Wouldn't it be great to be able to seal up our boats like Mike Holmes in Canada does with his homes! BUT, like everything we choose to do with our boats there is always a compromise. Dang it! Blue foam and no leaks, no condensation, warm in the cold, cool in the heat. Great, but its a mess to use, once in we can't get to our fittings in the bulwarks, and then there's the stuff we can't see or event think about.
OK, kidding aside, I do wish there was an easier solution for this. I agree with good ventilation being a solution, but with our boat, Harmony, being in the condensation producing warm/cold of the Northeast, I am not sure there is a workable passive system for increased ventilation other than what the boat was designed with. Well, the composting toilets, Airhead and Nature's Head use computer fans which presumably could be powered by a solar charged battery. Hmmm, I would llike to think of a better way.
Like Jay's foil insulation, I have looked at Reflectix insulation (R=1.7) stuffed into the bulwarks in an upside down U. It does provide a good radiant heat barrier. Perhaps it can offset the solar heat gain and night time cooling that keeps the condensation going. It can be installed without messy adhesives by perhaps using a stainless steel or aluminum wire like the wires used to hold the pink insulation up in the floor joists in homes. It is fairly cheap and is relatively mold resistant.
I will be running wires through conduit in the bulwarks over the next couple of weeks, and I will give it a try in a couple of areas.
Doug
