My wife's worst nightmare come true - Rat on board

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corbu

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Part way through a two week charter in Croatia and rat found on board. Back at charter base and rat evading capture.

Two days lost already and no alternative yacht till Monday.

Wife with full on rat phobia refusing to set foot on board until rat caught.

Any advice? Are we at the mercy of the charter company? Really disappointing to potentially loose five days of our holiday.

Shaun.
 
corbu said:
Part way through a two week charter in Croatia and rat found on board. Back at charter base and rat evading capture.

Two days lost already and no alternative yacht till Monday.

Wife with full on rat phobia refusing to set foot on board until rat caught.

Any advice? Are we at the mercy of the charter company? Really disappointing to potentially loose five days of our holiday.

Shaun.
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Borrow a Jack Russell.
 
I have been looking for the right dog. We have one at home, sadly unable to help. Two cages and three glue traps with chocolate and ham in position.

Opened a locker and couldn't believe what I was seeing. It managed to escape before I could do anything.

Wife sat on top of the coach roof for 50 nm till we got back to the charter base.

Kids are saying it is only a rat...
 
corbu said:
Part way through a two week charter in Croatia and rat found on board. Back at charter base and rat evading capture.

Two days lost already and no alternative yacht till Monday.

Wife with full on rat phobia refusing to set foot on board until rat caught.

Any advice? Are we at the mercy of the charter company? Really disappointing to potentially loose five days of our holiday.

Shaun.
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It sounds if you're at the mercy of the rat. :ambivalence:

The rat wouldn't bother me but I've just spoken with my Wife and she's says that she would continue to stay on the boat but would expect the charter company to remove it asap once back at base.

Do you think that the rat was on board when you picked up the boat? Have you only anchored out in bays since you started the charter?

Richard
 
Richard

We had only anchored out. All shut up at night as wife paranoid of rats. So probably with us on collection.

Can they find a way in if hatches and companionway closed?

Plan to sail six months a year on retirement so trying to handle this carefully!

On the rat issue, not sure what leverage I have with the charter company?

Croatia is a lovely sailing area keen to get back out as soon as we can.

Shaun
 
If the rat has peed or crapped on board I believe whole vessel will have to be fumigated cleaned etc.
I dont think wise to go onboard.
My local yard in Plymouth had a rat pee boat and the workers were all in white incident overalls,goggles and gloves etc actively cleaning.
Or is that down to H and S .?
Find a good Hotel and bill the Charter Co for entertaing a guest!
 
Sandyshore said:
If the rat has peed or crapped on board I believe whole vessel will have to be fumigated cleaned etc.
I dont think wise to go onboard.
My local yard in Plymouth had a rat pee boat and the workers were all in white incident overalls,goggles and gloves etc actively cleaning.
Or is that down to H and S .?
Find a good Hotel and bill the Charter Co for entertaing a guest!
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It surely will, they do it continually.
With regards to the charter company. Difficult to prove it was on-board when the boat was picked up. Otherwise I don't really see what it has to do with the charter company.
 
corbu said:
Richard

We had only anchored out. All shut up at night as wife paranoid of rats. So probably with us on collection.

Can they find a way in if hatches and companionway closed?

Plan to sail six months a year on retirement so trying to handle this carefully!

On the rat issue, not sure what leverage I have with the charter company?

Croatia is a lovely sailing area keen to get back out as soon as we can.

Shaun
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There are a lot of issues to consider Shaun, but start by making detailed notes now of exactly where you have been, where you have anchored, how and when you first noticed the presence of the rat, what you said to the charter company and what they replied to you and who said it.

Keep all your photos so that the jpg numbers are sequential with none missing and none of them show you on a quay or with shore lines, other than the charter company quay. If you have any showing your boat at anchor then definitely keep copies of those.

Rats nearly always get on board when tied alongside either stern to or lazy lines or when you are anchored with shore lines. In theory, a rat could swim out to a boat at anchor and shimmy up the anchor chain or snubbing line but it's such a remote possibility that no Judge will accept it as a realistic defence by the charter company and I doubt that they would try it.

The next issue is whether the charter company is a UK company, whether you paid the charter fees to a UK company and whether you paid by credit card.

If the charter company tries to wriggle out of its liabilities and it, or its agent, is UK based you will probably be able to get a pro-rata amount of your fee back for the missed days. If there is any argument then start a Section 75 claim against the credit card company as well as a Small Claim against the charter company.

The first thing to so, once you are back on board a rat-free boat, is to calculate the pro-rata amount and verbally and in email, keeping it very friendly and positive, explain to the charter manager that you believe that you entitled to a refund of £xxxx and show them your calculation. If they agree, ask him to confirm by email and you're home and dry. If they don't agree, ask them how much they think you should be recompensed, and then consider whether you think that's fair, bearing in mind that taking further action once back home will be stressful and time consuming so it's worth something not to have to go through it all.

Richard
 
Equally difficult for them to prove it wasn't on when we took the boat. But don't see any compensation route. Just a total annoyance.

More an issue trying to convince my wife that this isn't a common problem. (If you follow sensible precautions.)

Stuck in Biograd marina with perfect sailing conditions outside.

At least it is blue skies and sunny.
 
Richard

Thank you for the detailed response. I will record the sequence of events.

Currently trying to appeal to the charter company director's better nature to get us underway again.

Shaun.
 
If you get no satisfaction... make sure you tell everyone here which company it is..... :encouragement:
 
corbu said:
Equally difficult for them to prove it wasn't on when we took the boat. But don't see any compensation route. Just a total annoyance.

More an issue trying to convince my wife that this isn't a common problem. (If you follow sensible precautions.)

Stuck in Biograd marina with perfect sailing conditions outside.

At least it is blue skies and sunny.
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Not helpful for your circumstances right now, but it is reasonably easy to fashion rat guards from acetate and tie wraps for future charters/longer term cruising and to allay your wife's fears of one boarding (but not helpful if they beat you onboard!) :)

Our first ever experience sailing in Croatia was with a professional skipper and she swore the worst place for rats was Scedro where there wasn't much garbage to scavenge ashore and they would (as I witnessed, but thankfully it was scared off) climb shore lines to get aboard and look for food
 
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When we lived in an area with lots of rats always the first sign was bars of soap nibbled. Oddly enough they preferred it to usual rat baits like cheese, chocolate etc. Always caught them within 24 hours with spring traps baited with same soap. Put trap or traps by "walls", not in open space.

Rats were easy, cobras were more worrying. Killed one in the kitchen once.
 
jwilson said:
When we lived in an area with lots of rats always the first sign was bars of soap nibbled. Oddly enough they preferred it to usual rat baits like cheese, chocolate etc. Always caught them within 24 hours with spring traps baited with same soap. Put trap or traps by "walls", not in open space.

Rats were easy, cobras were more worrying. Killed one in the kitchen once.
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Snakes on a boat.

Disconcerting.
 
I don't think I have any useful advice (at this stage). But we met this problem years ago on flotilla in Turkey. The pick-up crew was me and my well-flotilla-ed mate from Leicester. Plus unknown to us or each other a chap and youngish (to me at any rate) lady. She had an aft cabin and came belting out of it late one evening saying there was a hamster in there. Shades of Manuel in Faulty Towers! My mate calmly takes a break-back rat trap (a super-sized mousetrap) from his luggage, baits it with chocolate (IIRC), and puts it in her cabin. It didn't take long before there was a loud thwack and it was declared an ex-rat and consigned to the nearest dumpster. Next morning this was related to the flotilla leader, who was shown the evidence in the dumpster. We thought that the rest of the flotilla should be warned, but he demurred and thought it might cause unnecessary panic. At least he did not have to take any action, and there was no discussion of compensation.

My mate explained that he lives near a river and is used to dealing with rats.

But I do think that if the shore staff do not warn punters of the danger of acquiring unwanted rats, and how to avoid that, then they bear some of the responsibility when it happens...

Mike.
 
mjcoon said:
I don't think I have any useful advice (at this stage). But we met this problem years ago on flotilla in Turkey. The pick-up crew was me and my well-flotilla-ed mate from Leicester. Plus unknown to us or each other a chap and youngish (to me at any rate) lady. She had an aft cabin and came belting out of it late one evening saying there was a hamster in there. Shades of Manuel in Faulty Towers! My mate calmly takes a break-back rat trap (a super-sized mousetrap) from his luggage, baits it with chocolate (IIRC), and puts it in her cabin. It didn't take long before there was a loud thwack and it was declared an ex-rat and consigned to the nearest dumpster. Next morning this was related to the flotilla leader, who was shown the evidence in the dumpster. We thought that the rest of the flotilla should be warned, but he demurred and thought it might cause unnecessary panic. At least he did not have to take any action, and there was no discussion of compensation.

My mate explained that he lives near a river and is used to dealing with rats.

But I do think that if the shore staff do not warn punters of the danger of acquiring unwanted rats, and how to avoid that, then they bear some of the responsibility when it happens...

Mike.
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I think some of the problem is it’s probably impossible to totally prevent them when the charter boats are in base; multiple boats berthed cheek by jowl and so many lines etc. Even if rat guards are used it takes just one gangway or a rat that breaches a guard/scurries up a line and then they can go deck to deck anyway. Good waste disposal and clean marinas/docks will help though. Well, unless that leaves them so starved they look to the galleys!
 
Bellacruiser said:
I think some of the problem is it’s probably impossible to totally prevent them when the charter boats are in base; multiple boats berthed cheek by jowl and so many lines etc. Even if rat guards are used it takes just one gangway or a rat that breaches a guard/scurries up a line and then they can go deck to deck anyway. Good waste disposal and clean marinas/docks will help though. Well, unless that leaves them so starved they look to the galleys!
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I'm certainly not a rat expert as we've only had them on board once .... although that was a swarm of them running from boat to boat whilst at anchor in a raft with two shore lines. One of the guys on the next boat was bitten on the thigh and screamed blue murder and no-one got any sleep that night in the heat with all the hatches closed.

I would have thought that if the marina is kept clean and tidy then rats would not be a problem but if there is any history of rats, then the charter people need to make sure that there are plenty of traps set and that all the boats have their hatches closed or just cracked open when in the marina. Ultimately, it is the charter companies decision whether to insure against charter days being lost due to rat infestations.

It is definitely not down to the charterer to lose several days of their expensive charter holiday because the charter company did not take sufficient precautions resulting in a rat already being on board before the charter even started. The difficulty would normally be in proving that the rat was already on board but, through fortuitous circumstances, it appears that Shaun will be able to prove this sufficiently to meet the balance of probability test. I therefore suspect that the charter company, if they are British or paid for with a UK credit card, will come up with an offer of compensation/future discount/whatever.

Richard
 
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