Swinging, first experience.

[tom52]

We are coming to the end of our first season on a swing mooring.
It has been a positive experience compared to our previous pontoon berths.
In one of our previous pontoon berths access was constrained by Poole Bridge and the other was very tight and only protected by a wave screen. So with a fearsome swirling tide, access there was constrained by the skippers cowardice.
The swing mooring comes with a water taxi service so its still not cheap but only a fraction of the pontoon berth costs. Hurrah !

There are however two downsides which came as a surprise.

The first is seagull poo.Never more than an occasional annoyance when marina based but now on the swing mooring a constant war.

The second is weed above the waterline. Presumably as we are now being constantly lapped by water compared to the stillness of a marina we have weed growing three inches above the waterline and the anti fouling.

Do we have to raise our waterline/antifoul by three inches or are there any less obtrusive and unattractive alternatives ?

Can you mix up some concoction of biocide and polish for near the waterline ?

Any one tried such a thing or got any other suggestions ?

 

[sarabande]

Buy a fake owl or falcon from your nearest agricultural supplier, and rig it up on the backstay when you leave. Works for us.

Incidentally, I have found that when checking the mast, a little red laser pointer is very useful for identifying parts so that the crew can look carefully at components through binocs. One must be very careful not to do this when gull are nearby, as they are protected boids, and it frightens them.

 

[tyce]

i painted a stripe above my waterline in antifoul, it worked for me.

 

[Evadne]

Welcome to the war against the flying poo machines. It is unending, and you can never win, there are more of them than you can imagine. Here's a summary to help:

Seagulls are the worst by the sheer size and quantity of perpetrators. They sit on any large enough surface, so you would need to prevent them landing on the deck, boom and cockpit. Various solutions: the CD/carrier bag which is a right faff and only successful if you use your entire CD collection along boom, halyards and guardrails. We intend to try the alternative solution next year: the rubber snake. Recommended by forumites and, independantly for the cabbages on my allotment (pidgeons).
Speaking of which, feral rock doves, collar doves and woodpidgeons are similar in habits and poop quantity to seagulls.
Cormorants tend to sit (!) at the top of the mast so are easily deterred by vhf ariels.
Wagtails and other shore birds come in search of flies and spiders, and will perch on the deck, toerail, grabrails, indeed anywhere not occupied by a seagull, and are not easily deterred. But their poop is smaller than the above.
In autumn comes the second circle of demons.
Starlings fuel up on blackberries before flying off to wherever they go. They like to roost in large numbers, and if your boat is favoured then hundreds will line the rigging, guard rails and every other available surface. The only solution comes in a bucket and is soapy.
If you're not favoured then the swallows and martins will take their place. Cuter, not partial to blackberries and with a smaller poop ratio, but they still leave their mark.

Good luck, and don't let them get you down. The best cure is to take the boat out every weekend that you can, /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif either that or spread birdfood on a nearby boat. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif But don't get caught!! And don't choose mine! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Rustyknight]

We have a swing mooring in Poole too, and find the CD's on a string along the boom idea works ok. Sometimes we get a bit of crap at the rear of the cockpit if they sit on the outboard bracket..... but it helps having quite a few boats around that don't try to do anything to keep them off! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

We also have the weed that grows on the waterline, even though we have a boot-top painted on. The weed always seem to grow on the hard anti-fouled boot-top, rather than the softer stuff below. Raising the waterline helps a little, but not that much. The only solution seems to be a quick scrub with a brush from in the dinghy every few weeks, and if it gets too bad, a metal egg-slice works wonders....... if you're careful.

 

[simonfraser]

same thing, i had to raise the water line too

seagulls, swing next to a multihull, they prefer those )

 

[Lakesailor]

Do your boot top in yacht enamel or other hard gloss paint -before antifouling - so that there isn't a path up behid the boot top for water to creep. Then paint your antifoul just over the bottom edge of the boot top. I did my boot top and it hid all sign of slime (which looked awfull on yellow topsides)

Owls. Pah

 

[dean1973]

iam on a swing mooring in brixham and find that the only way to keep the birds off after trying the bags, cds and i now have a net over the top sides and find it has stoped all that bird [--word removed--] .and try to use the boat as often as you can the birds seem to know when the boats not being used all the best dean

 

[Rustyknight]

It's not only the boom they like sitting on.....

 

[cameronke]

Are there any two legged birds in your area? See one even has no legs

Cameron

 

[Anonymous]

Very smart indeed. Nice.

 

[Lakesailor]

It was a fanciful idea I had that if I shot one leg off each bird it wouldn't be able to crap without falling over and so would take to doing it in flight. It didn't work. The one with no legs was Plan B.

 

[cliff]

NC

PM m for other details
--------------------

"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
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[yoda]

Seagulls have to be stopped from sitting down. booms are a favorite spot but any thin line slightly above it will prevent landing. Other areas where they may perch and get a view will need some other similar method of landing prevention scheme. Look at big buildings and see if any of their ideas work and can be mimicked in some way.

Yoda

 

[JKay]

Swinging,First Experiance........pm me /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

What's going on?Keith

cheers Joe

 

[tross]

For the weeds above the boot top, use one of the new type of ice scrapers ( perspex blade) it works much better than using a brush