The common sense approach to yacht piracy

Post-tsunami the Asian pirate scene has picked up - check out the report here. This topic raises all sorts of issues...the most obvious being should one carry a weapon aboard. I had a captain who swore by one of those sawed off "line throwers" designed to fire a lead line to a towboat. I believe Mossberg makes them. It's a trade off, like anything else - if you read this account in Latitude 38 of the attack on S/V Ocean Swan in the Gulf of Aden you'll note that they were attacked by five armed Yemenese men in their 20's. Would a shotgun be enough to fend that off? And is it worth the extra attention from law enforcement and customs? One solution might be not to sail around sketchy Asian and Middle Eastern countries...we call that the common sense approach. This is a good bit on the pros and cons from a resource called "Yacht Piracy." They even have a list of yachts attacked based on press reports.