How do you get rid of dolphins?

[Fogg 427]

Gentling sailing up to Kawau today got approached by 5-6 big ocean dolphins who started knocking the rudder quite aggressively. Tried starting the engine, going fast, going slow, nothing worked. Eventually dropped sails and drifted quietly but they still took ages to lose interest and go away.

 

At one point I was thinking about dropping noisy anchor chain, blasting foghorn at them or flushing lots of soapy water down the sink to try to deter them.

 

I know most people want to attract dolphins not deter them but the knocking on the rudder was quite disconcerting and they were big animals.

 

Any thoughts or experiences?

[Black Panther 1,745]

Ive had pilot whales chewing on my self steering rudder in Alaska. They would take turns and boat would slew wildly. Had to disconnect and hand steer , Then they carried on chewing the SS. Not much you can do but repair the damage.

[Fish 0]

I've never experinced that, and haven't ever thought about how to get them to go away. You tried everything I would have thought of.

 

But a random experience I had with dolphins, was out for a night training sail 2 up with my Father.

Short story is it was dark and late, I was a bit tired and drowsy. Was cutting the corner a bit on the northern end of Whangaparaoa Pen, heading into Tiri channel. I had basically lined up a reef / rock shelf in the dark and hadn't noticed. Some dolphins came up and gave me a bit of a surprise, surfaced right beside where I was sitting in the cockpit. Splashed me (or blew some water up). Anyway, they basically woke me up and told me I was a dick, there is a reef just ahead. I altered course a good 30 degrees and made it home without hitting anything.

 

I'm happy for you all to think I'm a dreamer or whatever, but I certainly felt those dolphins sent me a message. If they weren't sending me a message, it was a very lucky coincidence.

 

Perhaps your dolphins were trying to get you to turn around by pushing on the rudder? You didn't leave anything important in the car did you?

[Fogg 427]

Years ago some friends (a couple) were swimming off GB reef and a pod of dolphins started hassling the girl and forcing her back to the dive boat. Eventually she gave up and got out of the water whilst everyone else carried on swimming. A few mins later a shark turned up and everyone got out.

 

4 weeks later back in London she found out she was pregnant.

 

We think the dolphins detected this via sonar and went into ‘protect the expectant mother mode’.

 

I love them as much as anyone and have had dozens of memorable experiences over the years - but I’ve also found the big black ocean dolphins can be quite clumbsy on the rudder and if there are no other (faster) boats nearby as a bigger drawcard then I worry about damage to the sterngear.

[ScottiE 174]

Underwater speaker with Orca talk?

 

Na - surely the "Jaw's" movie suspense music is far more effective.  Either that or something out of one of the Sharknado documentaries?

[Priscilla II 416]

Japanese find this method effective.

https://youtu.be/V2uzRS0-wFI

[bigal.nz 60]

That is heart breaking to watch. I really would think a great use of tax payer frigates would be to send them to sink anything with a harpoon.

[B00B00 322]

if you watch the first minute of this video you can see the Dolphins giving the Pork Chop rudder a give rubbing. You could really feel it on the helm.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDG5ftCTiF8

[Island Time 1,288]

Gentling sailing up to Kawau today got approached by 5-6 big ocean dolphins who started knocking the rudder quite aggressively. Tried starting the engine, going fast, going slow, nothing worked. Eventually dropped sails and drifted quietly but they still took ages to lose interest and go away.

 

At one point I was thinking about dropping noisy anchor chain, blasting foghorn at them or flushing lots of soapy water down the sink to try to deter them.

 

I know most people want to attract dolphins not deter them but the knocking on the rudder was quite disconcerting and they were big animals.

 

Any thoughts or experiences?

Hah, hah, they were just telling you the rudder bearings a a bit sloppy! "Hey look, this moves sideways!"

[Ptown 14]

BOI regatta we had one dolphin rubbing on the rudder for about 30 seconds straight. Almost reached for a winch handle 

[El Toro 110]

Yea they sure loved taping PCs keel and rudder, often under genny usually at night youd feel the mast shake as they nugdged it

[Kevin McCready 83]

What are the rules? Are you allowed to jump in and give them a back scratch? I have a hunch they'd like my keel better than my rudder because it's much more solid. What sort of keel do you have?

[Fogg 427]

Normal modern production design 2m fin keel keel with bulb.

[Kevin McCready 83]

I suggest putting sandpaper on the bulb. Wink.

[Kevin McCready 83]

Ahh the old Australian trick eh (couldn’t resist)

hee hee. good one!

[Frank 161]

Diving for scallops at kawau a large pod came over and essentially harassed us for an hour, my son got some great underwater footage. They come so close but somehow they always avoid contact even when they are right in your face, amazing creatures.

[ex Elly 243]

Motor sailing from Tutukaka to Whangarei we were joined by a pod of bottlenose dolphins, who followed us for about an hour.

We were loving it watching their jumps and turns.

That was, until one of them started banging on the rudder, and then I got worried, and hoped that they would leave us.