Tips from one of our Viewers: Paintballs Guns as Self Defense on a sailboat…Loaded with Pepperballs…

We recently did a controversial YouTube Video entitled “Unarmed Pirates, Thieves and Intruders: Self Defense on Sailboats”

One idea from the video which has been particularly controversial has been the use of CO2 powered paintball guns, using pepperballs in a paintball gun, as a form of self defense, instead of actual paintballs, the legality and effectiveness of them in different kinds of piracy, theft and potential boarding of a sailboat, by both “innocent”, perhaps “opportunist”, fisherman, or criminals looking to steel your money or electronics.

We received a comment from one of our viewers, Travis Allen, which was particularly interesting in regards to the use of paintball guns on a sailboat, as Self Defense, that we think you should know about; About the actual accuracy of paintball guns, the types of gas in a paintball gun, the effects of UV on a paintball gun, the adjustments you can make to a paintball marker, and the care and maintenance of paintball guns and the paintballs or pepperballs, to be sure they are there when needed. Tips and tricks of a paintball gun, if you will.

Here is Travis’ email, reprinted, with his written permission, that you may find interesting: The video is located at the end, in case you haven’t already seen it.

Written by Travis Allen, September , 2019

I grew up as an only child in a remote area of the desert off of Highway 58. My nearest grade school friends lived 3 miles away. My father worked graveyard shift at Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex which was about an hour commute one way. This left mom and me home alone at night. It can be a dangerous world and some of my earliest childhood memories are of hiding in a dark hallway with my terrified mother because someone was trying to break into our house. Hitchhikers, illegal immigrants, and sometimes even truck drivers were the culprits trying to gain access to our home. This part of the desert is in San Bernardino County which had (or perhaps still has) the distinction of being the largest county in the United States. The problem with this is there has just never been enough sheriff deputies to effectively patrol that much area. So it’s imperative to learn to defend yourself because by the time the authorities arrive everything has already happened. After the first of these incidents my parents decided that we needed something more than the fireplace poker as home defense. As such, I grew up learning how to maintain and handle firearms. From the various articles I’ve read and videos I’ve watched (and the rest of the world’s general viewpoint on guns), I can see how having a firearm onboard your vessel for self-defense can cause ridiculous hassle and, I’m sure, would simply prevent you from even visiting certain parts of the world.

All that being said, I stumbled across your YouTube video titled “Un-Armed PIRATES & INTRUDERS – Self Defense against theft on Sailboats (Patrick Childress Sailing 42)” and found it very interesting. I actually have some experience that I can draw from and would like to pass that along to you. Whether or not you decided to purchase a paintball gun as a means of non-lethal defense is up to you and none of my business. Personally, I think it’s a great idea to have as one of many means to protect yourself and, honestly, one I had not until now considered. I’m going to continue this from the assumed viewpoint that you did indeed purchase one for use. You see, I used to play paintball on an official field (sometimes not on an official field) in my hometown with my friends. This was back in the early ‘90’s and technology has changed since I stopped playing the sport but some of the principles haven’t. When I began playing, the most common (and my first) paintball guns were pump action. Slowly semi-automatic paintball guns entered the market and were comparatively expensive. I drifted away from the sport shortly before the full-auto paintball guns were introduced. Following are some things (in no particular order) that one learns when playing paintball that are not necessarily common knowledge to the average person out there.

A common misconception is that paintballs and paintball guns behave like a normal firearms and ammunition. Paintballs are not as accurate as the ammunition used in a firearm and there are a few things that factor into this.

1. The barrel on a paintball gun is typically not rifled. It’s a smooth bore and imparts no spin to the projectile. Now, to be accurate, I had seen rifled barrels on the market back when I played but I don’t recall that I ever actually knew anyone that actually used one.

2. The paintball itself does not have ballistics like the ammunition used in a firearm because it’s not a solid piece of metal. The ballistics of a paintball are a little more like that of a water balloon. The regulation muzzle velocity limit when I played was 300 feet per second. (Most official paintball fields would lower that to about 285fps to have a bit more of a safety buffer.) When the paintball is fired at these speeds it meets the resistance of the air inside the barrel. This causes the paintball to compress to a degree and at this point the paintball is no longer a sphere. This will decrease accuracy. Also, the paintball is not entirely filled with paint. The paint has a tendency to settle at the bottom of the ball. This will cause the ball to be out of balance and will affect its flight. Especially if the paintballs have been stored for a very long time. And that’s another thing. They do kind of have a shelf life. Old paintballs can get brittle and are more prone to breaking when they’re not supposed to. Such as in the chamber when the paintball gun is fired. Paintballs also have a tendency to be sensitive to weather conditions. The paintballs can swell and/or “sweat” depending on heat and humidity. Swelling can cause accuracy issues and “sweating” can cause them to stick together which can cause issues feeding into the chamber. This sticking, however, can be minimized and/or eliminated by hoppers that have a battery powered vibrator or agitator that allows for a consistent gravity feed into the chamber.

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3. The air that is pushed out of the barrel ahead of the paintball causes turbulence outside of the muzzle. Now your no longer spherical paintball has to pass through that turbulence. This decreases accuracy even further. There is some good news on this point however. You may have seen that some barrels have ports machined down the length of the barrel. Usually closer to the muzzle. This allows the air to be pushed out of the ports prior to the paintball exiting the barrel thus reducing the amount of turbulence that the paintball must travel through at the muzzle. Additionally, if you have a barrel that does not have ports machined into it, a muzzle brake can be added to a barrel and will have the same/similar effect. Most, if not all, of these are easily attached with a set screw.

4. Gas. There are two options. CO2 and Nitrogen/Compressed Air. When I first started playing the sport everything was CO2. Whether you were using the 12g cartridges or the 7oz. bottles (some people even used as large as a 20oz. bottle carried on their belt or harness and attached to the paintball gun via braided line.) it was all CO2. CO2 is relatively cheap and more easily available but the drawback is it’s much more sensitive to changes in temperature. Hot day, higher velocity. Cold day, lower velocity. Something as simple as leaving the CO2 bottle in direct sunlight on a hot day can cause the muzzle velocity to increase beyond safety limits. Additionally, the CO2 will get colder with rapid trigger use. A rapid-fire situation can quickly cool down your system and cause your muzzle velocity to fall off. This will reduce your accurate range. This can be somewhat mitigated by using an attachment called an Expansion Chamber. As a matter of fact, it looked like the first “bottle-fed” paintball gun (it looked to be a Tippman which, btw, was a pretty solid manufacturer back when I played) that Zain showed you at about 15:53 in your video was equipped with an Expansion Chamber. Notice there is a gas line running from the bottom of the primary grip to the bottom of the fore-grip. That fore-grip appears to be an Expansion Chamber. The Expansion Chamber allows for a more consistent pressure supplied to the system. It is also worth noting that the CO2 getting cold can and does damage the O-rings in the internal works of the paintball gun. (Side note: Always read and abide by the manufacturer instructions of course, but we used to put a thin coat of silicon grease on our O-rings. This seemed to increase the lifespan of the O-rings and minimize catastrophic failure during use.) These issues probably wouldn’t be experienced with a system that uses the 12g CO2 cartridges as the cartridge will be depleted before anything gets that cold. But it can and does happen with the systems that use the higher capacity bottles. The alternative is nitrogen. Nitrogen is much more stable, is not nearly as sensitive to fluctuations in temperature, does not cool with rapid-fire, and is not or not as harmful to the O-rings. The downside to Nitrogen is the cost relative to CO2. The Nitrogen/Compressed Air tanks for paintball guns are much more expensive than their CO2 counterparts. I cannot speak to the costs of refilling the Nitrogen tanks as I never personally used them. I was drifting away from the sport as they were being introduced but had I continued playing I would have definitely switched to Nitrogen.

5. Velocity adjustment. Every paintball gun I’ve ever used has had adjustable velocity and I don’t see any reason that would have changed. Some people might think to increase the velocity if they’re only planning to use the paintball gun as a non-lethal method of self-defense and not really for sport. And, on the surface of it, this makes sense. Higher velocity, more range. And let’s face it, in a self-defense situation you do want to inflict pain to deter the assailant. However, I would advise against doing this. Or at least doing this too much. Again, it comes back to the composition of the paintball. I have seen people increase the velocity in their paintball gun too high and the end result was the paintball rupturing in the chamber. Not something you would want to happen if when you’re using the pepper balls. This, of course, wouldn’t be an issue with the solid riot control balls.

Final thoughts… Try to balance price, quality, and ease of use/maintenance. Get a spare parts kit and an O-ring kit. Airgun Designs has always made a top of the line product but they can be a bit expensive. Tipmann (at least back when I used to play) was affordable and solidly built. The “Spectre” in Zain’s shop… I remember associating that name with cheap and unreliable but, to be fair, it’s been a long time. And, whatever you choose, get to know it. Practice with it. Become comfortable with it. Know its strengths and weaknesses, its accurate range, how it behaves with high fire rate. Know what you can and cannot expect from it. And I sincerely hope you never have to use it. But, if you do… as the saying goes “It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.” I still find it amazing how much that applies to so many things in life.

As much as the sailing community such as yourselves, Sailing La Vagabonde, Sailing Nahoa, Sailing Uma, and Emerald Steel have given me by sharing your stories, knowledge, and advice through articles, podcasts, and videos… Well, consider this my small way of giving back at least a little bit by sharing what I have learned through my own personal experience. And, who knows, maybe my luck will change and I’ll see you out there someday. Until then, safe travels.

Kindest Regards and Thank You,

Travis Allen

Here is that video:

Self Defense on Sailboats, against Pirates, Intruders, Thieves…

Is Cruising Still Safe?

(As seen in SAIL Magazine on August 23, 2019)

NOTE: We have since purchased a full fledge security system since this was published. Security is a big concern for us.

The authors have sailed to many countries off the beaten track

It is with great sadness that we read of the murder of New Zealand cruiser Alan Culverwell, and the attack on his family, by criminals who boarded their boat in Panama’s Guna Yala/San Blas Islands early in May. The San Blas were known as a “safe” area to cruise. Aside from petty theft, there had never been reason to believe the region was unsafe, especially when compared to some of the area’s cities.

Many cruisers feel that living aboard, even in exotic locations, is safer than living on land, but is it really? As cruisers, we generally anchor where nature gives us the best protection from wind and waves, not from humans. The human element is far more unpredictable than any weather forecast. What was once a friendly area can have sudden, unheard-of aggression perpetrated by desperate locals. Whether in a city or in a faraway anchorage, vigilance and security should be always in a sailor’s mind. Thieves—both the opportunistic kind who steal when no one is looking and those who aren’t afraid to board an occupied boat—have been stalking cruisers since the day the first boat circled the world. Remember Joshua Slocum sprinkling tacks on his deck in the Straits of Magellan?

You’ve got to be careful out there... the authors with their companionway screen

It only seems reasonable that if you lock the doors of your home on land, you should be just as cautious when anchoring in a pleasant cove, especially in remote or impoverished areas where you can never truly know the constitution of every individual. We ourselves had a close call with some pirates off the coast of Vietnam a couple of years ago, eventually driving them off by firing flares at them.

We think that cruisers need to get with the times, and indeed, many are now becoming aware that there are thieves and robbbers in “paradise” and that there is a definite need to lock up at night and have security cameras and alarms, and deterrents like automatic lights, signs, shoes on deck or radios playing. Some of us also carry bats, knives, spearguns, pepper sprays, flares and even guns, although in some instances, even having an AK47 would be inadequate against an ill-intentioned intruder. Still, anything is better than nothing, and even just locked doors and lights may convince a potential attacker to look elsewhere.

Of course, those intrepid cruisers who sail in advance of us are our eyes and ears, reporting on where and where not to anchor safely. As cruisers, we can then do our best to stick to where there has been no reported violence or crime, at the same time relying on intuition and awareness to guide us. Still, we need to be more cautious than we are at home because we don’t have that “home advantage.” We may not, for example, recognize that the innocent-looking village we’ve anchored off is a place even locals avoid for safety reasons. We must also hope that karma and luck are on our side: dressing down, acting poor and trying not to cause resentment of our richness as we go. We must try not to perpetuate the myth that people on boats invariably have lots of money and possessions to spare, and hope that others before us have taken similar precautions.

To 90 percent of the world, most sailboats, even our 43-year-old, cosmetically challenged Valiant 40, are “treasure ships” when the anchor is dropped. We have cruised extensively in African and Asian countries and know that the simple act of hanging our laundry out to dry can demonstrate just how much we have compared to the local who feels lucky to have only an old T-shirt and a patched pair of britches. Even though most people in poverty-stricken communities have good hearts and respect others, the odds of experiencing crime, dishonesty or aggression increase as the population becomes familiar with the relative abundance that even the poorest of cruisers possess. There is always a tiny minority that a cruiser either has to guard against or roll the dice and take their chances with. The consequences can run the gamut from the theft of an outboard engine to being physically accosted with a serious outcome. We have taken measure to protect our boat and ourselves from thieves and pirates; there are details on our website (see below).

Many cruisers feel that their hard work earned the nice life they live afloat. We are also fortunate, though, to have been born in places that allow hard workers to get ahead the way we have. That guy who paddles up to you in his beat-up canoe likely worked just as hard as you and has taken advantage of every opportunity he had. But even having many successful days of fishing doesn’t bring the same material rewards.

Certainly, most cruisers can spare some of their possessions. We always have some trading items—sunglasses, shorts, shirts, fishing line, hooks, old pots and pans—on hand to exchange for the fruits, vegetables, fish and handicrafts that most islanders have for barter. Even if we don’t really need these goods, we see the effort they are making and try to help.

Unfortunately, as the world population grows, and the world’s resources remain the same (or even degrade) the resulting economic pressure will inevitably cause at least some people to want to squeeze even more from the passing treasure ships that cruise the world. What begins as their simple attempts to steal the possessions we cannot afford to share, and our attempts to guard against them will sometimes result in dire consequences.

Worse yet, away from daily television reports of crime, and with only intermittent word-of-mouth reports of crime in far-off anchorages, it is easy for cruisers to get soft and let their guard down—whether by leaving the dinghy tied alongside rather than hauling it out of the water every night, or worrying about power conservation instead of leaving a bright light on in the cockpit. Granted, it’s a lovely way to live, but sooner or later, there will be trouble. Are those friendly, smiling fishermen rowing by and offering fish actually sizing up their victim? We should not believe that we leave all our worries behind when we leave our homeland.

We have cruising friends and acquaintances who have been attacked and robbed. We’ve also had friends who have been taken from their boat and held hostage. Some made it out alive. Others did not. That makes us, as cruisers, more cautious about where and how we cruise, and where we anchor. As cruisers, we need to take more precautions like those living on land already are. We need to face reality, beef up our security and not live in the daydream we enjoyed in the past.

NOTE: BBe sure to subscribe for our next blog that is being written right now about Rebecca’s struggle back to South Africa with a full security in her carry on luggage!

At the time of writing, Patrick and Rebecca Childress were refitting their Valiant 40, Brick House, in Tanzania, Africa, before heading around the tip of South Africa and into the South Atlantic. You can keep up with their adventures on whereisbrickhouse.com

Patricks Home brewed security traps:

Wandering the globe…on a 40 ft Sailboat

Tag: Security on a sailboat

Paintball Guns:Alternative Self Defense Weapon on a Sailboat Against Un-Armed Thieves and Intruders: Tips and Tricks

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