Check your sails - I think I've just had a very lucky find...

[Larks]

Something obviously liked the plastic bags and sail bags but I don't think it/they liked the sails.

What started out as a bit of timber reorganising in my shed, to get access to a few lengths for mocking up raised panels, somehow has turned into a full shed clean and reorganisation.

This included dragging out my sails that I'd cleaned, dried and wrapped in heavy duty plastic bags in my shed loft for the duration of my H28 refit.

Three of the five bags have been chewed through, as have the sail bags themselves within, however it doesn't "appear" that the sails themselves have been damaged at all. I'll have to wait a few days for the ground here to dry out before I can get them out and check them properly but I'm pretty confident that I've been very lucky.

I'm not sure who the culprit is, there's no evidence of the usual suspects, ie no smell of rat urine or signs of rat poop in the loft, but our local marsupials that I usually get in the shed wouldn't normally get into chewing on anything but bugs and leaves.

So, perhaps if you have your sails stored, this might be a timely reminder to check them.

When I put mine back they will go into a large metal trunk.

[wizbang 13]

I took the sails off of my 23'er for winter the first year I had her and brought them ashore for "safe keeping".
Big mistake, chewed by rodents. They stay on the boom year round now.

[Phil Y]

Yep-mine stay on the boat for the same reason-although last time we slipped her, a rat got aboard. By the time I'd gone home and come back again, bloody rat had eaten a hole in 2 spinnakers, absolutely destroyed an inflatable dinghy, torn through plastic water pipe in several places, chewed the insulation off some wiring, and would have sunk the boat had he chosen a slightly different spot to chew through a toilet hose, on which I'd foolishly left the seacock open.

While you are checking your sails also check your insurance-under exclusions mine listed damage caused by rodents

[Peerie Maa]

The best way to keep textiles away from rodents is to hang it in bags from thin twine from the rafters. Makes it too much like hard work for them.

[KABAR2]

the critters are probably smelling the salt on the material sort of like leaving a french fry out for them.......
everything on 2 or 4 legs needs salt....

[Todd Bradshaw]

We don't have any salt here and you wouldn't believe how much money I've made fixing rodent damaged sails over the last 32 years. Dacron fluffs up into a cozy bed if you chew it long enough (they don't eat it) and if you have trouble finding your way out, you can just chew your way straight out the side of a folded sail. Makes for an interesting string of patches when you unfold it to go sailing.

[WX]

I came very close to having a chewed sail some months back when I rodent make it's nest in the sail bag.

[RFNK]

Yep, I'll bet the culprit is ye ol' rattus rattus. Don't be surprised if you find a nest right inside your folded sail. I had a couple of old Folkboat sails that went this way. Just a small hole in the sail bag but plenty of damage within. Which reminds me - I have some Twister sails I'd better check this weekend!

Rick

[skuthorp]

I too have had rat problems. the one that died finally dried up and I found another rather sick one whilst I was going through the shed. I've lost a tent to a possum, and some papers to rats and mice. There's a big population of mice about, product of too much feed and not enough stock but the cold weather has hit with a vengance, 6c outside and hail and 3 forecast, so that will fix that problem. I have more sail sets than boats at present so I guess I'd better get them all down and check.

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

In The Old Days I used to leave one of Sanderling's three washboards out, to help with ventilation. She was moored four-square, and the only contact with shore was through one bow line, which was fitted with a rat-guard. (The other lines were all made off to mangroves which of course stood in the water/mud.) That didn't stop a possum though. I found it one day, nesting comfortably on a mooring warp in the forepeak. Fortunately I was able to trap it using a cat-trap on deck, baited with an apple, and fortunately also it hadn't been aboard long enough to make a mess or do any damage.

The missing washboard was reinserted next day....

Mike

[The Bigfella]

I lost a rubber ducky that way. $900 worth. Bloody mice did it. It had hundreds of holes in it.

[wizbang 13]

I had a big brown "Norwegian Wharf Rat" on Woodwind in Bermuda, where I never was at a dock.
Wound up gassing him with generator exhaust, still couldn't find it for 3 days. By then it was even BIGGER!!!
still makes me wanna puke

[Oldad]

I watched a couple unroll their inflatable last spring and it was fun watching the wife dance around as the mice came tumbling out running between her feet. Holes and mouse crap did not make for a pleasant row out to the boat. I opened a little used cupboard in my shop and found a nest. Gotta get a cat I guess.