The Gun Counter

Those are probably Optimist class boats that you see...

Sabots...

Netpackrat wrote: https://bateau.com/proddetail.php?prod=D5

Yep, Sabots. Cat rigged, no way to trim sail, big enough for a man and a small boy, or two medium sized boys. Took two men to haul it down to the water from the parking lot.
My dad built a bunch of those for him and his friends. As each dad took his off the jig, he'd say something like, "I'll finish this at home, see you later!"
Except the school teacher and the commercial artist, each of whom told me individually at a later time that he knew he could never finish it on his own, so he stuck around to help Dad finish his, so he'd finish theirs. I remember sailing with them at Mother's Beach in Marina del Rey. Such scuzzy water, I felt sorry for Hoyle Schweitzer who was inventing a way to sail his windsurfer there about the same time (how close I was to stardom!).

Interesting, learn something new every day. Apparently the Sabot is another one-design class of similar size to the Opti, but rather than being a worldwide thing, they are mainly prevalent in SoCal, where they originated. The Sabot design is a few years older, and thus had time to get established in the local area, so the Optimist (which started on the east coast and is now a worldwide thing) has been slow to make inroads there. Per some of what I was just reading, the Sabot is somewhat more affordable since the pressure of national and international competition has inflated Opti costs a lot (at least if you want to be competitive).

Neither boat really seems to fit what I am trying to achieve, although the Sabot is a lot closer. I'm mainly trying to build something for the kids to have fun in and learn to sail, that later on can be used as a tender for a bigger boat if we (or they) decide to get one. The way these things tend to go, I will probably end up building two, but at least the stitch and glue building method is a relatively fast way to build a boat.

My only sailing experience consists of a week's sailing merit badge course at Scout camp as a teenager, so it's going to be a learning (and re-learning) process for me, as well.

So, I had a thought about this... It is common for boaters to carry flares and flare launchers, for signalling in case of emergencies. In the US specifically, 37mm flare launchers are perfectly legal to own, so long as one does not have any anti-personnel rounds for it. If you want to play that game, you have to register it as a destructive device and pay the $200 tax, and I think that each such anti-personnel round also must be registered with its own $200 tax stamp.

So, the big question is how do other countries treat the 37mm flare gun? Is it a weapon, or a signalling device? If the latter, then it would be a normal piece of kit likely to be found aboard any vessel. In that case, file your Forms 1 to turn your 37mm launcher into a Destructive Device, and create however many anti-personnel rounds you may require (I never said this would be cheap). Now you have an anti-pirate device that is perfectly legal to own, although if tooling around in US waters you will likely need to file a Form 20 for interstate transport and be sure to visit only DD friendly states.

Once in international waters, after you have passed through the pirate-infested area, and before you enter the waters of a jurisdiction that approves of flare launchers but not of weapons, the anti-personnel rounds go over the side, along with whatever hard copies of your NFA paperwork that you were carrying. Flare launcher goes back into the signalling kit, and as far as local customs is concerned, your flare gun for some reason has the name of a trust (which perhaps also owns your yacht) and your home port engraved upon it. Possibly there are even a number of flare casings similarly marked, which are either empty, or have been loaded with actual flares. I doubt they will have any clue as to the significance of any of that, as long as the launcher and flares are legal there to begin with.

So, what kind of rounds could one create for their DD-registered flare gun? At the very least, you could have a big honking shotgun, and I will note that lead sinkers for fishing are a common item aboard boats the world over. Second, the precursor materials for a thermite incendiary are similarly unremarkable, and I'm sure there are other possibilities. For that matter the actual 37mm flares probably wouldn't do a pirate vessel any good, given 3rd world maintenance standards and the likelihood of there being fuel in their bilges that could be ignited. Chamber inserts for actual rifle cartridges are also a possibility, and could be created cheaply enough that having to toss them overboard wouldn't be the end of the world, financially.

An interview of a cruiser friend of the couple in question that provides a bit of background into the guy's mentality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_3j3aLtiaU

Some necromancy because I had another thought along these lines... Does anybody know of a resource showing what is the legality of flamethrowers in various cruising-applicable jurisdictions around the world? Seems like one of those would have a great deal of applicability as an anti-pirate device, and plenty of countries probably haven't gotten around to outlawing them. Additionally, it would be far easier to disguise one than a firearm on a typical cruising yacht. Mount it in the engine compartment, add some dummy plumbing, and it can look like part of your dive tank or other air compressor setup, etc.

Granted, it doesn't have nearly the range of a firearm, but given the primary objective of pirates (to get paid), they have to get close enough to board you anyway, and there's likewise no percentage for them in shooting first and asking questions later, since only live hostages can be ransomed. So you'll almost certainly get the opportunity to employ it as they come alongside.

I would think the whole fire is the second worse enemy on a boat thing would come in. But animated flaming pirate candles does paint a pretty image.

Some friends of a friend of mine, recently sailed much of the world for 18 months. They carried a KSG with them the entire time. When they sold the sail boat in the Caymens, it had to go overboard as no way to take it on the plane back to the states. I think they just used the shut up theory on ownership.

One strategy I heard about firearms was that prior going into whatever harbor you were using, you offload what ever you wanted onto another about outside the international boundary line.

Or set up your own buoyed marker, set with a GPS.

That is just what I heard some security companies were doing.

Precision wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2019 3:37 pm I would think the whole fire is the second worse enemy on a boat thing would come in. But animated flaming pirate candles does paint a pretty image.

Yep absolutely. But if the alternative is getting boarded and subjected to the tender mercies of pirates, then it is probably worth the risk. And good housekeeping on your own deck can mitigate that a lot.

tender mercies of pirates -- sound a bit like being thankful for the "natural" ichor on tentacles in tentacle porn.

propane flame thrower vs liquid goop flame thrower would probably be a better choice too.