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Since bought my in 1996, controlling mold and mildew in the cabin has been an ongoing issue. Salt crystal solutions need to be replaced from time to time and some of them drip so they need to be suspended over a sink or bucket. Heaters work ... if you have access to electric. I just received a couple of products from H2Out Systems (h2out.com) that may be the answer. They contain desiccant crystals that never need to be replaced. When the crystals are saturated with water they turn from blue to pink. Placing them in a 250 degree oven for 1 - 2 hours turns them back to blue and they're good to go again.

I ordered a 9 inch high version (SD 309) for the cabin and a 3 inch high one (SD 303) for the head. Both are 3 inches in diameter. I plan to mount the cabin one using a small fire extinguisher bracket.

Currently, the boat's on the hard covered with snow so I won't know if they work until spring, but I'm hopeful they will control the moisture.

I have never had that sort of a problem. One of the precautions I take is leaving the forward hatch a little ajar. I also leave both operating ports open to increase air flow. The whole boat is covered in a tarp. Do you leave the bow hatch open at all?

Ray

I think that the problem is more pronounced (or more obvious) with the . The has fabric over the interior liner but the doesn't. There are actually two issues. At the start of winter layup, alternating freeze/thaw cycles cause condensation to form on the liner and run down into the bilge. Once the moisture is in liquid form, no desiccant will be effective and I don't intend to use it. Spraying the liner with bleach once the cushions are removed for the season is fairly effective. Also, once the temperature drops permanently below freezing, there is no problem.

During the boating season, the situation is different. I have a solar ventilator on the forward hatch, which helps. And opening ports and hatches to increase ventilation also helps. However, I have no opening ports and need to lock the boat securely when the boat is in the slip. This is when I get some mold and mildew that (I hope) the H2Out product will help prevent. Again the interior fabric of the would help hide this but it really stands out against the white gelcoat liner.

Time will tell if the product works.

Winter is the time to dry-up your boat. A little heating (I use an electric heater 15 minutes every second hour) will do the job, since the winter air is already pretty dry.

In cold water, you collect water moisture at the boat floatation line. Moist but warm air fills the upper part of the cabin at the outside air temperature. As you go down the hull and cross the water line, air temperature goes suddenly down through the dew point, condenses hence drying up while deposing liquid water on the fabric or on the plastic-leather side of the matresses. The hull is not isolated. Its inner surface is at air temperature above the floatation line and at water temperature below. Condensation is unavoidable in cold waters.

In cold water you will never eliminate mold completly, especially its smell.

Yusing bleach for enbleacheable (I actually use mold control sprays for boats and RVss sold in every hardware store) at the water line all around the cabin does great for me, for a month or two. Then the smell gradually comes back, but the fabric does not turn black at the water line anymore. In Fall, when the situation is worst, I insert stuff underneath the matresses, where the condensation takes place. Air circulates and the condensation does not take place under the mastresses anymore, just elsewhere.
You will not win that battle.

Controlling mold is necessary but eliminating it in cold waters is impossible.

Boy, I'm hoping I did enough on my boat for winter storage....

arknoah wrote:Boy, I'm hoping I did enough on my boat for winter storage....

I leave a crack open on the hatches and the ballast valve for air flow. In the past, I hung a light bulb (automotive drop light) in the boat all winter. This year, I've put a 24" dehumidifier near the floor which we got online (http://www.midwayusa.com/product/113835 ... -110v-gold). The package says it's also for Boats and RV's.

Arknoah -> Me tooo!


...Doug Galactica
http://starsloop.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/StarSloop?feature=mhee

See the posts today on the 'power-miser fans" thread re ventilation (which helps limit mildew in the cabin).
Ron

Gotta kill the spores...plain and (not so) simple.

Chlorine Dioxide and a fan baby!

Had great success when I first purchased LAIKA a few years back using a CL02 product called ProAction 24, which unfortunately is no longer available.

Though it worked great, I assume either the spores NEVER really all died off, or new ones moved in.

I found another source, which seems more reasonable than the original ProAction 24 pricing.

OdorXit

I want to "shock" it with OdorXit NosGuard SG CLO2 15 gram Fast Release
Wait a week or two and hit it with 25 Gram OdorXit NosGuard CLO2 Slow Release Packet

Open all the lockers and use a fan on the cabin deck for circulation

Probably start mid Feb to give me time to access her for May Spring Commissioning.

I also plan to paint the inside of the companionway hatch with mold-resistant paint, and replace all the internal cushions with custom Bottom Siders (sealed foam) in the future.

Then use dehumidifying products to stay ahead of it.

"Sub" Ed

This has worked for my 2000 X for the last 8 years ..... no dampness nor moldoo.
Three stainless-steel Nicro solar/battery powered ( 3.5" ? ) fans installed .... one in the forehatch, one in the slider, and one in the deck portside of the mast. They come with two fan blade inserts, to make the fan exhaust or intake, interchangeable anytime. I run the slider hatch fan as an exhaust fan, with the battery in place to make it run day and night, the one next to the mast as an intake, with battery also, and the one in the fore-hatch, as an intake to push air from the cabin front to the back, but I just leave the battery out, so it doesn't run after dark. I use the V-berth as the main berth, and usually don't want the fan blowing there, nor the slight sound it makes, when sleeping. The ventilation is pretty balanced, with the two intakes, the one exhaust and two passive vents I added as well.
This setup never requires any further maintenance, nor drying out, etc., while keeping the cabin completely dry and aired .... and middle Tennessee is a very damp place in every season. The fan units can be fastened from the inside to keep them from being lifted off deckside, and they can be replaced by the included deck plugs, which restore the flat deck, if you wanted to remove the fans but not have open holes in the cabin.

As for the two passive vents in the cabin, there is one in the head aft the window, and one aft the galley over the battery box/seat, symmetrically located when seen from outside the hull, with the clamshells pointed down about 45 degrees. I fixed up a reversible 12V fan for the head vent. The holes for these passive vents behind the clamshells are round, the same size as the solar deck vents have, with the same rings ... and can be closed solid from the inside with their provided deck plugs, or used as screened vents with some custom made screened louvers I fixed up. When plugged, they are very tight and need a pull string, which I installed, to remove. I also lead an extension cord thru either vent, usually the one over the battery-seat, for shore power, ( or trailer/campsite power ) instead of having a permanent fixture perforation in the deck.

Pictures were with the original posts describing this ventilation, back in the mid decade when I did the mod, but if wanted, I could re-post some here.

The first two years I had my boat, I had not yet figured-out the condensation-on-the-waterline phenomenon.

I rented one of these machines, from a firm specialized in cleaning smoke or flood damages in houses. You seal the boat and install it for 48 hours, making sure nobody enters the boat as it may be very damaging for lungs. http://maxblasterusa.com/index.html?pmc ... 4Aodvh-pmA

Ozone will oxydize all carbon surfaces, including smoke and mold. It sterilizes, no half measure!

No kidding, the smell completly disappears until it reappears, about 6 weeks later. If you own the machine ,which is legal in the USA but not in Canada where you need a licence, you can make sure your boat will be sterile whenever you wish.

Once I had figured out the mold was concentrated at the water line,I obtained the same result by applying a mold control spray. About one hour job. So the machine is no more useful to me.

But If you have a serious mold odor problem (which I had at first, the previous owner not caring much about the boat), I believe renting a machine for a week-end would be a good idea, and would make the admiral like the boat again.