On Sun, 10 Apr 2016 15:53:11 -0700 (PDT), True North
wrote:

Tim
- show quoted text -
"This may seem an oddity, but here at Richland County's Eastfork lake there were several boats sunk back in 'the day' because the muskrats loved to Â*chew on those big rubber gaskets on the OMC Stringer outdrives. I guess they liked to gnaw at them to keep their little teefers sharpened..."

,
Funny...I remembered hearing a version of that story years ago. I thought it was the bellows that was chewed causing a sinking.
When I brought it up at the boat show when considering that Bayliner 175 BR, the salesman laughed. Claimed he had never heard that story and assured me that the new bellows on my boat would last 12-14 years. The weather was too bad last week to drive up to the Moncton Boat Show so I'll take a trip over to the dealership on PEI
before May. I really want to take a good look at the 180 BR before they deliver my boat.

With no rodent intervention or other calamity, rubber (plastic) parts
probably do last that long up north. The tropics change the rules a
bit.
Lots of stuff that works in a 4 month boating season in cold water
don't do as well in warm water and 12 months of sun.

I am getting pretty good at minimizing my headaches but I am a tad
confused on this rat. He must have got in when I left the console door
open overnight and ate his way out. They usually don't work that hard
to chew their way in. With a dozen neighbors feeding the rats from
their fruit trees, I am getting to be quite a rat wrangler.
I can keep them out of the house and the screen cage but to think they
are not here is simply denial.
I really do like my snakes.