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Blisters; Bird Poops & Fender Mgmt Update

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OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3462 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/23/2006 : 09:42:29

I have not posted in awhile. I had a business trip to Seattle/Bremerton area for a week and well....had nothing new. Just been sailing every chance I get - Usually 2-3 times a week.

1) Bird Poops: Last time discussed I indicated I went to a 3 ring circus effect. I had the CDs strung from bow pulpit to mast; have a beach ball with big eyes on it strung from the furling rig sheets; have an owl hanging from the boom back near the topping lift.

It has now been several weeks or so since I started this 3 ring circus effect and I have had zero bird poops on the deck and cockpit ! So...problem solved ! Now have hooked up plastic quick release clips to the lines holding the CDs and the beach ball.

2) Fender Mgmt: Everyone beat me up for losing style points for wedging my fenders between the stays and the cabin. But I went with some (Frank comes to mind) who suggested I hang the fenders from the dock and not the boat. My marina does not allow us to attach anything permanent to the finger slip/dock like extra cleats, etc and there was only a cleat at the extremis ends of the finger slip. (By the way the marina has floating dock and finger slips so you can take up snug on the docking lines.)

I bought new fenders that have the hole thru them so you can hang them horizontally and then strung two of them on a dock line which I connected between the two cleats on the finger slip. But I found that the line kept stretching and eventually the fenders were too low and slipped beneath the slip sides. I replaced the dock line with cable and one turnbuckle. Took up the slack with the turnbuckle with cable loops around each cleat. The fenders have been hanging perfectly along the finger slip side for a number of weeks now. So...problem two licked !

3) Last year (Fall) when I bought my boat, I had it pressure washed at a nearby marina. They have a pressure wash special on Tuesdays for $75 - includes raising, pressure washing and lowering boat back into the water. At that time, I had about 20 quarter sized blisters on the boat about 1/3 back from the bow. This past week, I had the boat pressure washed again and checked out the blisters since I am also getting ready to repaint the boat and have to decide if I also get the blisters taken care and waterproof the bottom or just repaint. Anyway, turns out that at least some of those blisters are just paint blisters. But decision is that when I pull the boat out probably in October for repainting, we will assess the other blisters and decide what to do. Looks like there is a strong possibility that I will not have to do any extra work but we shall see.

4) I had a tight sea cock for the galley sink drain. When boat was out for the pressure washing, I used opportunity to stick a small brush with some grease on it onto the ball of the valve from the thru-hull fitting. Sea cock now after cycling it about 30 times is much better but not perfect. I may give the grease another shot when I pull boat out in October.

I sail all year even in the cold...so boat will come out for the paint job and then will go right back in.

Larry
'89 Robin's Nest#5820, Potomac River/Quantico, Va
http://catalina25.homestead.com/olarryr.html

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 09/23/2006 : 10:05:07

Larry,
A couple of days ago while waiting to have our old boat hauled, we saw a kite that was shaped like a hawk flying from a pole above a cabin cruiser. I deliberately looked closely at that boat and all the ones around it, not a speck of bird poop anywhere. The kite flew around constantly changing height and dipping it's wings, etc. I have no idea where to get one, but it seems like a good solution to have an artificial bird of prey flying around minding your deck for you.

Edited by - on

jerlim
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1484 Posts

Response Posted - 09/23/2006 : 10:12:30

Sounds interesting. Did you start w/ all three efforts at once or add them progressively until the birds stayed away? We got lucky, a plastic owl (kids named it Hedwig) screwed to the piling at the end of the finger slip was all we needed.
Jerry

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3462 Posts

Response Posted - 09/23/2006 : 15:18:11

The kite is a new one on me. I will have to search the web. Perhaps it is used for motor boats that are returning with fish and have a bunch of birds following them so they put up the hawk kite to keep the birds away ?

I first hung the CDs ...but then learned that it was best to tring them a bit above the lifelines and so I attached them to the bow pulpit and up to the mast above the stored mainsail. The CDs cut the bird poops approximately 30% and still had to do something about the cockpit area. I do not get a lot of poops but whatever you get, it stains the top works big time making it a bear to remove.

Then it was war, so I picked up the beachball and owl from West marine and put them up in addition to the CDs. That took care of the problem. I guess I could cut back on one or the other and see if hanging only two things will also do the trick but I don't want to mess with a good thing right now and with installing some plastic clips on the ends of each hanging thing, the installation and removal each time is not such a big deal.

Edited by - on

AndyRozsa
Deckhand

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Australia
12 Posts

Response Posted - 09/24/2006 : 02:56:15

Hi Larry: re the bird poop. Seagulls here in Oz musthave the biggest droppings of all and the pacific gulls could sink a small ship. Our boat lives on a swing mooriing next to a marina most of the summer and itirritates me no end to see the gulls nesting on the moored boats and leaving the marina alone.... GRRR!! My theory is that all the bells and whistle things work OK as long as there is some breeze to keep them active. As soon as the wind drops so do the birds. I use a cheap net like the ones you get to cover fruit trees costs about $10 lasts all season. I attach it at a few points with those re-useable garden clips like electrical cable ties but undo-able. Takes maybe 5 minutes and because its pretty loose i can leave it in place from the mooring to dockside and undo it at leisure.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 09/24/2006 : 13:30:29

My only serious problem was gulls lounging on the sail cover--dumping on it and everything below... I tied a piece of thin nylon line from the head of the sail cover at the mast, to its tail at the end of the boom, tensioned just enough so it hung above the cover. No more gulls. The line could stay in place when uncovering and covering--I just had to adjust its length a couple of times. I suspect a similar string or monofiliment from the spreader tips up slightly to the mast could do the same there.

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3462 Posts

Response Posted - 09/24/2006 : 17:05:57

So far, the things I am using are doing the trick now going on several weeks and so I'm stickin with them for now.

Dave,

In regards to using a tight string to keep them off the cover......I can understand that better now because I now realize what the marina is doing in the off months when many take their boats out of the water. The marina ties string into sort of a V from the end of one finger slip to the dock and then to the end of another finger slip. This is a very thin line that is strung from one support to another (can't remember but believe they were using a stick that was coming out of a paint can) At first, I thought it was to just mark the finger slips that were not being used or to keep boats from using certain slips, but I believe it was to deter the birds from making a mess on slips that were not being used during the winter.

Edited by - on

ajski1000
1st Mate

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USA
52 Posts

Response Posted - 09/24/2006 : 23:54:06

Fickle the poop should be brought up, I was getting ready to post a new topic and pictures regarding my own "war".

Like the rest of you I started off with just the lines then added the cds and have progressed from there on out.

Aside from that i have come up with a hybrid of zip ties and the hanging cds.
For the zip ties (got a bucket of 700 from Benny’s for $7) I found it was much easier and less time consuming to place 10-15 zip ties with the long ends up in the air on both the bow and stern pulpits. They move in the wind, act as spikes, and they don’t need to be removed so once they are on you are good to go!
To control the poop over the sail cover, I simply hung a taught line from the stern pulpit to the mast above the mainsail cover. Then I placed 4-5 Cds and hung them using some thin line from the already hanging line. This has worked for me 100%. I did the same from the front of the mast to the bow cleat to keep any birds from landing on the forward hatch etc.

I will post picture when I am able and Im confident that this will help anyone who is waging "war" against the poop.

Please do let me know if you try it.

AJ

Edited by - ajski1000 on 09/24/2006 23:57:04

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 09/25/2006 : 04:33:54

Larry,
Here's what I think is the kite I saw. The picture on the website is pretty small, so it's kind of hard to tell. http://www.smucker.net/product.php?productid=113

I did a search on Google for "hawk kite", and came up with lots of options.

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3462 Posts

Response Posted - 09/25/2006 : 05:34:53

Dave,

I do not recall seeing that used on boats at my marina. I guess i will have to get a better look at the hawks, etc i see around the area and ensure they were not kites. LOL

While my bird poop problem was annoying, it wasn't like a totally out of control thing but...there are some horror stories in the marina for where birds/ducks seem to like to take up residence. Any that you notice where you are ? Most notably is one guy's motorboat stern platform. for some reason the ducks like to sit on just his platform and have turned it into a pig sty. Since it seems to be that way most times, i suspect the owner rarely uses his boat or he would have figured out to do something by now. I think the excrement must attract the ducks to stay there.

Edited by - on

PamC
Navigator

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171 Posts

Response Posted - 09/28/2006 : 10:11:13

We have used an osprey kite with success. It's made out of a Tyvek type paper that holds up well. It does get tangled at times in the rigging, but tends to just make it look more threatening. We bought ours from a Wild Birds Unlimited store in the area for around $30. A neighboring boat bought a Canadian goose kite that didn't seem to work as well as the bird of prey thing. In fact I suppose he's lucky he didn't end up with a whole gaggle of geese on board.

Edited by - on

redviking
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 10/01/2006 : 09:54:06

In our marina, I have noticed that the shore birds seem to prefer blue dodgers and sail covers to those that are made of another color. This year the marina got hit hard during some sort of migration - or something. But our brown sail cover was untouched!!!

What's up with blue?
Sten, '82 C-25, Swansea MA

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