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

[Gizzaeycon]

Shouldn’t we all be making a bit more fuss about the fact that a Russian ship fired at a British boat in home waters? That’s a very serious thing to happen, right?

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

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

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?

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.

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....

Exactly. Little boats yaw about 10 degrees anyway.

I know! The mind boggles.

This couple were experienced sailors!

All's well that ends well.
The whole situation seems really funny to me now. Especially with The Telegraph stating this is Proof that the UK is weak at sea. Even if we had the strongest Navy in the world In not sure how we should have responded to such a situation. Seems a bit like overkill to declare war over effectively a foreign vessel NOT wanting to plough into one of our civilian boats.

It wasnt in home waters.

It was drifting without its engine on in international waters.

BBC News - 'It was surreal': British couple describe having warning shots fired near them by Russian warship
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20yzm84r7lo

The Russian's were stupid but at least get your basic facts straight before you post crap

Thank you - it is important to get the facts straight, I agree.
However, I can’t help suspecting that there has been a concerted effort to try and minimise what happened.

It's interesting you think that. I am from a strong sailing background and everyone I know is perplexed by story told by the people on the yacht.

It is perplexing because the reported stories from the couple and the Russians don’t match - which only serves to make it more suspicious.

I thought the Reform position was that it was Britain fault for being in Russia/s way ?

After all Farage said that it was Ukraine's fault for lying under where the Russians wanted to fire their missiles.

(Posting this so Google have to work that tiny bit harder to wipe "Farage Russian Asset" from the interwebs).

I think you just don’t want people to think about the fact that a Russian warship fired shots in the English Channel.

Personally I would be happy if it was the only headline in town.

However with a Russian stooge being tipped as the next Prime Minister I realise the bind the press are in.

I'm still seeing comments elsewhere saying it's not clever or bright for a small vessel to get within maybe 500 metres of a warship belonging to anyone's navy...recent'ish history and all that.

What's the view of the yachties here?

Yes. I sailed an enormous amount - professionally as well as for fun, it's mind boggling they got so close in the middle of the Channel.

The channel is basically a narrow motorway with massive container ships going up and down it. They can neither slow nor turn quick enough to avoid a yacht that comes near them. So if you are in the channel on a yacht, it's on you to stay well away from the big ships otherwise you get squished. Crossing the channel side to side (as you have to to go from UK to the continent) feels like playing chicken on a motorway.

The sailing yacht got too close to the Russian warship. When the warship sounded its horn five times (which meant "wtf are you doing?"), the sailing yacht changed course by just 2 degrees, not enough to be obvious to the warship. The sailing yacht should have made a very obvious change of course and radioed the warship to advise of their change of course. You don't fuck around with warships of any nationality.

I can remember listening to HMS Bulwark threatening sailing yachts that were sailing too close to her in Weymouth Bay during the 2012 Olympics.

Yes it absolutely matters.

The Russians knew, of course, that the yacht was no threat to them - they were just taking the opportunity to humiliate the UK and demonstrate the impotence of the Royal Navy.

Instead of an actual warship, we had some feeble rowing boat or similar shadowing the Russian vessel. It wisely didnt intervene at the warning shots, if it had, it would have been sunk quick sharp.

So, even the Royal Navy know they are completely impotent and the Russians can dominate our home waters.

This is what happens when you neglect defence to fund a benefit-junkie nation.

Why let facts get in the way when you can just post bullshit.

I dont think your one liner really works, but if you point out the BS I will be happy to address it!

If you want to worry about Russian aggression (and we probably all should) then worry about their propaganda and misinformation campaigns and which of our politicians they are bank rolling and puppeteering.

What you call a feeble rowing boat is a River class offshore patrol boat. Plenty big enough for shadowing.

Good luck rowing something this size

https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/equipment/ships/river-class

Also not home waters