Vandalism!

[kilkerr1]

Returning to my boat recently, I was appalled to find her defaced. It happens every weekend I go. Apparently, a group of local thugs had vandalised her by eating vast quantities of blackberries and passing their (very purple) waste products onto her deck, splash hood, sail cover, etc. You could hardly tell what colour her deck and coach roof were meant to be. The vandals in question are of course seagulls. Streaked with purple and blue bird s**t poor Santa Teresa cuts a sorry little figure. So 2 questions:

1) As prevention is generally considered better than cure, how do I convince the pesky blighters that my boat is not a trendy local hang out/meeting spot/public convenience? I've heard CDs work - do people feel playing Celine Dion loudly would deter them? Or would the more usual method be stringing them along some rope and alowing them to swing and flash in the wind?

2) Any ideas on the best way to remove blackberry stains from above parts of boat?! I can happily scrub with the best of them, but this is getting ridiculous...

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[Rob_Webb]

I seem to recall that all matter of sense and reason goes out of the window when it comes to dealing with this problem and that it's a simple matter of your individual boat having become a 'chosen' boat. Once this has happened, you can try anything you want and they locals will simply make a mockery of it all, for instance by performing loop-the-loop amongst your tightly woven cat's cradle of invisible thread a la bats in the dark.

Never been so blighted myself but I gather that the only solution is to either sell the boat or have a formal exorcism of the birds carried out, to make your boat 'unchosen' again. But the danger is that this can go wrong and cases have been reported that the void created by becoming 'unchosen' by the birds can be filled by an invasion of super-algae which grows in front of your eyes.

So you've got a choice between purple and white decoration or life at 2 kts.

Spose you could try changing the name as per a recent thread - no idea whether this could have a useful outcome, maybe worth a try and report back - could be an article for the next YM - at least it would give us a break from the usual staff-centric repetition by the likes of Cunliffe/Durham/Gelder!

Oh btw, I prefer the more elegant word for seagull sh!t i.e. guano.

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[castaway]

I have the same problem but I have not yet found a Seagull that eats blackberries!

My Gourmet birds are happy to consume Les Fruit de Mer and then honk the bones up (no prob with this) and s\\t the rest onto my wheelhouse cover (new this year)! Big problem>

I now use the CD deterant and it works. But its not the flashing or what ever that puts them off. They have to be strung along any possible landing area so I have ended up with 5 or 6 lines all with clips on one end ... these are along the main and mizzen boom //down to the stem head fitting and also along between the main and mizzen stays.

Next year Im taking down the mast and I will string some stanless steel Mig wire along the spreader tops tensioned with springs, to close down that option also.

I don't rate the Owl option, although earlier this year someone posted that he had developed a black delta shaped birdlike model, with slitty predator like eyes, that he claimed worked.

Nick

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtsite.co.uk/fairweather>http://www.yachtsite.co.uk/fairweather</A>


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[StephenW]

On the Orwell they use plastic bags tied at the handles and strung along a piece of string fastened along the length of the boat. Seems to work. Have tried it myself and seems successful

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[milltech]

The blackberry season is peppering our windows at home much to the chagrin of the lady mem'sahib (sp?).

<hr width=100% size=1>John
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.allgadgets.co.uk>http://www.allgadgets.co.uk</A>

 

[tcm]

on the boat, we use electrical ties on the guadrails with long ends pointing upwards, and these make landing on the rails less attrcative. Rigging thin wires around also, works, but only practical if the boat is unused over winter.

at home, the thin wires certainly does work, or string, big ball of it lobbed over the roof and tentpegged out either side, soesn;t need to be megatight, makes landing on the roof or flying near the house too tricky and they move one.

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[AndrewB]

I had a neighbour who fed calcium carbide to the gulls in our marina, wrapped up in a piece of bread. This causes them to swell up with acetylene and explode. The others then clean up the pieces. He stopped only after one exploded all over his deck. It wasn't so much the bits of gull, as the recycled bits.

Doubt the RSPB would approve. I've found a wind-generator effective as a deterent.

 

[tcm]

how the hell do you gettem to eat a windgenerator?

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[Neraida]

EWWWW!!!!

NM

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[AndrewJ]

I would not recommend the owl. I had moderate guano droppings and put on the owl.
after placing the owl I found more birds, even sitting on the owl's head. (now in Virginia
we have Spiders. They eat the mosquitos, which is nice, but spider "guano" is very very
difficult to get off. I scrubbed and scrubbed with "soft scrub with bleach" and it finally came
off, I would gladly go back to birds, at least the droppings are not as numerous.

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[BrendanS]

Saw a rather neat idea on a boat in Kingsbridge last week. They'd taken a big umbrella, taken off the fabric, and fitted large mesh netting on it. The umbrella fitted into a flagstaff type mount. It was one of the few boats on the quay that was almost gull sh*t free.

<hr width=100% size=1>Err, let me know if Depsol enters the forum, I'll go and hide

 

[Romeo]

A friend found that the gull decorating his decks was obsessed with its reflection in his stainless steel tabernackle (sp). Said peice of hardware now painted matt black and gull has gone elsewhere to admire himself.

R

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[Hushinish]

Did anyone see the photo in yesterdays daily mail which showed a 'no dog fouling' sign, and a hand printed notice under it which read 'I'll stop my dog fouling your path when you stop your birds fouling my house, car and boat' ? Quite topical I thought!

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