attack by people you can’t simply outrun is between little and none.
By the way, a 45’ yacht of known registry isn’t going to be worth anything like US$1M once it has been stolen. Sure, you can fake registry papers, but authorities are going to be on the lookout for a missing yacht of that description, and it isn’t as if there are typically thousands of boats of the same plan floating in and out. Piracy is generally about stealing onboard cash and valuables, not acquiring transport for drug running.
Usually recreational cruisers try to convoy in those areas. Also as usual the predators try to cut the weakest member from the herd.
Many vessels do carry weapons but for practical reasons it’s just small arms. Shotguns, hand guns, flare pistols, scuba type spear guns.
In the old days some have been known to carry more intense weaponry in the Bahamas and South Florida where piracy by drug runners was not unknown. The Coast Guard would board and inspect and record serial numbers. They weren’t terribly interested in cruising sailboats and your converted M-1 might stay safely hidden in the ceiling liner. In the old days.
In Somalia type countries one of the problems is visual ID of who’s coming at you. You may see them on radar for quite a while before you get a visual and then it may be a military looking vessel and you can’t be sure until the s**t hits the fan which way its going. A very tough situation to call for civilians.
Often the pirates have no interest in a sailboat but cash, electronics, and other things they can recognise. Unfortunately they can do some serious damage through their ignorance of how a sailboat works such as cutting stays and halyards. Not to mention scratching your new Awlgrip. Best thing to do is let one board and take everything and put it in your dinghy and away he goes.
A Somolian pirate crew that bothers to hit a sailboat is desperate for food money not bounty on the high seas. Best to conduct the transaction as quickly as possible and get the hell out of there.
d’oh Big Easy … blame it on the migraine I am fighting.
Still, the ending of the movie has someone getting popped full in teh chest with a flare from a very gun. Anything designed to blow up in a pouf of light generating phosphorus and chemicals in the chest is not going to give that person a warm and fuzzy feeling about their welcome.