tophatyachts.com

Hi Guys n Gals ,

Years ago when I learnt to sail through Ross Barnetts Scotland Island Sailing School , he owned a 45" wooden ketch , and it was a beautiful old girl both on deck and in the cabin . One of my memories of that time was his fitting of fishing line held taught along the length of his Ketch , which was fitted to ward off possible attack of Bird strike , by ensuring that the fishing line gave off some kind of high pitched soundwaves during times of high wind ( I think ) .

Just wondering if this is a common way with dealing with bird Strike and do many smaller vessels such as Top Hats have this method I place ??


All the best in Top Hat ownership ,
Brad Geyer

There is a commercial product, or used to be, that was a ribbon-like fishing line sort of stuff which was supposed to vibrate in the wind and keep birds off. Don't know if it ever worked. I didn't have a boat but I was given a sample to put over my garden to keep birds off. Birds don't eat weeds so birds didn't trouble my garden anyway so I never used it.

I think of the term "bird strike" as being when a vehicle is at speed and the bird gets struck. I have been out at sea and had butterflies overtake me (true story) so I am not likely to suffer from running into birds at any sort of speed. But then, I am a newbie and no doubt will build my skills on my TH to attain velocities capable of running into birds at speed.

Velocity is relative to the frame it is measured with respect to. Whether you strike the bird or it strikes you is a matter of opinion. (Sorry, I think I may have been here in Hawaii too long and am starting to go troppo, Troppo).

Mark

I think Ross may have been referring to what emanates from the birds rather than the birds themselves.

I have used fishing line to persuade them not to roost on my boat.

Tied across the cap shrouds in front of the mast 100mm above the spreaders.

Above the aft pulpit, from the solar panel mounts.

Also a light line above the boom cover tied between the mast and the boom topping lift.

On a visit to Whitworths the salesman suggested I buy a plastic owl, rubber snake and an imitation cat. Visit the boat daily and change the item 'on watch'. He said the real advantage was visiting the boat daily!

It can help to be moored somewhere near a 'mooring minder' because the birds will roost there instead.

Cheers,

Tom

G'Day Mark,
This has been raised often and is an ongoing problem.
At the risk of having too much to say on the website, and tell me if I am, I've been through this routine and found two solutions that work.
As a permanent resident of "Shags Toilet" the best thing is to use you boat. Since I've been using mine for 2 days a week it has been relatively bird free as the salesman said.
We have a huge problem on Lake Maquarie with Cormorants and I was going to write a book, "Guano farming for fun and profit" but I discovered bird netting.
There is also a smaler problem with swallows but that is mainly with boats at the marina and they only sit on the lifelines and leave their calling cards. Some owners release the lifelines and let them sag so the birds can't sit on them. That doesn;t work either.
Tom, I don't think having a mooring minder nearby helps as they fight with one another and move off to the next boat.
You can get a proprietry made product called "Humming Tape" which is a ribbon that vibrates in the wind. Its called humming tape because it doesn't know the words. It is very good at driving your neighbours nuts and not much good at deterring birds. it aslo breaks down in the sunlight and its a bugger to put up. It's recommended to criss cross it across the boat. Its also a bugger to roll back up again on the spool.
I've tried flags but they break down in the sun and wind and last about 3 months. They cost about $40 to cover the boat. They are effective!
What you have to do is to interrupt the flight line of the birds and where they roost make sure that there is something to swing about their head height so that that annoys them and they fly off onto you neighbours boat. Like Tom said, a piece of fishing line or VB cord hung 6 inches above the spreaders and the boom will keep them off. If i'm coming back to the boat shortly I'll sometimes just put a piece of VB cord around the boat 600mm above the life lines with loops every meter that has brightly coloured tape hanging from it. This is enough to interrupt their flight line onto the boat.
Gulls weeps, the stainless bars with red flags on the end seem to work somewhat on gulls but on a nearby cat the cormorant was just ducking under the arm as it swept over its head.
Whatever you use, they will get used to, so you may have to change it every 3 to 6 months.
I've never used an owl, the snake didn't work. If you do nothing, you will be OK for a few weeks but as soon as the frst one S&^%ts on the boat it is a welcoming card for all the rest to follow.
Some boat owners just put the time in to cleaning their boat that they would put into putting up the netting.
The netting is about $8 per meter. You will need 8m It has a red and green side and a black stripe down the center. I slit it down the center and tie it at the pulpit, furler, mast, boom end and pushpit. Then tie the sides OVER the lifelines and onto the middle lifeline to stop the swallows. It takes about 15minutes to put it on, 5 minutes to take it off. You don;t have be particular about how you close it up, you can leave big gaps in it. Just so long as it blocks the flight line and roost. It does get hooked on everything and anything, screws, shackel pins any rough edges etc.
So in summary, Use the boat or use VB cord temporarily or netting.

I have been away a few weeks now and I dread tho think what our feathered friends have done to/on Storm Petrel in my absence.

Brad, when we bought Dulcamara, she was shrouded with netting, as Greg suggests. What I found was that whilst it worked, it was a real pain in the behind to put up and down each time we went sailing, so when we moved to Pittwater, we decided to use something else.

For a while, we used nothing, that worked and we only got an occasional drop from a wayward cormorant on the spreaders. Then, by father in law bought us an owl. This had the effect of being. A threat during the nesting season and all the local birds spent many fun hours dive bombing the owl, their preferred weapon was their own poo, which meant that the owl caused more poo than we had previously expended.

We then went to plastic shopping bags. They worked a treat, they were noisy enough to keep the boat bird and poo free, however they did break down and occasionally broke free, which is bad for the fishies. They took no time to tie on and off when going out. I was then advised that a rubber snake was the go, and so far I've had two. They used to live on the forward section of the cabin in front of the mast step. One was lost at sea on my trip to Lake Macquarie last year, the other was purloined by the local lads of Careel Bay, probably because it was a 6 foot green python and would have been really fun to throw at their teacher or little sister.

Since the last snake was nicked, I've not bothered with any preventative, and the boat is still poo free, so I'm not even sure if the snake was doing the job, or whether the birds just don't like our boat?

One thing is certain, the less you need to do to either get to the point of dropping your mooring to sail off, or pack your boat down to come home, the more pleasant your boat ownership and sailing experience will be. There is nothing worse than sitting at home thinking that it's too hard to go out sailing......

Now you get to choose who says too much on the forum, Mr Greg or me.... But wait until Bear gets going!

What are the birds striking for ?

Bear

Hi Guy's ,

Given my observations in life , it maybe due to the fact that a Top Hat is more of a physical threat to a birds eye then a larger vessel . Ross Barnett's Ketch being 45" may have been more appealing to birds as it would not move around much on its mooring compared to a smaller and lighter Top Hat that would seem to always moving to a bird and would be seen as a threat ....


Anyway Birdshite is not a very appealing top coat finish when you have such a beautiful craft as a Top Hat , or at least for me at the moment , just the thought of it. ...

Brad Geyer

Birds strike !!!!