Mike wrote:

Pirate attacks and armed robbery on the high seas have tripled ....

What puzzles me about yacht attacks is that most victims carry no means
of defense. They are hardly cowardly or they wouldn't be at sea and most
do as best they can when attacked. Nor are they stupid. Most have safety
gear aboard. Nor are the attacks unforseen. Many are on yachts who's
owners had the foresight to be sailing in a group for mutual protection.
Yet none have any means to protect themselves, let alone anybody else.
In one instance the man had time to crawl out the foreward hatch, lock
the main hatch, then jump back down and dog the fwd hatch; all while 4
(IIRC) pirates boarded. In another, a group of yachts was pursued for
hours as the range closed from 200 meters to almost nothing before a
merchantman scared the pirates away. Both offered plenty of opportunity
to engage the pirates had weapons been aboard, but they were not.

At the same time a friend returning from Iraq described being shot with
an AK-47 7 times at point blank range. It broke several ribs but his new
state-of-the-art flak vest stopped the bullets allowing him to kill his
attacker.

So, I really cannot understand why so many yachts are *knowingly* sailed
into harm's way without a rifle or shotgun plus a good vest aboard. Is
there some odd moral stigma attached to shooting pirates or some
unnatural fear of weapons involved here???