The 2006 Annual Report prepared by the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre of the ICC Commercial Crime Services is available on request in PDF format on-line from their Website :-
http://www.icc-ccs.org
This document covers Piracy in all the world's oceans and all forms of shipping - and because it is a very long report , 99% of which is not relevant to yachts, I prepared an extract analysis pertaining only to yachts :-
Altogether there were a total of 10 reports made to the Piracy Reporting Centre regarding attacks on yachts or robberies from yachts. This total is the the sum of all such events on this planet during 2006. It does
not include many other unreported (and a few reported ) events involving robberies - often the theft of outboard motors or where the would-be outboard motor thief is unsuccessful.
I personally took the first reports from 4 of these yachts - my recollection differs slightly :-
The 3 yachts were anchored off the beach on Tioman Island - Malaysia, were unattended at the time of the robbery (crews were on shore having dinner) all 3 robberies took place on the same evening. The police were not helpful - it took a lot of pressure to get the robberies investigated. The Piracy Reporting Centre would not accept the initial reports of the robberies.
Following the Pirate attack on the yacht off the southern Cape of India - The yacht's crew had great difficulty in getting assistance from the local police.
The report of the yacht being hijacked from Ko Racha Yai Island - Phuket, is said to have dragged its anchor and drifted off on its own little journey.
To sum up , 2006 significant reports totaled :-
South East Asia - 3 unattended yachts robbed on Tioman Island - Malasia.
1 Attempted boarding of a yacht on route between Singapore and Borneo was unsuccessful.
Indian Ocean - 1 Piracy on the High Seas off Southern Cape off India - Pirates took personal property and life-raft, Police recovered raft (less flares and survival pack)
Northern Red Sea - Yacht boarded in Endeavour Harbour - outboard motor taken by force from skipper.
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Venezuela - 3 pirate attacks (2 involving use of guns by pirates)
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NO Reports of Pirates or Baddies having a go at yachts in the Gulf of Aden during 2006
( not included, the harassment of the French boat early in 2006 off Sri Lanka by fishermen )
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The Web site of the IMB.
http://www.icc-ccs.org/
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