What Now? /WNS December

[timbartlett]

Hi folks! It's that man again!
And another What Now for you to pass on the distilled wisdom of the forum to the readers of MBY.
You have moved your boat -- a 45ft flybridge cruiser -- from the city centre marina where she has been berthed for the past couple of years to a slightly smaller marina a few miles along the coast. It's surrounded by saltmarshes and bird sanctuaries -- an idyllic spot apart from the fact that every time you go down to the boat, you find it covered in a fresh layer of guano.

What now?

Prevention, they say, is better than cure, but I'm looking forward to reading your tips and tricks for getting rid of the stuff, as well ideas for encouraging the little feathered perpetrators to "go" elsewhere. Do plastic owls do it for you, or do you swear by yards of old video tape? Do you have a pet potion for shifting ****, or do you resign yourself to hard labour with a scrubbing brush and bucket?

All the usual WotNow rules apply -- we'll print selected posts in MBY, edited as necessary for length, spelling, grammar, etc., and identifying the poster by username. Short, sensible posts generally stand a better chance of being used than long flippant ones....( fat chance of that on this subject! )

 

[harstonwood]

Plastic owl works perfectly, but needs a swiveling head and beady eyes! Mind you, during recent storms it flew off!

 

[mad_boater]

Hi folks! It's that man again!
And another What Now for you to pass on the distilled wisdom of the forum to the readers of MBY.
You have moved your boat -- a 45ft flybridge cruiser -- from the city centre marina where she has been berthed for the past couple of years to a slightly smaller marina a few miles along the coast. It's surrounded by saltmarshes and bird sanctuaries -- an idyllic spot apart from the fact that every time you go down to the boat, you find it covered in a fresh layer of guano.

What now?

Prevention, they say, is better than cure, but I'm looking forward to reading your tips and tricks for getting rid of the stuff, as well ideas for encouraging the little feathered perpetrators to "go" elsewhere. Do plastic owls do it for you, or do you swear by yards of old video tape? Do you have a pet potion for shifting ****, or do you resign yourself to hard labour with a scrubbing brush and bucket?

All the usual WotNow rules apply -- we'll print selected posts in MBY, edited as necessary for length, spelling, grammar, etc., and identifying the poster by username. Short, sensible posts generally stand a better chance of being used than long flippant ones....( fat chance of that on this subject! )

Wind sock in shape of fish or anything colourful from seafront shop.Attach it to vhf/radio aerial.(That short enough?)

 

[jfm]

I find they only visit the foredeck. Tie plastic bags (small black bin bags) to the guard rails around the foredeck so they flap in the wind

Whatever you do, do not place ultrasonic antifoul transducers on the foredeck. I did, because I happened to have some spare ones lying around and it seemed like a good experiment. The seagulls found them orgasmic, and the volume of poop tripled

 

[Cymrogwyllt]

electric fence. There is a risk that it could be counter productive though

 

[MapisM]

Short, sensible posts generally stand a better chance of being used than long flippant ones....( fat chance of that on this subject! )

Since you asked...
Steradent. What else?

 

[P4Paul]

Place a well stocked bird feeder on a boat at the other end of the marina.........

 

[timbartlett]

(That short enough?)

5 words is probably a bit curt.
500 is too much
5000 needs to be submitted to Nature rather than MBY
50,000 is just being silly.

50 words or so would be close to perfect.

 

[BrendanS]

CIWS

 

[oldgit]

Try to make sure your flybridge is a Pearl,they are so bloody ugly,no self respecting seagull will go near the thing ,Come to that suspect the owners probably feel the same way.

 

[timbartlett]

CIWS

OTT

 

[BrendanS]

The technology, or the one word answer?

 

[timbartlett]

The technology, or the one word answer?

Both. (Funny, I grant you, but impractical)

 

[BartW]

When Blue Angel was in Ostia (near Rome), the previous captain put a fishing line wire from the FB wind screen to the bow flag pole of the boat, and fixed a rubber bird on that wire . That seemed to do the job, as also in Italy the birds only use the foredeck, not the fly deck
The captain took off his bird since the handover of the boat, and apparently in the middle of Cassis harbour (SOF) There are no birds, so no need for prevention.

 

[simon]

Large cable ties on the guardrails worked for me.

 

[dabsolute470]

Pearl

Try to make sure your flybridge is a Pearl,they are so bloody ugly,no self respecting seagull will go near the thing ,Come to that suspect the owners probably feel the same way.

Oi you wait till i tell mrs you think her boat is ugly....
she is very fond of our pearls looks... she says she's pritty
you are going to be in trouble, we coming to visit david and sarah soon...
look out for an angry woman walking down the pontoon.... and yes we know the gate code....lol