Unbelievable. So get this… these crybaby rich people have decided that they won’t sail their boats in the Gulf of Aden anymore because of too much “boat sharing” going on there. (source)
The problem is not the boat-sharers. Boat-sharing is the future of boating. These so-called “boat owners” miss the fundamental point that boats should be free. Boats are made of wood. Wood comes from trees. Trees are living things and thus should not be bought or sold. And, if boats aren’t free, well the ocean belongs to everyone. If you put your boat on the ocean, you should be prepared to share it with anyone else who might want to use it.
Of course, there is an option. If you don’t want your boats to be shared, then change your boating model. Only sail in closed swimming pools or navigable rivers within national boundaries. Is that so hard?
An owner of a popular boat-sharing location in Somalia criticized the international crackdown and condemnation of boat “hijacking,” as draconian and anti-freedom.
I don’t understand why people are mad at me, I didn’t take anyone’s boat. I run a legitimate luxury yacht brokerage catering to the large Somali yachting community. People bring me yachts that they want to share, and I help them share them with other people for a fee.
None of these yachts have any external signs that they are owned by anyone except the 13 year old, machine-gun-toting, shoeless boys who brought them here.
If any of these boats are stolen, I will gladly give them back to their proper owners, as long as they send me a proper legal notice with a copy of their title. Until then, how am I supposed to know if they belong to someone else or not?
Personally, I blame the people who think they “own” the boats. They could secure the boats better, thus making them impervious to boat-sharing. If they coated the boat in three-inch-thick steel, sort of like a floating “panic room,” then nobody would be able to share their boats.
Ultimately, the problem lies with the boat “owners.” They don’t recognize that their boating model is outdated, and trying to punish individual boat-sharers is nothing more than a blatant money grab.
