Unsolved Mystery Last Night on the Boat

Um ,how is he getting in!?

They’re creative and can climb better than a cat.
My guess is he climbed in through the space between the transom door and the canvas.
At least that’s the entry point I worry about critters getting on to my boat.
 
image.jpeg
he got in above the transom door and under the canvas. I have a flap to cover the gap but he just pushed thru

I made it to the boat ... I have no visible vinyl or chew marks. My port wiper motor doesn't work.... Chewed my rubber dust cover for the electronics and that's it..... Very lucky..

Traps set
 
View attachment 75568 he got in above the transom door and under the canvas. I have a flap to cover the gap but he just pushed thru

I made it to the boat ... I have no visible vinyl or chew marks. My port wiper motor doesn't work.... Chewed my rubber dust cover for the electronics and that's it..... Very lucky..

Traps set
Maybe two or three snaps along the edge of the transom door through the canvas ,just an idea or two straps hanging off the canvas going to snaps on the front of the transom door
 
Poor little fella, it has no governmental food assistance program or free health care so it has to rummage on expensive yachts chewing on plastic in the middle of the night. now it looks like he is getting the water boarding treatment. Where’s Bernie when you need him?
 
Poor little fella, it has no governmental food assistance program or free health care so it has to rummage on expensive yachts chewing on plastic in the middle of the night. now it looks like he is getting the water boarding treatment. Where’s Bernie when you need him?

Yes, it is an undocumented citizen.
 
Get a trap from local animal control and put on floor. make sure something under it a he/she will #$@t when gets trapped. Once in trap, call animal control and they will pick it and relocate him. No harm No foul.
 
Back when I had to get them out of my attic it cost about $1000.00 to trap them coming in and out, remove the babies and supposedly relocate them.
The exterminator came back once a day for about a week to check the “Have A Heart” traps and make sure he had the perpetrators.
Wound up being a total of two adults and three babies.
It was against the law to execute them.
The guy told me they drop them off at least 30 miles away so they can’t find their way back.
I think he went back across the road to the golf course and set them free.
BTW: He used “Peefs” as bait in the traps.
 
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View attachment 75568 he got in above the transom door and under the canvas. I have a flap to cover the gap but he just pushed thru

I made it to the boat ... I have no visible vinyl or chew marks. My port wiper motor doesn't work.... Chewed my rubber dust cover for the electronics and that's it..... Very lucky..

Traps set
Good luck. Glad that's all he got.
 
View attachment 75568 he got in above the transom door and under the canvas. I have a flap to cover the gap but he just pushed thru

I made it to the boat ... I have no visible vinyl or chew marks. My port wiper motor doesn't work.... Chewed my rubber dust cover for the electronics and that's it..... Very lucky..

Traps set

That’s where I thought they would get in.
I’m not a Raccoon expert, but they’re a constant problem for the nearly 25 years I’ve been living here because of the huge wooded park complex.
Just last night, when I was driving home I almost hit two that we’re crossing the road.
My neighbors and I are constantly trying to thwart them.
Supposedly, the State was dropping pellets from helicopters that they would eat. The pellets were supposed to make them sterile. I think it was all BS.
Anyway, they generally breed in late winter then look for a place to nest for when they have their babies in early Spring.
If their habits are the same where you are then they weren’t looking to make a place to have babies this time of year.
Our experience is that they will sniff out something they think they can eat from a pretty good distance and will do whatever they can to get to it.
We have to keep our garbage cans in a Rubbermaid Storage Container and keep the lid secure with a Caribiner Clip and can’t put anything out to the curb with food scraps or residue for pickup until the morning it will be picked up.
My wife left food out for a feral cat years back and it took me a year or two to get them to stop staying under my backyard deck.
My guess is that they smelled something they thought was edible somewhere in your cockpit or through the cabin door and were trying to get to it.
It doesn’t take much. It could have even been as simple as some used paper plates with food residue in your galley garbage can.
They can easily smell that.
I’d avoid securing that space between the transom door and canvas any more than it is now because if they want to get in they will shred your canvas.
They can be very destructive.
There have been a few instances over the years of raccoons getting on to boats on my canal.
Because of my experience with them at home, I’m downright obsessive about hosing out my cockpit to make sure there are no crumbs and removing all garbage from the boat before leaving it if we had a meal or snacks.
 

On the topic of "Florida Man", my uncle, who lives in Leesburg on a semi-rural lot along the canal system, got charged with a felony for drowning raccoons.

He and my aunt had gotten some chickens and raccoons had been breaking into the coop and killing chickens. He trapped and drowned the first one in the canal, and while repeating this for the second one the people across the canal saw him doing it and got mad.

They called the cops or the DNR, and they wound up charging my uncle with a felony. As it turns out, drowning raccoons in Florida is against the law. In true Florida fashion they said it was OK if he shot them, he just couldn't drown them. I thought it was funny because he DOES have neighbors close enough that you would think that discharging a firearm would be illegal if not somewhat risky.

It surprised me that they carried through with the prosecution rather than dropping the charges after explaining the law. I think the conviction reverts to a gross misdemeanor after some period, so he won't carry the felony burden, but geeze.
 
It is illegal in Florida to discharge a firearm in a residential neighborhood unless your defending yourself
 
You guys are taking all the fun out of this hat project :)

We don't have any food in the cockpit. My wife thought maybe the BBQ in the transom locker was attracting it but it never seemed interested in trying to get in there.

Slept in the boat last night and nothing.... I think this hat is playing hard to get... But I did leave the cockpit floor lights and music on
 
BTW: He used “Peefs” as bait in the traps.

What is Peefs?.... I talked to my nephew who is an avid hunter and farmer and he said peanut butter on bread works every time

He also laughed and said a hat would be too expensive from a taxidermy
 
What is Peefs?.... I talked to my nephew who is an avid hunter and farmer and he said peanut butter on bread works every time

He also laughed and said a hat would be too expensive from a taxidermy

Peefs are those little marshmallow candies that they sell around Easter time. They come in different pastel colors and are shaped like bunnies.
Pure sugar and the Raccoons love them.
The exterminator placed the traps around the entry point on the roof and covered the place they were getting in (attic vent fan) with thin plastic. He knew there weren’t any more coming when, after trapping the two adults, it went a few days with nothing in the trap and the thin plastic not being ripped through. Then he went in the attic and got the babies.
If you can set your trap up in the cockpit then maybe you can rig some thin clear plastic over the space between the canvas and the transom door.
 
Peefs are those little marshmallow candies that they sell around Easter time. They come in different pastel colors and are shaped like bunnies.
Pure sugar and the Raccoons love them.
The exterminator placed the traps around the entry point on the roof and covered the place they were getting in (attic vent fan) with thin plastic. He knew there weren’t any more coming when, after trapping the two adults, it went a few days with nothing in the trap and the thin plastic not being ripped through. Then he went in the attic and got the babies.
If you can set your trap up in the cockpit then maybe you can rig some thin clear plastic over the space between the canvas and the transom door.

I'm thinking you mean Peeps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps
 

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