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Peter Bennett Peter Bennett is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 146
Default Getting Rid of Damp

On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:57:29 -0500, katy
wrote:

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)?


I use a small electric dehumidifier - it seems to keep things fairly
dry (unless there's an actual leak somewhere).

My dehumidifier will sit in the sink, and I have taped down the "bin
full" float, so that it won't turn off if the water bin fills - it
just overflows into the sink, then overboard.


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca