Venezuelan pirates attack Trinidad registered yacht

(Trinidad Guardian) Pres­i­dent of the Yacht Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (YSATT) Tom­my John­son, has re­port­ed an at­tack on a yacht by eight Venezue­lan na­tion­als.

John­son, post­ing to the YSATT’s Face­book page, said that around 10.30 am Sun­day, Sylph, a 55-foot Beneteau sail­boat, was po­si­tioned about 15 nau­ti­cal miles north-east of the Hi­bis­cus oil plat­form, when it was ap­proached by a group of eight Venezue­lans in an at­tempt­ed pira­cy at­tack.

John­son said the yacht re­fused to stop, and in heavy seas and high wind, took an eva­sive zig-zag course pre­vent­ing the Venezue­lans from board­ing.

The state­ment said that due to the fact that they were un­able to board, the Venezue­lans aban­doned their plans and left but not be­fore fir­ing sev­er­al shots at the sail­boat.

He said that no one on board was in­jured but that the boat suf­fered sev­er­al bul­let holes.

Sylph is now in Port Louis, Grena­da, meet­ing with the Coast Guard and of­fi­cials.

John­son said that the Trinidad and To­ba­go Coast Guard is in con­tact with the Grena­da Coast Guard and will be meet­ing with YSATT to­mor­row.

He is ad­vis­ing all sail­boats to file a float plan with the Coast Guard and to call the North Post Ra­dio Sta­tion once trav­el­ing in or out of Trinidad.

John­son is al­so ad­vis­ing yachties to trav­el in con­voys.