I thought I would share this, stumbled across this plastic chain on ebay ($30-00, 25m roll) , so have given an idea a trial and it appears to be working a treat, takes me a couple of minutes to clip on at the end of a sail. It's been used for over 3 weeks now, in the photo you can see how bad a problem we have if you look at the boat next to mine!!

Don't worry, they will get used to it !!
And then they will be back !!
Bob.

I use fishing line permanently and strategically placed inconjunction with easily removable fitted netting.
Now less than 5% of an issue over the last several years.

Only the little birds ocassionally are a problem but that mostly just brushes off.

It seems to me most boaties are not prepared to take time to set up a system. Instead try all kinds of wishful magic that works for a very short time or is difficult to fit and remove so give up.

I hope boaties keep to their current methods as around my boat birds like their boats and keep off mine.

100% recommend the Gull Sweep

gullsweepaustralia.com/?gclid=CKrHvrPgwMoCFQsjvQodzBoMhg

I have found it to be completely effective for the 12 months I have been using it. We came home late on NYE so I didn't attach it that night, sure enough a few days later there was bird poo on boat.

After years of cleaning up from birds and trying various things that didn't really work or took too long to setup, I found this shield thing that solved my problem. Here is a description: <a href="www.birddefensesystems.com/how-does-the-bds100-bird-deterrent-work/">Bird deterrent for boats</a> Or see www.birddefensesystems.com

Thanks for the info
It is an ongoing problem for most yachties. If the chain works I shall try it.
Thanks

I wouldn't recommend the gullsweep.
Mine ** itself after about 3 months old, with one of the arms breaking off where it pivots in the centre of the rotator.
(A fracture through plastic injection molded component)

The boat shop that I bought it from and the Vic (?) Australian Gullsweep distributor argued about paperwork for 2 months, and what channel the product came through (the shop changed owners), and neither would replace it.

So I have an $80+ one armed Gullsweep and a solar panel covered in guano.

Sorry but thanks for not much.

Buy a spudgun instead, more fun and it will outlast a gullsweep.

(rant over, happy sailing guys.)

Just hire the Russian navy Crusty

My theory is...........after observing the boats ound my mooring I noticed that most of the smaller yachts had no bird poop problem, but the couta boats and larger yachts did. I was going to buy one of those Gullsweeps untill I saw a pacific gull standing just beyond the contact zone with the dam thing spinning it's heart out not giving a dam!! They where more effective when they first turned up as a solution. I thought about it and , looking at the small yachts with envy as I placed netting etc to over come the onslaught. Then it occurred to me as I saw a gull hovering over a small yacht, then moving on, that there was no flat surface big enough without a stanchion, guardwire or other rope that that interrupted the wingspan of the bird taking off! The distance between the guardrail and cabin sides was too narrow, the boom was too close to the cabin top the rigging and other ropes also prevented takeoff. and landing. I then thought about it that that since I removed the stanchions and guardrails from my deck the problem got much worse. So instead of the net I strung up some visible twine at spacing that would interrupt flight, similar to the plastic chain...... Problem solved! So the real solution is to have something.... anything that interferes with the bird stretching it's wings for takeoff. The Gullsweep will work if you have coverage of all flat surfaces preventing landing and takeoff.

I love the spud gun solution and caught a seagull by hand once.......I got more of a fright than the bird I think!

These guys are cheaper on the Gullsweeps, I use it on my Caribbean 26 and it makes my life so much easier !

marinesolutions.com.au/gullsweep.html

my wind generator took out a gull in 20kts once, there was not much gull left. maybe a supercharged gull sweeper...

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Guitz said..
My theory is...........after observing the boats ound my mooring I noticed that most of the smaller yachts had no bird poop problem, but the couta boats and larger yachts did. I was going to buy one of those Gullsweeps untill I saw a pacific gull standing just beyond the contact zone with the dam thing spinning it's heart out not giving a dam!! They where more effective when they first turned up as a solution. I thought about it and , looking at the small yachts with envy as I placed netting etc to over come the onslaught. Then it occurred to me as I saw a gull hovering over a small yacht, then moving on, that there was no flat surface big enough without a stanchion, guardwire or other rope that that interrupted the wingspan of the bird taking off! The distance between the guardrail and cabin sides was too narrow, the boom was too close to the cabin top the rigging and other ropes also prevented takeoff. and landing. I then thought about it that that since I removed the stanchions and guardrails from my deck the problem got much worse. So instead of the net I strung up some visible twine at spacing that would interrupt flight, similar to the plastic chain...... Problem solved! So the real solution is to have something.... anything that interferes with the bird stretching it's wings for takeoff. The Gullsweep will work if you have coverage of all flat surfaces preventing landing and takeoff.

I love the spud gun solution and caught a seagull by hand once.......I got more of a fright than the bird I think!

Thats a good theory Guitz! A mate of mine had big trouble with seagull poop and has tried all kinds of things including the big Owl but none worked. I'll suggest that he stretchs a zig zag of string from bow to stern port to starboard with say 1 foot spacing and see what happens. It would be a pian to put on but better than cleaning off the poop every week.

I still swear by the GullSweep even having just replaced our original three year old one after one arm broke off. $90 to replace but the difference is staggering when the thing is not on there. Boat will be covered in four days without and there will zero poo when it's on and working. I have never seen a gull come to within cooee of it. Those bright red flaps which just keep flip flopping when the thing is rotating scares the hell out of them.

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Trek said..

Guitz said..
My theory is...........after observing the boats ound my mooring I noticed that most of the smaller yachts had no bird poop problem, but the couta boats and larger yachts did. I was going to buy one of those Gullsweeps untill I saw a pacific gull standing just beyond the contact zone with the dam thing spinning it's heart out not giving a dam!! They where more effective when they first turned up as a solution. I thought about it and , looking at the small yachts with envy as I placed netting etc to over come the onslaught. Then it occurred to me as I saw a gull hovering over a small yacht, then moving on, that there was no flat surface big enough without a stanchion, guardwire or other rope that that interrupted the wingspan of the bird taking off! The distance between the guardrail and cabin sides was too narrow, the boom was too close to the cabin top the rigging and other ropes also prevented takeoff. and landing. I then thought about it that that since I removed the stanchions and guardrails from my deck the problem got much worse. So instead of the net I strung up some visible twine at spacing that would interrupt flight, similar to the plastic chain...... Problem solved! So the real solution is to have something.... anything that interferes with the bird stretching it's wings for takeoff. The Gullsweep will work if you have coverage of all flat surfaces preventing landing and takeoff.

I love the spud gun solution and caught a seagull by hand once.......I got more of a fright than the bird I think!

Thats a good theory Guitz! A mate of mine had big trouble with seagull poop and has tried all kinds of things including the big Owl but none worked. I'll suggest that he stretchs a zig zag of string from bow to stern port to starboard with say 1 foot spacing and see what happens. It would be a pian to put on but better than cleaning off the poop every week.

i think the theory is a sound. we use plastic bunting flags and they do the trick. we have a long string of them that does one run down each side and one down the middle of the boat.

currently we are using a string of these ones, with a small carabiner on each end:

www.bunnings.com.au/our-range

one weakness has been that the flags are sewn on to the nylon rope and the stitching is a bit variable. the next set i get i'm going to reinforce the flags before it goes onto the boat.

another thing is that it's good to have some kind of holder to wrap the bunting around when you take it off. it's never much fun at the end of the day wrestling with a big bunch of tangled rope and flags. once you get a good system going it only takes a few minutes to get them on and off...