Thought I would share my attempt to keep little birds from making their home in my boom. I usually stuff a rag in there but I thought I could 3D print something a little better... Not the highest quality print but it should work.
Keeping the birds out of my boom
- Thread starter rade0041
- Start date
One problem the openings can allow bees to enter particularly mud divers. Ran off critters in booms and others nesting in them with mothballs which trained most not to come back particularly squirrels nesting under every style of mainsail covers. Customers usually reported success
Usually there's a plastic cover on the end. I had to remove mine once to fish some line thru.
That's a cool replacement.
That's a cool replacement.
I have duct tape over the opening on my Beneteau 373, which I change once per year (I'm on year 2) due to UV degradation... not a very pretty solution, but it was more UGLY when I had to "evict" some swallows who decided it was a great place to start a family... I'll spare you the details. On my to-do list right now is to find a more elegant solution, and I did stumble across the device at the very bottom of this page: https://www.rigrite.com/Spars/Sparcraft_Spars/FB_Booms/FB220_boom.php (around $40 plus tax and shipping) which I think would work, but 3D printing a more decorative solution came to my mind as well. Is yours held in place by friction? What does the back of it look like? Are there flexing "clips" that hold it in place? I'd love a custom 3D printed one, but presumably would need extremely accurate measuring to ensure that it stayed in place... The opening on the boom is different on mine... more of a trapezoid with rounded corners... Its gotta be a pretty exact fit, right? How did you go about doing that? I want to make one... I have several friends with 3D printers... but don't know how to describe the measurements to them, and how to get it to stay in place without adhesive through rough seas, gybing, etc. I was thinking about using a couple of diagonal "set screws" to help lock it in place, but have so far decided 6 inches of duct tape was simpler until I come up with a more perfect solution. Advice?
ToddS, it has a clip on the top and friction fit on the bottom. There was a good place for it to clip to on the top but not the bottom. It is snug in there. It won't go anywhere. If I had to take it out a lot I'd come up with something different but this works for me. I created it in Fusion 360. I took a picture of the opening, measured the width at the top and then sized the picture to that measurement and basically traced the picture to create the shape. Here is what the back looks like....
Now you've got me worried. I haven't had birds in the boom, yet, but I did get a bird nest in the foot of the mast last season via the hole for the mast-raising pole (H26). Still looking for a good way to block that off.
That’s awesome, I have the same problem with my Isomat boom. I stuff a sponge in there but would like to find a better solution.