I know the answer to this question is to do more sailing or less time with
the sail covers off.

This happened last spring but only came to mind (rainy day).

The problem started back in May/June and at first involved some small birds
trying to make nests inside my alum. boom. A piece of duct tape took care of
that but once I removed the sail cover and started doing some sailing ( I
returned to the same anchorage every day or so) these same birds would start
building nests in the folds of my main sail. This would happen over night or
during a single day.

When I would go to hoist the sail, I would get a shower of sticks, twigs and
sometimes an egg or two.

The ultimate solution was to cover the sail tightly with the sail cover and
even then they would try to get up under the cover.

Either I out lasted the mating season or I lost them when I move about 40
miles to another anchorage.

I guess my quesion is; Has an one else ever had this experience and how did
you handle it (humanely).

If these birds are like other annoying creatures, they are probably
protected.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Steve,

Keep the sail cover on and keep it tight. We also had a problem with
birds in the boom. My SO made a cover for the end of the boom
made of Textilene. Allows the boom interior to dry but keeps birds
and wasps out. No silver bullet here.

Doug

"Steve" wrote in message
...
I know the answer to this question is to do more sailing or less time with
the sail covers off.

This happened last spring but only came to mind (rainy day).

The problem started back in May/June and at first involved some small
birds
trying to make nests inside my alum. boom. A piece of duct tape took care
of
that but once I removed the sail cover and started doing some sailing ( I
returned to the same anchorage every day or so) these same birds would
start
building nests in the folds of my main sail. This would happen over night
or
during a single day.

When I would go to hoist the sail, I would get a shower of sticks, twigs
and
sometimes an egg or two.

The ultimate solution was to cover the sail tightly with the sail cover
and
even then they would try to get up under the cover.

Either I out lasted the mating season or I lost them when I move about 40
miles to another anchorage.

I guess my quesion is; Has an one else ever had this experience and how
did
you handle it (humanely).

If these birds are like other annoying creatures, they are probably
protected.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Steve,

We had a similar problem on our Catalina, and ended up using bungees
to close off the ends of the sail cover. That kept the birds out of
the sail.

YMMV,

Don W.

Doug Dotson wrote:
Steve,

Keep the sail cover on and keep it tight. We also had a problem with
birds in the boom. My SO made a cover for the end of the boom
made of Textilene. Allows the boom interior to dry but keeps birds
and wasps out. No silver bullet here.

Doug

"Steve" wrote in message
...

I know the answer to this question is to do more sailing or less time with
the sail covers off.

This happened last spring but only came to mind (rainy day).

The problem started back in May/June and at first involved some small

birds

trying to make nests inside my alum. boom.

x-no-archive:yes
"Steve" wrote:

I know the answer to this question is to do more sailing or less time with
the sail covers off.

This happened last spring but only came to mind (rainy day).

The problem started back in May/June and at first involved some small birds
trying to make nests inside my alum. boom. A piece of duct tape took care of
that but once I removed the sail cover and started doing some sailing ( I

We've got two booms but the main doesn't have a problem - just the
staysail boom. The PO had it stuffed with plastic bags. We've kept
them there and haven't had a problem.

returned to the same anchorage every day or so) these same birds would start
building nests in the folds of my main sail. This would happen over night or
during a single day.

When I would go to hoist the sail, I would get a shower of sticks, twigs and
sometimes an egg or two.

I can't help you with that as our main (and all the sails) are roller
furling. When the staysail wasn't roller furled, we always put the
sail cover back on if we weren't sailing, and it went all the way
around the sail on the boom.
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id1.html has a photo of the old
configuration in the top photo.


The ultimate solution was to cover the sail tightly with the sail cover and
even then they would try to get up under the cover.

Either I out lasted the mating season or I lost them when I move about 40
miles to another anchorage.

I guess my quesion is; Has an one else ever had this experience and how did
you handle it (humanely).

If these birds are like other annoying creatures, they are probably
protected.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions


grandma Rosalie

S/V RosalieAnn, Leonardtown, MD
CSY 44 WO #156
http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id2.html

Make a mark on each side of the cover as close to the mast as possible.
Take the cover in and have them sew a zipper from there to the end of the
boom. Now when you put on your cover you're assured that it will be tight
around the mast and boom leaving no holes for the birds to climb in. When
you don't need to zipper the cover you can still use the fasteners you
always have. The zipper and cost to sew it on is cheap compared to the
tannin stains and bird poop on your main sail.

Jack

"Steve" wrote in message
...
I know the answer to this question is to do more sailing or less time with
the sail covers off.

This happened last spring but only came to mind (rainy day).

The problem started back in May/June and at first involved some small
birds
trying to make nests inside my alum. boom. A piece of duct tape took care
of
that but once I removed the sail cover and started doing some sailing ( I
returned to the same anchorage every day or so) these same birds would
start
building nests in the folds of my main sail. This would happen over night
or
during a single day.

When I would go to hoist the sail, I would get a shower of sticks, twigs
and
sometimes an egg or two.

The ultimate solution was to cover the sail tightly with the sail cover
and
even then they would try to get up under the cover.

Either I out lasted the mating season or I lost them when I move about 40
miles to another anchorage.

I guess my quesion is; Has an one else ever had this experience and how
did
you handle it (humanely).

If these birds are like other annoying creatures, they are probably
protected.

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 21:35:06 -0400, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

Steve,

Keep the sail cover on and keep it tight. We also had a problem with
birds in the boom. My SO made a cover for the end of the boom
made of Textilene. Allows the boom interior to dry but keeps birds
and wasps out. No silver bullet here.

Doug

It's late, the beer is good and I have this hilarious vision of
boaters ducking to keep from being hit by eggs flying out the end of
the boom as she gybes hard.....(c;\

Thanks!



Larry W4CSC

3600 planes with transponders are burning 8-10 million
gallons of kerosene per hour over the USA. R-12 car air
conditioners are responsible for the ozone hole, right?

Steve wrote:

I know the answer to this question is to do more sailing or less time with
the sail covers off.

This happened last spring but only came to mind (rainy day).

The problem started back in May/June and at first involved some small birds
trying to make nests ....

Could be worse. My neighbor across the pier found a duck nest complete
with a half dozen eggs in his sail.

you're lucky they are only birds ... here in Victoria we get mink and
martins climbing under sail covers and into the sails to eat and sleep
.... nothing like hoisting your sails to see fish remnants and martin
dropping fall out ... or, in one case ... a very perturbed martin.

A bird nest fell out of my mainsail one
day. I considered it a source of embarrassment due to lack of taking the
boat out similar to seeing spiderwebs on
rigging.

Keep my name out of it,

Mark

Ya mean like this? http://rangerbest.home.comcast.net/BurdNestLoRes.JPG
Complete w/ 4 eggs.

--
Dan Best - (707) 431-1662, Healdsburg, CA 95448
B-2/75 1977-1979
Tayana 37 #192, "Tricia Jean" http://rangerbest.home.comcast.net/TriciaJean.JPG