The headliner project continues on and is growing.
Today we finished tearing down the headliner in the salon and we got all the battens down except in the V-berth. We found some wet plywood under the headliner and some lovely smelling wood mold. Super nasty! Rich drilled a couple holes (which horrified me at first) through the fiberglass to see if the core was wet. So far, so good – the core looks dry. We also found dry rot in a piece of plywood directly under the mast/above the compression post.
Everybody talks about dry rot, but I was wondering what caused dry rot, so I asked Rich “what causes dry rot?” He gave me a cross-eyed look and probably assumed I was delirious. So I continued with “I know water causes wood to rot, but what’s actually dry rot?” That got him thinking…so his smarty pants answer was “I don’t know why they call it dry rot.” Well gee, thanks for that. Since I have an occasional Type-A personality (meaning I’m usually lazy, but sometimes I get a burr under my saddle and my highly ambitious (ergo the biting off of more than I can chew title) and rigidly organized personality emerges. To that end I felt compelled to Wikipedia dry rot (and Type-A personality if I must be truthful (what’s wrong with me!)). Here’s what Wikipedia had to offer:
“Dry rot refers to wood decay caused by certain species of fungi, also known as True Dry Rot, that digest parts of the wood which give the wood strength and stiffness. The term dry rot is somewhat misleading, as both species of fungi Serpula lacrymans and Meruliporia incrassata require an elevated moisture content to initiate an attack on timber (28–30%).” Ahh, I feel so much better having figured that out.
Check out our Headliner project page for more fun photos of dry rot.