HOW TO KEEP SEA BIRDS OFF YOUR BOAT WITH GULLSWEEP®
Over the years people have tried and tested many ways of keeping seagulls, pelicans, herons, cormorants, starlings, Canadian geese, ducks and other birds off their boats.
Seagull spikes, seagull netting, seagull post and wire and all sort of seagull scarers have been tried.
Boat owners have applied their dogs, cats and even rifles to the problem of seagulls messing on their boats. They have spent many hours tying flapping tape and sparkly ribbons to rigging.
People have suspended predatory bird replicas from the mainmast to swing in the breeze, installed expensive audio scarer systems that supposedly only seagulls can hear and fought over the mooring nearest to the osprey nest. They have spent untold time entombing their boat in webs of fishing wire only to find it is then, although reasonably free of guano, entirely inoperable. If ‘bird brains’ are so tiny, why is it that us humans have so much trouble keeping seagulls off our boats?
Leaving the mainsheet loose and letting the boom swing back and forth can help a little but leaves the boat in an unsafe state. And what if you have no sail? Static displays such as snakes, inflatable owls, stuffed ospreys even feather dusters with sewn on eyes, dangling CDs and other things just seem to attract the birds’ attention even more. Its no wonder that the screeching sound a gull makes sometimes appears just a little too much like laughter.
The solution to the problem of birds messing your boat is much easier than you might suspect. Here is a picture of it in operation. It is called Gullsweep® and it is available by mail order from Outboard Services Ltd. There are a number of fitting options so please follow this link to order your Gullsweep® bird deterrent direct from Outboard Services.