[Rhodes22-list] Condensation

[Chris Cowie]

I went to the boat on Sunday and found water condensation dripping from the inside of the hatches and cabin ceiling, emptied about a gallon out of the bilge.  It seems like the sun passing through the translucent hatch is heating up the cabin interior that then causes the bilge water to fill the air and condense as it reaches the cooler cabin ceiling surface.  I suppose if I were to get all of the bilge water out then there would not be any moisture left to cause condensation even though the temperature differential would still exist.  It is tough to completely empty the bilge.  I have a small access panel just outside the head door, all other floor boards are securely screwed down.  This one removable floor board provides access only to the area around the center board trunk and this area appears to be slightly higher than the adjacent bilge areas port and starboard.  Do most rhodies leave the floor board screws out for easy access to all bilge areas?  Removal of the rode tray and installation of a nicro vent is probably my next step.  I had purchased a nicro vent that was supposed to be interchangeable with the cowl vent but it would have required complete removal of the thru deck cowl vent hardware.  I returned the nicro vent because I wanted the cowl vent option but now think it would be better to just go with the nicro vent.

Christopher P. Cowie    


4400 MacArthur Blvd, NW 
Suite 300 
Washington, DC  20007 
202.342.2711 
202.342.2691 fax 
202.270.1470 mobile 

[ccowie at cowieassociates.com]
cowieassociates.com

-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of David Bradley
Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 12:18 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Condensation

For anyone interested in how this turned out...

The problem was the anchor rode tray, which was blocking the air flow.
Duh.  Getting that out of the boat before "the rains" come (in Seattle
that's pretty much November through May) allows the Nicro fan to adequately
vent the boat.  Only minor condendsation since removing the tray and getting
the rest of the junk out of the vee berth.

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, survived Black Friday (damn
marketers), and are geared up to do lots of holiday shopping and boost the
economy.

Dave

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 7:42 AM, David Bradley <dwbrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Has anyone experienced condensation forming inside the cabin to the extent
> that it produced a few gallons of water in the bilge?
>
> I have been hoping to get some more sailing in before stripping the boat,
> but we've had about a month of rain and some windy storms.  Have been
> keeping an eye on the boat throughout but didn't go inside until this
> weekend.  Found the ceiling beneath the pop top and bow covered with
> condensation and about 4 gallons of water in the bilge (after being bone dry
> for a couple of years).  It may be that the wind blew water in around the
> pop top but I didn't see signs of that much water on the companionway step.
>
>
> Just mopping the condensation off the ceiling produced about a gallon of
> water, so I guess a month of that could produce a few more gallons.  But I
> didn't see signs of it having saturated the cushions or PFDs stored on the
> vee berth or the carpet below the pop top.
>
> I had the anchor line tray installed and and a bunch of stuff stored on the
> vee berth, so the circulation was poor.  Got all that out now and hopefully
> the Nicro fan can keep it vented for the rest of the winter - it has worked
> fine in past years.
>
> Any similar experiences or speculation to help solve the mystery will be
> appreciated!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dave
>
>



-- 
David Bradley
+1.206.234.3977
dwbrad at gmail.com
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