I was one of a group of Just Stop Oil activists given the longest-ever UK sentences for peaceful motorway. Six months into my incarceration, this is what I have learned
Not directly related to climate change, but Just Stop Oil has been in the news a lot.
Meanwhile the yatchs of oil billionaires sit in the waters you can dive in. With trivial dive training and basic equipment (an underwater propulsion Device, and an underwater drill with a lock hole cutting bit attached), you could probably send some of them under.
There’s a whole bunch of relatively harmless but quite symbolic targets out there if you’re creative and inconspicuous enough.
I’m pretty sure you’d need more than a hole saw to sink a megayacht*. The hole would need to be big enough to overwhelm the bilge pumps.
*
Side note: the definition of “yacht” includes basically any boat with a cabin for sleeping and cooking, and can be 10m or even smaller. A lot of people with “yachts” are far from millionaires, let alone billionaires, and in fact many of them are basically hobos living aboard as their only residence and doing the nautical equivalent of #vanlife (which IMO is a very “solarpunk” lifestyle, BTW). Whenever we’re talking in the context of sabotaging the billionaires, we really should be talking specifically about superyachts or megayachts. (This is also why we shouldn’t actually be rooting for the orcas, as they are almost exclusively attacking small yachts, which aren’t the correct target.)
I’d assume it depends on how many holes per battery charge and how many batteries you can carry.
I think it would also depend on the speed one could drill holes with an underwater drill, as opposed to cutting them with some other tool (like an underwater sawzall, if such a thing exists), or making them with another method entirely. After all, it’s not just an issue of battery life, it’s an issue of finishing quickly so as not to get caught or give the crew time to stop/repair the damage.
Maybe a battery powered hammer and a 6" nail? Probably a lot faster, though more holes would be needed.
Need more info to make this math happen…
No no no. Most of these yachts are aluminum hull. What you need is a scraper for the paint and a syringe full of gallium. Actually you could probably just scratch up a hull with a soap block of gallium and it’d do the trick. Gallium eats aluminum like cancer.
Are you sure about that? Because almost every displacement hull vessel is steel.
Also, just do it properly and build a bomb. That’s a proven solution.
A bomb with a timer seems much safer. Diving near a mega yacht that’s taking on water seems dangerous. The pressure differential could make it difficult to swim away and if it actually starts to sink while you’re nearby, you could get pulled under. (I’m not a diving expert but this is definitely something that would require actual expertise)
Oh, imagine getting sucked into the hole.
If there’s a big enough pressure difference, a human will be sucked through even a very small hole. Even just being stuck there until your air ran out wouldn’t be fun.
Username checks out
Hmm, I forgot about this.
You’d be doing them a favor because they would just get an insurance payout.
You’re not sinking a large yacht with a drill, they have watertight compartments and massive bilge pumps.