On Sun, 06 Jul 2003 10:38:22 +1000, Andrew Puddifer
wrote:

Which is why my 38 year old plywood yacht, which has no bulkheads, and
an open tent type cover which allows the wind to blow through and keeps
the temperatures down inside, has absolutely no rot. I sponge every drop
out of the boat every time I am on the boat.
Ventilation and removal of water are the keys. I guess it's like
putting out fires, remove one part of the triangle(spores, moisture and
temperature in the case of rot), and the problem doesn't exist.


Yes ventilation competes with the organism for water - basic latent
heat evaporation - as the air blows over it takes up the surface
moisture, but at the same time it, lowers the temperature.
Fungi optimal biological conditions, are damp, humid, still air. and a
food source - Moving air screws it up.

The spore has a hard coat like any seed - it needs a certain moisture
level to open the coat, and activate that root type probe thing -which
then penetrates - it needs more moisture to activate this than its own
living requirements, in the forrest it would land on a water droplet.
Then it starts its life cycle - So it needs more than 20% to actually
get up and running - But a high humidity can give it this factor.

Now for brief encounters- this can also stuff it up.
Say the organism actually gets going, but before it actually
penetrates, then you put in ventilation, which then sucks up the
water, not only from the timber but the fungi too - So you can
diliberatly fry the spores using this kind of cycle on it, deliberate
- humidity then drying it out.
But for timber already infected from its source, and activated that's
another story. - But its still about systems, as your still only
looking at pushing up your %. - over $ and time, as to how you want to
handle it.
Buts basically the same problem as in glasshouses - when you start
pushing up the humidity, you have to vent the place as your control,
while falling back on chemicals as last resort.
So the importance of understanding the part humidity plays, and in
defeating humidity - from camera lenses, instruments, right through to
boats.