Wayne.B wrote:
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)?

You're getting condensation. The only thing that will work is
reducing the humidity level of the interior air in the boat. An
electric heater paired with a dehumidifier is probably the most
effective. We sometimes run an electric heater with the air
conditioning which accomplishes the same thing.


That was going to be the next step...we run two heaters, one in the aft
cabin and one in the salon...if I can't find a dehumidifier fast enough
I'll just haul that out and see if it works with the heater's/. Another
liveaboard was complaining too b ut they have propane heat and theur
cabin was actually "raining" on them. At least we don't have that going
on! The hatches are staying dry and there's no condensation on the lexan.