"Yachters do of course have the freedom to go wherever they like, but our preference would be that they go somewhere else."
The anti-piracy force's stance is disputed by the yachters who joined the convoys, who are upset that the naval ships are not willing to provide them an escort through the danger zone.
"I do not see why they are mandated to protect commercial vessels, but not the taxpaying yachtsman," said Tom Sampson, a retired RAF officer, who writes in the latest edition of Yachting Monthly about his role organising a convoy last spring.
"Yes, of course going through that region is dangerous. But as a circumnavigating yachtsman we are always being faced with dangers of one sort or another all the time. You can go overboard in a storm, fall ill at sea, suffer a breakdown or whatever."
Mr Sampson, who sails with his partner, Nicolette Knoop, supervised a convoy of some 27 yachts from 17 nations, whose crews included women and an elderly couple.
Prior to setting off from the port of Salalah in Oman, he drilled them in techniques for formation sailing in groups of six, each with a military-style code name and a sub-commander. All participants had to be able to complete the entire journey without refuelling and, to avoid the attention of pirates, they kept lighting and radio use to a minimum.
However, he admitted that some in the convoy found the journey "frightening". At one point, sailors listened anxiously to the radio as reports came in of pirates attacking a commercial vessel just 30 miles away, and on several occasions they watched in terror as suspicious-looking vessels approached them.
In another account of the journey given in last month's Cruising World, one yachtsman wrote: "We watched with dread as a large, rusty fishing boat slowly revealed itself in the morning mist... it was exactly what we hoped to never see."
He described the panic when a skiff set off from the fishing vessel and headed for one yacht at high speed, scattering the convoy immediately. It turned out to be a group of fishermen begging for cigarettes, but the incident showed how nerve-wracking the voyage was.
Critics believe it was as much by luck as judgement that disaster did not strike.
"There is no safe place anywhere in the Gulf of Aden," said one kidnap and ransom expert who has dealt with more than 20 piracy cases in the area. "These people are playing a dangerous game."
