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Muskrat 1, Bayliner 0
We will be running a story in the next issue about a Bayliner sinking
at Seattle Yacht Club dock. As remarkable as the presence of a "mere Bayliner" on the dock of the most prestigious yacht club in the area may be, the interesting aspect of the article involves the cause of the sinking- a muskrat. A colony of muskrats lives in close proximity to the Seattle Yacht Club. Never let it be said that toney neighborhoods don't attract vermin. The muskrats often build nests in the exhaust hoses of yachts at the SYC dock. There is never any external sign of a muskrat invasion, and the first indication for most boaters is an angry bundle of fur and a wad of mud and sticks shooting out of the exhaust when the engines fire up. Unfortunately, the stereotypical bahers aren't the only critters found of taking a bite out of Bayliner. A muskrat nested in the Bayliner exhaust hose and began sharpening it's teeth on the rubber. After sufficient munching and crunching, the hose was penetrated at a point below the waterline. Down she went. Those who moor in areas where muskrats are known to hang out should be aware of the potential problem these animals can create in an exhaust system. In a worst case scenario, they can very obviously sink a boat. The saga continues for the owner of the Muskrat dinner barge here in our fair city. His insurance company has told him, effectively, to take a long walk off a short pier. He's fighting them, of course. There is a clause in his policy excluding damage from "vermin, wildlife, etc". Not all boat insurance policies have this particular exclusion, but boaters who moor in muskrat zones might do well to check the language in their particular policy and either negotiate its removal or consider switching to an insurance carrier that covers this not-really-very-funny possibility. |
Gould wrote:
A colony of muskrats lives in close proximity to the Seattle Yacht Club. Never let it be said that toney neighborhoods don't attract vermin. The muskrats often build nests in the exhaust hoses of yachts at the SYC dock. There is never any external sign of a muskrat invasion, and the first indication for most boaters is an angry bundle of fur and a wad of mud and sticks shooting out of the exhaust when the engines fire up. ================================== This is a common problem in the Great Lakes, too. I have Boat Leveler trim tabs on my beloved Bayliner and of course, the hoses are exposed. One year a friendly muskrat chewed both the hoses off my tabs and after wondering why the boat ran at such a list, I pulled it and found the hoses were gone. There is a marina on Harsens Island (in the St. Clair River near Algonac) that used to cater to a lot of River Queen houseboats. A lot of them had the old Chrysler Drive-90 outdrives. They had a plastic housing that kept water out. The musk rats chewed these up bad, causing many of the houseboats to sink in the sink in the wells. Finally, an enterprising person devised a cage that they put around the outdrives to keep the rats away. |
Do any boaters install a screen over their exhaust?
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They have been known to chew the boot on the outdrive as well.
wrote in message oups.com... We will be running a story in the next issue about a Bayliner sinking at Seattle Yacht Club dock. As remarkable as the presence of a "mere Bayliner" on the dock of the most prestigious yacht club in the area may be, the interesting aspect of the article involves the cause of the sinking- a muskrat. A colony of muskrats lives in close proximity to the Seattle Yacht Club. Never let it be said that toney neighborhoods don't attract vermin. The muskrats often build nests in the exhaust hoses of yachts at the SYC dock. There is never any external sign of a muskrat invasion, and the first indication for most boaters is an angry bundle of fur and a wad of mud and sticks shooting out of the exhaust when the engines fire up. Unfortunately, the stereotypical bahers aren't the only critters found of taking a bite out of Bayliner. A muskrat nested in the Bayliner exhaust hose and began sharpening it's teeth on the rubber. After sufficient munching and crunching, the hose was penetrated at a point below the waterline. Down she went. Those who moor in areas where muskrats are known to hang out should be aware of the potential problem these animals can create in an exhaust system. In a worst case scenario, they can very obviously sink a boat. The saga continues for the owner of the Muskrat dinner barge here in our fair city. His insurance company has told him, effectively, to take a long walk off a short pier. He's fighting them, of course. There is a clause in his policy excluding damage from "vermin, wildlife, etc". Not all boat insurance policies have this particular exclusion, but boaters who moor in muskrat zones might do well to check the language in their particular policy and either negotiate its removal or consider switching to an insurance carrier that covers this not-really-very-funny possibility. |
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Do any boaters install a screen over their exhaust?
*********** One of the benefits of rubber exhaust covers, hinged at the upper rim of the port, is to discourage muskrats. Unfortunately, these covers tend to curl upward as the rubber ages and they become less effective. |
They have been known to chew the boot on the outdrive as well.
********** Yes, but not as much in recent years. According to the surveyor who wrote the item about the muskrat attack, outdrive boots are now formulated with the addition of a chemical that muskrats find distasteful to deter this particular activity. |
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