Yep... mice have been on and in the boat during the winter... chewed on whatever paper and fabric they were able to find... But the real mystery is how they were able to find their way into the bilge and cabin... All hatches were closed and remained intact, the deck pipe for the anchor chain was taped closed and also remained intact, both cockpit lockers remained shut. The boat has six through holes at the transom: a top small one to let the gas pipe through, another that drains the "lazaret" seat, two that connect to the scuppers draining the cockpit (the scuppers seem also ok), and one is the exhaust for the bilge manual pump... None of them should connect to the bilge freely... right? unless the rodent gnawed on one of the pipes from the inside... or made it through the very bilge pump (haven't checked whether it works yet)... What would be your guess... or experience...?
J.
My guess would be the main cabin hatch or its sliding cover or the cockpit lockers. Even closed these still have some tiny gaps. Mice can get through unbelievably small openings.
Sitting in my living room one evening reading and happened to look up at the front door of the house and saw a mouse crawl under the door by simply compressing the rubber threshold that seals the door. Couldn't have been more than a half inch gap with the seal compressed. The gap between my sliding main hatch cover and the drop boards is bigger than that.
By way of a "closing the barn door too late" comment, I have put trays of old-fashioned mothballs (WalMart) in all of my stored boats and my conversion van at the end of the season since our ever-present Montana field mice made winter nests in/out of the upholstery in a pop-up camping trailer twenty years ago. You need to air things out very well when sailing/camping weather finally appears (fumes are very bad for people, too, and linger), but it has worked perfectly so far. We have mice in the house, in spite of two cats, but none in the boat or rig. Wish it worked for wasps!
Good luck.
Ferd
Hey Ferdjohns, you still in MT? If so where do you sail?
Regards charlie
Hey, Charlie.
Yep, I'm still here. I used to sail Canyon Ferry quite a bit, but lately have mainly trailered out to Anacortes or Bellingham and sailed the San Juans and Gulf Islands. Worked the area between Victoria and Naniamo/Vancouver pretty hard the past 20 years or so. I've only sailed Flathead once, but it was great. By the time I drag the boat that far, I just tend to go on until I hit salt water.
Ferd Johns
Bozeman MT
Try Irish spring soap for wasps, guy at marina was gawking at our CP 19 and saying that for the damn mud dobbers he has a bar of Irish spring, 2 actually (30 foot boat) and keeps em out of there..... I havent tried it yet, but plan too.
He said he uses Irish spring, so he tried it and it works, Guess Ill switch to irish spring at home so if it doesnt work at keeping the boat clean, it will keep me clean. :D
Dual purpose is always a good thing........and smells better than the damned moth balls.....
DOn't know if anybody else does this ... but when I bought my boat this spring it was loaded with dryer sheets ... RB told me a few dryer sheets under the cushions and in the sail lockers keeps the mice away.
Moth balls, Spring Soap, Dryer sheets... Well, that is more food from thought than I expected. I may try the moth balls in the lockers, the dryer sheets under the cushions and a couple of newly open Irish Spring soaps inside the cabin. However, from now on I thing the sail, the bimini and the covers will hibernate away from the boat and inside the house (where until now we haven't had any rodents... with the exception an adventurous chipmunk that gets inside the house at every possible occasion to beg for peanuts...).
Much appreciated,
J.