katy wrote in news:4960bb50$0$1267
:

We're having some problems with damp seeping in. Both the v-berth and
the aft cabin have wood bins on the sides for storage...these are open
and about 9 inches deep. That's where we store our clothes. The hull
side and bottoms are carpeted with the same fabric as the the liner, a
sort of nubbly burlappy material but more closely woven. It seems the
clothes on the bottom are always damp. I've been rotating them so they
won't mildew but that's getting tedious. Also have damp problems where
the cushions meet the hull walls in the berths. Got some roll out
thick
paper stuff from West Marine but as soon as it gets damp, the sheets
start picking up moisture again. I've taken to running fans all the
time
to keep air circulating and am cutting back on boiling anything or
running the heater excessively when it's raining so humidity doesn't
build up. I've got 3M window plastic over the ports and the vents are
all open and drawing. Thought of using DampRid, but since NC is in a
permanent state of humid, we'd be going through one of those every
other
day. Any suggestions on how to keep damp and mildew from forming
(except
stopping breathing processes)?


Set a glass full of iced tea on the table. Try to stop it from
condensing the horrible humidiity in a boat and wetting the table.

Your hull is doing exactly what the glass of iced tea is doing on a
grander scale. The hull is cold, like the glass. It's a great
"dehumidifier", which is your solution to the problem.

Buy a small dehumidifier, the one that's a little self-contained air
conditioner that runs off 115VAC. Be SURE the one you buy has a DRAIN
HOSE you can drop in the sink so you won't have to manually dump the
tank, which will fill up in a matter of a few hours on a damp boat.

Close the boat so the dehumidifier can pump all the water out of the
swamp air inside the boat. If anything is left open, new swamp air that
you are now letting into the boat (sea air in the tourist brochures)
will never let it pump the boat dry and stop the condensation.

If you think the boat is too hot with a dehumidifier, install an air
conditioner, which will both dehumidify the boat and pump the heat
outside.

Leave the AC run all summer and the dehumidifier running all winter to
keep the boat dried out. Your problem goes away as soon as the air
inside the boat is DRY, not like a North Carolina swamp.

The other crap from West Marine is just that, crap. Damprid will work
inside a plastic bag.....but not in an open boat. It's made to sell.

You will simply be amazed at the CONSTANT stream of water that comes out
of that condensate drain hose of the little dehumidifier. 20 gallons a
day isn't unusual. The whole boat will smell lots better, once the
mildew and bacteria growing from the swamp air loses its water source
and they die.