On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 18:34:08 GMT, Lew Hodgett
wrote:

Then how do you account for the skeet shooting that used to be done
from the fantail of cruise ships (before 9/11). I have fired a fair
number of rounds from fantails and found that I do no worse than I do
on land. My advise is to arm yourself. See my other post for a
suggestion on the appropriate weapon.

There was a time in my life when I was a very accomplished marksman as
well as a successful hunter.

Still own those weapons, both rifles and shotguns.

A few years ago, decided to try to use up some ammunition my father had
purchased during WWII and see if it was still good.

Went sailing one afternoon, took my trusty Model 12, Winchester shotgun
and some empty throw away beer bottles for targets.

The waves were about 2-3 ft and had about 10 knots of wind.

Set the autopilot on a beam reach, trimmed the sails, loaded the shotgun
and proceeded to conduct target practice.

About 25-30 shots later, I had failed to either hit a bottle while it
was still in the air or after it had landed in the water.

It was quite an eye opener.

Based on that afternoon, I came to the conclusion that a weapon onboard
is a bigger PITA than it is worth, especially when it will probably less
than effective than you might think.

One other thing, unless you are willing to pick up a weapon and shoot
another human being dead on the spot without even a moment's hesitation,
forget having a weapon onboard.

BTW, I'm still a pretty good marksman, on a shooting range, but not on a
boat.

YMMV

HTH

Lew