Re: Boat Tents
Posted by John P on
URL: http://uk-hbbr-forum.61.s1.nabble.com/Boat-Tents-tp4026540p4032559.html
A new lease of life for a 10 year old forum thread?
I completed building our sailing dinghy in 1978. Since then it has had two custom made boom tents, both tents being made from fully waterproof synthetic material. First tent was quite heavy pvc coated nylon in blue. After about 30 years it was still in reasonable condition although showing some wear where it draped over the boom. I decided to replace it, mainly because we found the blue colour gloomy and cold looking from the inside. The fabric we used for the second tent is called Marchem 'Odyssey', I believe it is a coated acrylic fabric. It is available in a good range of colours, we chose an off-white sort of color which I think is so much nicer than blue. I think this was a good choice of fabric, but there may be even better choices, I would not know. (See picture)
With both these tents we sometimes get condensation on the inside but we dont find that to be much of a problem - if there is a lot of condensation dribbles form and run down the inside then I guess they find their way overboard, they dont drip on us.
One difference between the two tents is that the first tent draped over the boom, the second tent has the ridge suspended from under the boom by having a few sail 'slugs' attached to the ridge of the tent, these sliding into a slot in the underside of the aluminium boom extrusion. The second arrangement is a bit quicker for setting up the tent - just hang the tent under the boom rather than threading half the tent material between the boom and the stowed mainsail which we normally have flaked above the boom at night. Also, the second arrangement means that spars are entirely outside the tent, with the first arrangment the boom had to pass through an opening in the front of the tent and we did sometimes get rain leaking in there. And the second arrangment avoids wear on the tent by having it rubbing on the top of the boom. However, there is a disadvantage of the second arrangment - it does not allow the aft half of the tent to be folded back leaving the forward part of the tent as a wind shelter with the aft part of the cockpit uncovered for breakfast in the open air - we did like that feature of the first tent. With the second tent we are either fully enclosed or fully in the open.
I would not want a boat tent made from non-synthetic fabric, but others make a different choice - its like fisherman anchors vs. 'modern' anchors. Or gaff sails vs. triangular sails. Mindyou, we now have a boat with a carbon fibre reinforced 'square top' mainsail, fully battened, and we find that people who sail such things refer to the upward tilted top batten as the 'gaff'.
John
Picture is of our boat in Friesland, that was the year that we extended the HBBR Thames trip by carrying on through London, over to Dunkirk, through Amsterdam, then eventually to the Waddensea from where we brought the boat back by road. Most enjoyable trip. I hope we get to sail in Dutch waters again.
URL: http://uk-hbbr-forum.61.s1.nabble.com/Boat-Tents-tp4026540p4032559.html
A new lease of life for a 10 year old forum thread?
I completed building our sailing dinghy in 1978. Since then it has had two custom made boom tents, both tents being made from fully waterproof synthetic material. First tent was quite heavy pvc coated nylon in blue. After about 30 years it was still in reasonable condition although showing some wear where it draped over the boom. I decided to replace it, mainly because we found the blue colour gloomy and cold looking from the inside. The fabric we used for the second tent is called Marchem 'Odyssey', I believe it is a coated acrylic fabric. It is available in a good range of colours, we chose an off-white sort of color which I think is so much nicer than blue. I think this was a good choice of fabric, but there may be even better choices, I would not know. (See picture)
With both these tents we sometimes get condensation on the inside but we dont find that to be much of a problem - if there is a lot of condensation dribbles form and run down the inside then I guess they find their way overboard, they dont drip on us.
One difference between the two tents is that the first tent draped over the boom, the second tent has the ridge suspended from under the boom by having a few sail 'slugs' attached to the ridge of the tent, these sliding into a slot in the underside of the aluminium boom extrusion. The second arrangement is a bit quicker for setting up the tent - just hang the tent under the boom rather than threading half the tent material between the boom and the stowed mainsail which we normally have flaked above the boom at night. Also, the second arrangement means that spars are entirely outside the tent, with the first arrangment the boom had to pass through an opening in the front of the tent and we did sometimes get rain leaking in there. And the second arrangment avoids wear on the tent by having it rubbing on the top of the boom. However, there is a disadvantage of the second arrangment - it does not allow the aft half of the tent to be folded back leaving the forward part of the tent as a wind shelter with the aft part of the cockpit uncovered for breakfast in the open air - we did like that feature of the first tent. With the second tent we are either fully enclosed or fully in the open.
I would not want a boat tent made from non-synthetic fabric, but others make a different choice - its like fisherman anchors vs. 'modern' anchors. Or gaff sails vs. triangular sails. Mindyou, we now have a boat with a carbon fibre reinforced 'square top' mainsail, fully battened, and we find that people who sail such things refer to the upward tilted top batten as the 'gaff'.
John
Picture is of our boat in Friesland, that was the year that we extended the HBBR Thames trip by carrying on through London, over to Dunkirk, through Amsterdam, then eventually to the Waddensea from where we brought the boat back by road. Most enjoyable trip. I hope we get to sail in Dutch waters again.
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