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