There's a lot of mis-information in this thread. CO2 is not inert and displacing oxygen is not the only way it kills.
Carbon dioxide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CO2 can drop you without warning - no headache, increased breathing rate, or dizzyness, just bang! - you're down. This happens in industrial accidents - the CO2 delivery truck driver who dies in a stairwell when the connection leaks, seamen who die in CO2 flooded spaces after a fire suppression system goes off, or fishermen overcome when they enter a fish hold full of dry ice.
These deaths occur when a large amount of CO2 is introduced quickly into a confined space. A 2.5 kg. block of dry ice will produce around 1.5 cubic metres of gas and do so over days, not minutes. I'm too lazy to run the numbers for the volume of a 12 metre sailboat number, but I doubt that's enough CO2 to do more than give you a headache, assuming a tight hull and instantaneously injecting the CO2 into it.
Human nature is such that somewhere, somehow, someone will find a scenario for killing themselves with a block of dry ice. Maybe sleeping under the floorboards while using a dry ice pillow to keep cool. I dunno, I have a hard time wrapping my imagination around the idea, and I've been involved in health and safety for many years.
I wouldn't let a block of dry ice disturb my sleep. If the crew is complaining of headaches it's time to crack a porthole. Might be CO2 (humans or otherwise), carbon monoxide from the stove, or mildew from poor air circulation.
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