AIBU to think a Russian ship firing in home waters matters?

Exactly. Little boats yaw about 10 degrees anyway.

I heard one of the silly old buggers sailors say they changed course by 2 degrees when they heard the five blasts..... Yeah, like that's going to be noticed....

5m?! Jesus, did they have a death wish?! I cannot imagine anyone sensible on a yacht getting any closer to a ship than they absolutely have to - surely everyone knows ships take ages to slow or turn, and if you get too close to them (or their wash!) you're toast.

And neither is it normal for a pair of dozy pensioners to sail their gin palace pretty much straight towards a warship despite it doing the maritime equivalent of jumping up and down waving its arms about and shouting 'Please Fuck Off'. What exactly do you want people to be doing about it?

You don't adjust your course " a little " if you are being greeted with 5 blasts of a ships horn. You adjust it decisively. You then sail a bit till they can see you are clear and then you get back on the course you wanted to do

We see numpties all the time in the Solent who seem to lack any understanding of how to behave around big ships

I stand corrected. Any old tit can buy a boat and set sail.
As we see here.

What licenses?

They weren’t firing naval guns, it was small arms.

This is a story of two old, incompetent sailors, not abiding by maritime law, getting a fright.
They should have their licenses revoked, fucking idiots.

smaller vessels have a different idea of close to big ones. I was drifting around on a cargo ship once when a vessel under sail headed straight for us, we had a short chat on the radio were I told them I wasn't going to go anywhere and they passed about 5m clear of us. No way would I have been happy if I'd had power on. I am sure my ship mates at the time would have been very whistle happy at that, luckily no one gave them fire arms.

Might be worth bearing in mind the Russian response might in no small way have been conditioned by the losses their navy has suffered at the hands of small uncrewed drone vessels...

Wonder what a USN response might have been in similar circumstances (see USS Cole for refefence)?

I guess I don't mean normal in the sense of happens everyday. More that in the normal course if things someone might think "bit odd they did that/alright mate we've seen you" and it not make any news.

They said they had seen it and weren't expecting to hit it. The ship blew the horn 5 times which they took to mean "have you seen us" and they adjusted their course a bit in order to signal "yes we've seen you". The ship then fired warning shots. Sojce I wasn't there and don't know much about shioping I don't know if the people on the frigate were being overzealous or if the couple in the boat were being complacent. Or a mix of the two. The Russian governments description seems quite overly dramatic though.

Firing rounds is aggressive end of, and plays no part in any international shipping regulations I've read. 12 years in the merchant navy showed me vessels with sails and warships do some odd things.

Should we be making a fuss? Possibly.

Don't apologise for being worried @Gizzaeycon you are meant to just pipe up when it comes to Russia planting fake rent boy stories. There's a big security risk to this country and it's sitting in No 10.

Limited sailing experience but we were once sailing off the French coast in foggy conditions.

We could hear a large ship, we could smell it (diesel) but we couldn't see it because of the fog. We watched the radar to make sure we were not on intercepting course Cannot understand why this yacht had not spotted the Russian vessel on their radar and already adjusted their course.

It was a frigate.
Obviously it had guns.

It wasn’t in British waters, it was in Intenational waters.

I don't know if warning shots are that unusual. It might be very rare or it might be that it just isn't ever reported in normal circumstances. At first (in my earlier post) I suggested it might just be Russia being a bit petty but reading other posts maybe it isn't even that and is quite normal.
Either way, I don't think it's a declaration of war.

Well there’s still a small question mark in my mind about exactly how normal it was for the Russians to do what they did

Perfectly normal, considering they were unable to hail the yacht on international radio frequencies, sounded their horn five time, fired flares, sounded the horn five more times, and evidently still believed the yacht hadn't acknowledged and changed course.

Bearing in mind they had exhausted all the usual options, what would you suggest they then do instead?

I give up. You go ahead, make a mountain out of a molehill. Share misinformation, enjoy the thrill of people responding.

No need to shut down debate. But please try to ensure what you're saying is factual. You claimed that Russians to fire warning shots over British yachts

Whereas reports state that they fired up in the air.

Misinformation is a massive issue in debate, and we should all be on our guard against it.

22 miles off the UK coast is not in home waters