are they honestly serious and concerned about safety or is it just a "child's play" able to impress only those not knowing much about commercial ships and shipping (those focused on sports and sailing boats) ?...
some part of the recent stage (last race) of Volvo Ocean Race was made and kept secret (as far as positions of yachts and the finish line location are concerned) [oh, really, was it?...]
consequently, also the port of loading of the yachts onto a BigLift ship was not revealed (at least to the point when it arrived to Abu Dhabi)...
ooops! I did it! I revealed the ship operator's name... but Volvo Ocean Races official reporters made their best to keep the ship secret / unrecognizable
![Wink ;)](https://forum.shipspotting.com/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
pirates have scored some stupid mistakes in the past, such as attacking a naval ship (ooops, surprise!), but certainly, as they get more and more experienced in their blameworthy trade, they must have developed some skills also in ship recognition and ship tracking...
obviously they are usually sourced from poor areas and communities and higher technology is sometimes not easily available for them, but those who plan and manage piracy acts and have (unfortunately) succeeded so far, certainly have funds at their disposal to afford some technology and buying services, even AIS Live, which incorporates not only VHF (short range) based ship tracking, but also satellite tracking...
if some (many I suppose) of us shiplovers and shipspotters have significant skills in ship recognition (or just a good "graphic memory"), why pirate bosses would not have some ?... especially as big money depends on this ?...
(if we assume that they do not always attack randomly chosen ships and that careful targetting and selection of targets is the case)
and someone hopes the pirates (or at least the narrow group of pirate bosses and planners) do not have access to Internet ?... ore they do not watch international TV news channels with reports from Volvo Ocean Race ?... (I do not know, whether they are interested in sports and sailing boats news, but don't they have access to Sat TV ?...)
from viewing this one photo only:
![](http://c43690.r90.cf2.rackcdn.com/m8987_crop12_608x404_proportional_132506339565DA.jpg)
(see
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/news/4594_Boats-in-the-air-hearts-missing-beats.html)
...then going to BigLift website and analyzing photographs of various classes of ships operated by this company for 3 minutes, it became pretty obvious that this "top secret" ship is one of the "D" class, which narrows "pirate's search" to just 5 of 6 ships...
then, marinetraffic.com analysis (on the day this article linked above was published) revealed there could be only 2 ships relevant...
on the Volvo Ocean Race photo and video materials there are many more hints related to the port, on the anchorage / roads of which this loading of yachts took place... and I am not a pirate determined to target the vessel, I just made some ship recognition for fun and curiosity, just for a few minutes...
if pirates would be REALLY interested in targetting just this particular ship more than "ordinary" / any other (what is suggested on the video report linked below)...
then WHAT safety precautions (related to protection of information) are REALLY taken by Volvo Ocean Race organizers and official reporters ?...
are they kidding me?... they thought this ship would not be recognized?...
(we easily narrowed "target" to JUST TWO ships, which look the same from a distance and would quite probably not to be found on the way to Abu Dhabi in the same period of time of interest to a potential villain targetting it)
is it lack of professionalizm?...
or is it a "chil'd play"?...
or was it (all this bla, bla, bla about the necessity to keep the port - where these yachts were loaded on a "yellow sided ship" - secret) just a "bullshits", just a "PR gimmick", intended just to "heat-up" (by sensational "top secret" thing) the interest of general public (focused on sports and sail boats and mostly not having the same ship recognition skills as many shipspotters have and pirates, probably, have as well) ?... and the PR people from Volvo Ocean Race really did not care about the safety of the ship... (because they are so stupid?... or maybe they knew this ship will enjoy a special attention and care from some naval forces safeguarding the area from the pirates... with such a big amount of money from sponsors behind the Volvo Ocean Race and all the teams, why this ship would not be "eligible" for "extra care" ?...)
and this "blinding" (blurring) of shipping company logo on a ship side and overalls of seafarers working on deck brings a LOL ...
see:
http://youtu.be/7gA1LbWiQ24...and listed to all this talk about SAFETY and SECURITY ...
if they really care that much about security and protection of information related to the port of loading of yachts onto a ship and if making this information secret might really help
- why show that many photo and video hints on official website ?...
if they do not really care (because they just don't or because they are relaxed about that as they know this ship gets extra protection anyway)
- why all these secrets and all this talk about necessity to keep things secret ?...