Divert the evidence

May 26, 2011 updated 23: 19 GMT on the Ohio River in West Virginia, a company shows how to defend ships against hacker attacks.Despite the growing scourge of piracy Somali, scores of sailors have taken this year to yachts in the dangerous waters off the coast of the Horn of Africa, and at least three have been attacked. The BBC Daniel Nasaw in Washington asked whether it was possible to keep a yacht from the pirates.

It was high morning in the middle of the Oman Sea, more than 600 miles of the Earth, when the hijackers struck Capricorn.

Somali Marauders have opened fire on the yacht of 22 m (72 ft), then clambered on board as the Dutch master and engineer takes refuge in the engine room.

During this time, a team of armed Ukrainian guards on a m 42 former vessel of war, committed as an escort returned fire, then came alongside of Capricorn. A guard jumped on board and raised his weapon, and the pirates fled on their skiff.

The boat suffered minor damage and the crew was injured.

"They were, course, a bit of shock,", said Thomas Jakobsson, Chief of operations for the naval guards, the Cardiff-based company providing an escort ship.

"If you're not used to having people draw on you - and I imagine that even if you are - it is always an unpleasant experience."

War zone

Capricorn is one of the yachts at least 133 who sailed the region this year, according to the Maritime Security Centre - Horn of Africa, an agency of the European Union.

Marc Adams took a detour of 1 000 miles to avoid pirates, but was within eight miles of attack

While most pirates are commercial vessels, at least three yachts have been hit this year and the attack on Capricorn was the only story with a happy ending.

In February, four Americans were killed after that pirates hijacking their yacht, the quest, off the coast of the Oman. The same month pirates seized seven Danes, including three teenagers, their yacht ING.

"My advice is fairly consistent: do not come if you do not,"said Capt. Michael Lodge for the U.S. Maritime Liaison Office in Bahrain, which advised ships circulating in the region. ".

"If you decide to come to you must carefully consider the risks associated with the trip." "Plan, be aware of the dangers".

M. Jakobsson, a former soldier of the special forces of the Sweden, was more blunt.

"Go bicycle camping in Afghanistan," said. "I am certain that this is the same experience."

Change of plans to continue the reading of the main story

When you talk of armed security guards, you will need to speak to kill people. "It is simply not a solution"

end quote Bill Rouse this year, dozens of boaters found themselves in Sri Lanka, the Maldives or India port with a difficult decision before one of them.

Sailors said to the BBC, they had been aware of the growing threat of piracy, but after his arrival in the Indian Ocean after long sailing in Asia, they found the number of attacks by pirates had exceeded their expectations and changed their plans.

Turning is can mean a long sailing against the prevailing winds or a journey through the North treacherous Pacific of the Japan in Alaska. A southern journey around the South Africa can add months to travel and there are always risks.

Marc and Jane Adams, the Americans looking to the Tower of the world in 2008 with their children, have opted to sail north of the Maldives, hugging the Pakistani, and Indian coasts of fuel combustion and the addition of 1,000 miles from their tripuntil they reach Oman.

Mr. Adams and two crew members continued in the Gulf of Aden. March 1, eight kilometres from their a vessel was attacked by pirates - so close that they saw distress rockets take to the sky.

"We tried to bugs as fast as they could", Mr. Adams said in a telephone interview from Suez, Egypt. "We are not armed, we are sitting ducks, it's dark, we're a sailboat. "It is about as fear that you most want to be."

Security Kit

Secure a yacht is much harder than a cargo ship, because it is slow, low in the water and unable to throw up a wake high mixing advanced pirate skiffs.

The Rouses, illustrated in Tonga with a young friend, paid for the transportation of their sailing yacht rather than risk

But a number of us, the UK companies and European came on the market with products and services, they say can reduce the risks to the brave sailors - or foolhardy - is enough to navigate the pirate waters.

Companies will provide guards armed docking on the boat of the client or on a ship escort of great power, train yacht owners and crews on how to identify and respond to a threat of pirate and provide a range of kit to keep hackers remotelyOnce they have approached the yacht.

US-based International Maritime Security Network is developing a system for yachts that will take a pirate shower approaching with slick green, foul-smelling liquid.

"The last thing they want to do now is draw what, said Director General Tim Nease." They want to jump in the water, and I hope that sharks are hungry. It is sufficient to escape. You can not breath in, you can not breath out. It consumes, it stinks. "It is bad."

"Killed or captured".

Americans Bill and Judy Rouse last month cancelled their plans to sail their yacht of 16 m across the Indian Ocean - and instead paid approximately $30,000 (￡ 18,240) to load the boat on a cargo ship.

The couple left St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands five years ago with plans to sail around the world. But when they reach Cochin, India in February, Mr. Rouse previous tracks three months hijack attacks in the region.

"It was definitely a game changer", he said in an interview with Skype of male in the Maldives. And, "when you talk of armed security guards you need to speak to kill people." It is simply not a solution. ?

If the disappointed couple spent weeks to find other owners of yachts to join with the hiring of a transport vessel, which left the male in April with more than a dozen other yachts loaded on board.

Mr. Rouse had a warning for all those seeking to navigate the Indian Ocean.

"There are really no alternative to the yachts such as ours, there are simply not," said. "A combination of a yacht and pirates will end only one way, and it is the people on the yacht will be killed or captured."

If you must go: experts in security have a range of advice on how to reduce the risk of attack, and companies are offering or developing products and services, they say can help