Hope y'all safe in Florida?

[Herschel]

Yeah, that is good news!

You must have been dreading it as you got closer to your boat?

I was mostly worried about accidentally hurting him if I did not get him out of the engine or sail. Other than making an occasional mess, they are more useful controlling insects than any problems they cause.

Well, I do not enjoy their messes. Since bats tend to return to their original home for mating and raising pups, it is good IMHO not to have an enlarging colony of bats in one's mainsail cover. There is the issue of staining the sail, plus feces and urine smell over time. I have had bat issues now for four years, so my plan is to take the main off the boom and store it below and make sure my gas storage area is not assessable to bats. Great to have them around, but just as soon they check out more natural habitat around the river or the lake. Or the "M" down the dock!

[Russ]

OBTW, our "E" dock has
an "M" docked there, but I do not know if the owner is a member/poster on this forum or not.

You should leave the captain a note and invite them to join the forum.

[OverEasy]

Jus’ an FYI

Ya’ll can make or by actual bat boxes to make a more desirable home for any “bat buddies” that ya have ….



We had the opportunity to put up several of these bat boxes in the nearby trees when renovating our prior home. (There had been a pseudo utility shed on the property before we bought the property and apparently the bats had made a home there… now displaced the bats were eying our gable screened vents…… so we put up the bay box and they took right to them )

We never had the bug and mosquito problems others in our neighborhood had! Free flying bug zappers! We also go free aerial acrobatic air shows in the evening too!

There are lots of plans on-line and scrap lumber works just fine.

Best Regards
Over Easy

Happy Halloween!

[Russ]

Bats are cool. Great mosquito eaters.

The bat boxes need to be installed at a relatively high altitude because they drop out of the bottom to fly. I always wanted to get one but don't have a tall place to mount it.

[Drifter]

Er... I meant you must have been dreading finding out how bad the damage was to your Mac..

[Herschel]

Just to provide an update on the state of affairs at the Downtown Sanford Marina, water levels are slowly going down, yet a new tropical system is projected to dump a few more inches of rain on the coastal area of east Florida that includes the St. Johns. The marina moved me to "C" dock which does have power and water. There are only two sailboats on that dock, so all my neighbors are larger motor yachts, but at least I can get to my boat without the need of a water taxi. To follow up on the "bats in my mainsail" issue. I removed my mainsail and took it home to clean. Below are pertinent scenes. Since my jib needs some repair, I am contemplating bending on my Genoa and just sailing with the Genoa for a while. Hopefully without the temptation of the mainsail/cover combination, the bats will look for digs elsewhere. Either that or just bend on the main each time I want to sail and take it off again. We'll just have to experiment with ways to enjoy my Mac without a bent on main/cover rig for a while. I hope with a severely disrupted municipal marina dealing with flood conditions post hurricane, you can appreciate that building bat houses is on the back burner for a good while.
The problem:



The solution:

[Drifter]

Eew

[Russ]

I wonder if you could use something to repel the bats from roosting.

Dryer sheet?
Vicks Vapo rub?

[Herschel]

I have been trying to come up with a sail/boom cover that zips closed and still allows me to keep my boom kicker, boom vang, and mainsheet in place. My cover has catches every 10 inches or so. The covers that go with lazy jacks seem to zip on the top. That might be my solution. That would seem to deny bats access to the stored sail, if it completely encloses the sail. Does anyone have such a set up?

[NiceAft]

Herschel,

If there is a reputable upholsterer nearby, you can take to him/her what you now have, and have an identical one made , but with a zipper (plastic or brass).

[Be Free]

I have been trying to come up with a sail/boom cover that zips closed and still allows me to keep my boom kicker, boom vang, and mainsheet in place. My cover has catches every 10 inches or so. The covers that go with lazy jacks seem to zip on the top. That might be my solution. That would seem to deny bats access to the stored sail, if it completely encloses the sail. Does anyone have such a set up?

I don't want to discourage you and I wish you all the best but my experience with bats is that they don't need much of a hole. Could you close up the openings on your existing sail cover with velcro? It's a lot easier to install than a zipper.

[Herschel]

Just another day in paradise!

[OverEasy]

🫣 great…… just what everybody needs about now……

[Be Free]

Just another day in paradise!

Looks like we get to share this time.

[ris]

It’s Wednesday 2:42 PM and we are already getting rain bands.
It’s still for a while then another band comes through we get 15 to 25 mile an hour Wind gusts.
And I live in the center of the state where that track above goes right through our little town of frostproof. Hopefully it will be down to a tropical storm when it passes through our neighborhood. They are still predicting wind gusts from 65 to 70 miles an hour here tonight. Once again glad that I do not live on the coast.
Richard