[Rhodes22-list] My Rhodes pigeon coop....

Fri Mar 21 11:41:08 EDT 2014

Behind those side pockets/coaming boxes there is indeed a space 
between the upper side of the lazarette wall and the coaming/aft deck.

Many, many moons ago (2006? 2007?) I posted this tale. Though our fix 
is no longer in place we haven't had any further problems. I thought 
I would repost the tale to save me a search of the archives. Here's the tale:

When we moved Fretless to the Eastern Shore 6 or 7 years ago, it was 
the first time we had kept the boat in a slip. We had made the 
commitment and were determined to get a lot of use out of the boat. 
We got her all settled in the slip one weekend and went away for the 
week. We came back the next weekend, planning to spend the weekend on 
the boat. We schlepped our stuff down the dock and stowed it all 
away, went off to have dinner at a restaurant in town, came back and 
sat out in the cockpit for a while.

Some time later, we put up the poptop enclosure, made up the berth in 
the cabin and turned in. I heard noises like someone walking on deck. 
I told myself I was imagining things. I heard more noises. I nudged 
Fred awake (he's next to the companionway). He didn't hear anything 
(he's somewhat deaf). He looked out and didn't see anything. I went 
back to sleep. I heard the noise again. And again. I nudged Fred 
awake. This time he was nice enough to get up and take a look around. 
He didn't see anything. We went back to bed and to sleep.

The next morning I fixed a nice breakfast and we are sitting in the 
cockpit with our orange juice and our mugs of tea sitting on the 
cockpit table. We heard a scrambling sound from the area of the 
lazarette. We looked at each other. We turned the table so that Fred 
can get to the lazarette. He cautiously opened the lid and let it 
fall right back down. "There's a duck in there!" "A duck?" "A duck!" 
We finished our breakfast contemplating how to get a duck out of the lazarette.

We cleaned up breakfast and looked in the lazarette. The duck was in 
amongst various lines, pfds and the anchor looking rather frightened. 
We decided to leave the lid of the lazarette propped open to see if 
the duck would leave on its own. We propped the lid and left.

We came back to the boat and the duck was gone having left us a duck 
egg as a present. No nest or crud, just the egg. Then we started to 
try to figure out how the duck got into the lazarette and we made a 
discovery about the boat that we had owned for 3 years. The underside 
of gunnels are open to the lazarette. Somehow the duck had figured 
out how to go under the bench seats and up under the gunnels into the 
lazarrette.

Having figured out how the duck got into the lazarrette, we had to 
figure out how to keep the duck out of the lazarrette. Off we  went 
to the hardware store to buy some screening and some ...(drum roll 
please) ..... duck tape.

Taped the screening over the openings and ended our duck problem.

Can't say what happened to the egg.

At 11:09 AM 3/21/2014, you wrote:
>Thanks but moved my boat to South Shore...no more problem
>On Mar 21, 2014 10:43 AM, "Lowe, Rob" <rlowe at vt.edu> wrote:
>
> > Chris,
> > The side pockets usually have a coaming box in them?  Similar to:
> >
> >
> > 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/GLASTRON-0322270-WHITE-27-1-4-X-8-1-2-X-7-IN-PLASTIC-BOAT-STORAGE-COAMING-BOX-/190720349884?_trksid=p2054897.l4276
> >
> > that might stop them #@#$ pigeons.   Then again, I hear pigeons make good
> > eating!!?? - rob
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org [mailto:
> > rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Chrissailorman
> > Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 10:13 AM
> > To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
> > Subject: [Rhodes22-list] My Rhodes pigeon coop....
> >
> > I had just launched my Rhodes 22 in Mount Sinai harbor the day before and
> > tied up to a slip temporarily before moving to my mooring spot... Upon
> > boarding I thought I could hear pigeons... The sound was coming from the
> > rear of the boat... Seemingly from inside the lazarette...How could this
> > be? I opened the cover and almost fell over as two pigeons flew out!! Now
> > how in the world did they get in there? The next day when I returned to do
> > some more work on the boat...guess what? They were back! A mystery...but
> > easily solved. It turns out that the side pockets under the winches are
> > open to the bilge from the top, inside... Pigeons must have been attracted
> > to the pockets to roost...and somehow  they found their way into the bilge
> > and then to the lazarette.... All I can say is, it was a good thing it was
> > only one day between visits....or the mystery would have been....what is
> > that smell!   Solution? Cover or fill up those pockets or I'm gonna have
> > some dead pigeons aboard!
> >
> > Chris G.
> > 1986 Rhodes 22
> > Long Island, NY
> > Sent from my iPad
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