JohnN:

I am not a boating afficiado and have never been in a private boat on the ocean.

Having said that and having read that all boats recovered from pirates have never had their owners found alive, I have to believe that if you are targeted, you are dead.

The advantage is always with the hunter who has a plan and sticks with it. If you are approached by pirates and you have them standing off while talking to them holding a weapon, you can bet your bottom dollar they will have someone unseen by you lining you up with a sniper rifle.

Since once encountered by pirates you are dead, to my way of thinking, I would want to take as many of them with me as possible. I would rig my boat with secreted explosives (Screw the laws at this point.) which could be detonated with proximity switches after I flick a remote activator. The idea being if they shoot you from a distance before boarding the boat, it shouldn't blow up until they pull along side, board her and start rummaging through her.

A nice little touch would be a short loud verbal jab at them ala the movie "The Mechanic" with Charles Bronson and Jan-Michael Vincent using a tape recorder activated by the same proximity switches used by the explosives with about a 3 second delay.

Bountyhunter