and the europeans made fun of the guy who asked about a gun on
his cruising boat a few months back ...something about gun crazy
americans !! fine call me crazy too

i'm wondering about guns on board too. the subject comes up a lot in
different books and articles and things i've been reading about
cruising, and in the cruising forums, and there are plenty of piracy
reports out there to read too. i don't have a clear opinion on it yet,
i'm still thinking about it.

"purple_stars" wrote in news:1138781464.278709.56780
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

i'm wondering about guns on board too. the subject comes up a lot in
different books and articles and things i've been reading about
cruising, and in the cruising forums, and there are plenty of piracy
reports out there to read too. i don't have a clear opinion on it yet,
i'm still thinking about it.



I know a German who cruises a big boat, alone most of the time. (Rich,
electric winches, lots of automation)

He was attacked in Asia by several men in a big powerboat.

As his boat was custom designed with a hidden arsenal that's quite
ingenious and easily accessed, he opened his stash and grabbed his
scattergun and a Russian hand grenade waiting for them at the ladder to his
cockpit.

As the fast boat came along side, and to the astonishment of the pirates,
he pulled the pin on the grenade and simply dropped it into their boat
before they could raise their weapons. Of course, panic ensued and the
powerboat veered off with everyone aboard frantically trying to get to the
grenade before it went off. They didn't have enough time and the grenade
blew the pirates apart, sinking the boat and killing them all.

Rule #12 - Don't attack Germans in nice yachts. They don't play dead.

I am singlehanding in the Med since a couple of years.
If you have weapons onboard, I think you must declare them to the
authorities upon entry to each country, at least in Europe. They will most
likely be confiscated for the time you spend in the country, and returned to
you when you are leaving the country. Failure to do so is upon discovery
likely to get you into BIG trouble.

As an example, in the summer of 2004 I was boarded at sea by the French
customs in the English Channel. Three armed officers boarded my boat and
spent 1 hour searching my boat, all while sailing 5-6 knots. Discovery of a
weapon would likely have caused me lots of trouble.

Also, with a weapon you have to be prepared to use it without slightest
hesitation, and you might find that you just killed a couple of fishermen
trying to earn a dollar or 2.
Martin

--
i'm wondering about guns on board too. the subject comes up a lot in
different books and articles and things i've been reading about
cruising, and in the cruising forums, and there are plenty of piracy
reports out there to read too. i don't have a clear opinion on it yet,
i'm still thinking about it.

In article ,
"Martin Hinders" wrote:

They will most
likely be confiscated for the time you spend in the country, and returned to
you when you are leaving the country.

Only if you don't have a Bondable Customs Locker.....Do you really think
that all the Commercial Shipping, spend their timer InPort transporting
the contents of their Arms Locker, to, and from, the Customs
Office.......

"Martin Hinders" wrote in news:VL3Ef.6505$Sk1.195938
@news20.bellglobal.com:

Failure to do so is upon discovery
likely to get you into BIG trouble.


I agree. But you'd have to see how carefully hidden they are, nearly in
plain sight.

The other thing is we are talking about a very expensive, custom-made
yacht. This comes with its own "aura". The rich don't get inspected like
us poor folks in the sloppy-looking sloop from 1977. It seems a lot of
things are "overlooked" when one pulls in looking like you're gonna leave
$10000 a day on the local economy and not pinch every penny. Get my drift?

The other thing, in many places on the planet, is just an outright bribe
and no inspection need take place at all....(c;

Larry wrote:
"Martin Hinders" wrote in news:VL3Ef.6505$Sk1.195938
@news20.bellglobal.com:


Failure to do so is upon discovery
likely to get you into BIG trouble.



I agree. But you'd have to see how carefully hidden they are, nearly in
plain sight.

The other thing is we are talking about a very expensive, custom-made
yacht. This comes with its own "aura". The rich don't get inspected like
us poor folks in the sloppy-looking sloop from 1977. It seems a lot of
things are "overlooked" when one pulls in looking like you're gonna leave
$10000 a day on the local economy and not pinch every penny. Get my drift?

The other thing, in many places on the planet, is just an outright bribe
and no inspection need take place at all....(c;


http://abcasiapacific.com/news/stori...es_1256065.htm

Chris Packer is a millionaire yachtsman who has gotten into a ton of
trouble in Bali when police found weapons aboard his yacht.

He's facing 20 years in an Indonesian prison.

Evan Gatehouse

On Wed, 01 Feb 2006 20:27:52 -0800, Evan Gatehouse
wrote:



http://abcasiapacific.com/news/stori...es_1256065.htm

Chris Packer is a millionaire yachtsman who has gotten into a ton of
trouble in Bali when police found weapons aboard his yacht.

He's facing 20 years in an Indonesian prison.

Is he related to Kerry Packer, the Aussie media baron? Oops...

(Hi, Evan! How's the cat construction going?)

R.

While reading rec.boats.cruising, I noticed Evan Gatehouse
felt compelled to write:

Larry wrote:
"Martin Hinders" wrote in news:VL3Ef.6505$Sk1.195938
@news20.bellglobal.com:


Failure to do so is upon discovery
likely to get you into BIG trouble.



I agree. But you'd have to see how carefully hidden they are, nearly in
plain sight.

The other thing is we are talking about a very expensive, custom-made
yacht. This comes with its own "aura". The rich don't get inspected like
us poor folks in the sloppy-looking sloop from 1977. It seems a lot of
things are "overlooked" when one pulls in looking like you're gonna leave
$10000 a day on the local economy and not pinch every penny. Get my drift?

The other thing, in many places on the planet, is just an outright bribe
and no inspection need take place at all....(c;


http://abcasiapacific.com/news/stori...es_1256065.htm

Chris Packer is a millionaire yachtsman who has gotten into a ton of
trouble in Bali when police found weapons aboard his yacht.

He's facing 20 years in an Indonesian prison.

Evan Gatehouse

He was convicted and set free, must have been a year ago. Got three
months or something, less time than he'd been in gaol awaiting trial
in any case.

From memory he'd fired some Scottish backpacker who was crewing as a
cook, who retaliated by dobbing him in for alleged gun-running,
terrorism and drug-smuggling. It was all bull****, but the Indonesian
Military turned up in force to investigate and found a couple of
undeclared shotguns and a rifle.

The weapons weer all found to have been documented, God only knows why
he didn't declare them - I'm sure he wishes he had.

His 'yacht' was a 60m freighter, btw.

Ian

See http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...2/s1306875.htm

They let him off with a 3 month sentence, although he could have
gotten the death penalty.

"Former champion yachtsman Chris Packer has spoken about his three
months in an Indonesian prison.
The 52-year-old was released from jail on Saturday after a court in
Denpasar convicted him of firearms offences on Friday.
Mr Packer was found guilty of violating a law relating to not having
declared firearms kept on his vessel, the Lissa."
Mr Packer says he tried not to think of the possibility of receiving the
death penalty while in prison because it was too depressing.
He says he has had bad luck.
"Unlucky to have got in trouble in the first place I think," he said.
"We had no bad intentions or anything like that, so unlucky.
"If I'd declared my guns perhaps I would have had a much better time in
Bali."

A similar news item says that he refused to talk about whether
money was paid to the authorities to secure his release until
he was out of Indonesia.

Don W.



He was convicted and set free, must have been a year ago. Got three
months or something, less time than he'd been in gaol awaiting trial
in any case.

From memory he'd fired some Scottish backpacker who was crewing as a
cook, who retaliated by dobbing him in for alleged gun-running,
terrorism and drug-smuggling. It was all bull****, but the Indonesian
Military turned up in force to investigate and found a couple of
undeclared shotguns and a rifle.

The weapons weer all found to have been documented, God only knows why
he didn't declare them - I'm sure he wishes he had.

His 'yacht' was a 60m freighter, btw.

Ian

Larry wrote:


I know a German who cruises a big boat, alone most of the time. (Rich,
electric winches, lots of automation)

He was attacked in Asia by several men in a big powerboat.

As his boat was custom designed with a hidden arsenal that's quite
ingenious and easily accessed, he opened his stash and grabbed his
scattergun and a Russian hand grenade waiting for them at the ladder to his
cockpit.

As the fast boat came along side, and to the astonishment of the pirates,
he pulled the pin on the grenade and simply dropped it into their boat
before they could raise their weapons. Of course, panic ensued and the
powerboat veered off with everyone aboard frantically trying to get to the
grenade before it went off. They didn't have enough time and the grenade
blew the pirates apart, sinking the boat and killing them all.

Rule #12 - Don't attack Germans in nice yachts. They don't play dead.

We were cruising off the coast of Mexico when a large shrimp boat
seemed intent on running us down. We dodged one way, they followed on
a collision course. They kept coming closer and closer and we were
seriously worried that their intent wasn't pure to say the least.

Turned out that their refrigeration compressor had died and they
wanted to come aboard to borrow our VHF to call their ship's agent to
arrange for a replacement. If we had weapons, might we have pulled
them out at some time during this encounter?

I don't know, but I think the risk of dying in some third world taxi
or bus is about 100x higher than being killed by pirates. Robbed,
maybe, but fatalities are very rare.

Evan Gatehouse