Defense!

[Gary_H]

If you are in us territory carry whatever is allowed by the State who's waters you are in. It's when you are in foreign ports that you have to be careful. Don't carry a weapon so nice that you would hesitate to dump it over the side if necessary. That's why weapons that can be made of components that by themselves are legal would be useful. barrel and chamber liners can turn a flare gun into a twelve gauge pistol but can be removed and disguised as deck hardware. flare rounds can be reloaded to fire shot but would appear as a regular flare round. A crossbow can be made of components that when disassembled would look just like a assortment of spare parts normally found on a boat. As mentioned before a flame thrower can be built of things normally found on a boat. Scuba tanks, propane bottles, high pressure hoses, gasoline, oil, soap, valves all are not out of place on a boat.
Then there is the full size inflatable mock-up of a Los Angeles class attack submarine conning tower that you can inflate upon approach of a suspicious vessel.

 

[heritage]

A few years ago, my wife and I were on our sailboat headed to Luperon, DR., from the Turks and Caicos. Out of nowhere an unmarked open skiff with four men on board came our way. They all had brown pants, white tee shirts, and the one that seemed to be the boss had a brown baseball cap on. One man was at the tiller and the other two each had large guns. As they got closer, I could see that the boss had a holster and pistol. He spoke good English and asked if we had seen any square things floating in the ocean and if so, had we picked any up. We said no, of course. They believed us and took off. They were looking for cocaine that had been thrown overboard or from a sunk boat, we don't know which.

If we would have been carrying a weapon, what would I have done? We had no idea if these were the good guys or the bad guys. I feel certain that if I had even shown them that I had a gun we would have been toast regardless of whose side they were on. I think that our situation is typical of what a cruising sailor might across, at least in the Western Hemisphere.

 

[Gary_H]

As far as I'm concerned in international waters the only good guys are US Navy or US Coast Guard. Anyone else is a suspect. In your case If I had a weapon it would have been with a crew member locate out of sight while I made contact with the suspects and tried to determine their intentions.

 

[MrBill_FLL]

I thought canada and mexico allowed you to bring weapons if they were kept locked up and declared.

bahamas had strict rules on declaring weapons AND AMMO, but they can be kept aboard.

heritage, what would you have done if they really were bad guys?

 

[heritage]

Who says they weren't.

 

[Nom De Guerre]

Who says they weren't.

I suspect he means bad enough to take possession of your vessel at gunpoint or worse, even though you were unarmed.

 

[Dave Groshong]

I'm not recommending it, but with an insert, you can shoot a shotgun shell out of a flare gun:

http://www.marsec4.com/2011/02/dealing-death-with-a-flare-gun/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xk940-ArGo

 

[Bob McL]

In Mexico you are in trouble if you have ANY ammo, even without a way to fire it!

 

[Slow Mo^cean]

Just do what the cartels do.... Drag an underwater drogue with all your weapons and ammo. If Smokey tries to give you trouble, just cut the line, then go retrieve it later..

 

[Bad Obsession]

This is a hard topic with a lot of damned if you do and damned if you don't aspects to it. At some point you have to consider if it is better to be able to defend yourself and risk spending time in a foreign jail or be vulnerable to modern pirates. Sadly, there is no realistic in between ground on this topic.

I am lucky enough to be able to carry anywhere in American waters. Outside of American waters, I doubt that I would carry a weapon. I think that I would stick to waters that were safer and travel in a group as much as I could.

One last part of the equation is that you have to practice with what you carry. As a firearms instructor I can tell you that there are a lot of people who carry and they don't practice with what they carry. Also, marksmanship is hard enough in an environment that is constantly moving, add stress to that and it makes for really hard shooting. Forget being able to shoot distance because you won't be able to make a precise shot.

 

[DJW]

You may not be able to make a precise shot at long distances like the Navy Seals did but you might be able get someone's attention or put a hole or 2 in the boat which might cause them to go looking some where else?

Dennis

 

[robertsapp]

I've often wondered what would happen if you hooked up a heavy duty electric fence charger to bare stainless steel lifelines. Maybe all you'd have to do is flip a breaker to repel boarders.

I suspect though that this would only work against the late night stealth boarding where someone wants to get aboard, grab your outboard, and leave without being noticed. I'd worry that the guys on the speedboat with the machine guns would just get pissed off at being zapped and empty a few magazines into your hull to express their unhappiness.

I have seen someone suggest that you paint a large diagonal orange stripe on both sides of your bow. This could act as a long distance deterrent.