Boom tent material

Not sure if this is the right forum but I'm gearing up for cruising at the moment. I've had a (under)boom tent made locally here in Portugal and it's a good fit but the tarp material is a bit too heavy and bulky to roll up and stow under the boom. I've read somewhere (maybe not on this forum) reccomendations for material and companies to buy it from in the UK but I can't find it now. Any suggestions or links would be most welcome.

Mike

62816inBerlin's picture

Hello Mike,
You are on Facebook, so I suggest a look at my album and account of the 2016 circumnavigation of Rügen in the "Dinghy Cruising Association" group and consider buying a similar tent. It's extremely light and fits comfortably in the stowage compartments. With the inner tent, it's more comfortable camping ashore.
There are some clips of it in action, so to say, in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfWEUnwlEJc but as I put it up in pitch dark on one occasion, it's not always neatly tied down (stayed aboard in spite of a strong wind, though).
I found this more expedient than going through the hassle of making my own, and I have a tent that will do on the boat and ashore!
Cheers,
Gernot

Thanks Gernot. I'll enjoy trawling through the DCA site. I imagine your tent is a handful to put up in a breeze!
Happy sailing,
Mike

62816inBerlin's picture

I's no problem in a breeze and I've had to take it down twice in a strong wind. Actually wind is helpful when rolling up the material in the boat. It's noisy when there's half a gale blowing, I admit, but that's the trade-off for having lighweight, compact material.
The two aluminium arches mean that you have more width higher up, which makes for more comfort, roomwise.
I intend to put up a video some day.
Cheers;

Gernot

That's encouraging. I agree the additional headroom would be more comfortable. I have a tent, a MSR Hubba Hubba that has aluminium arches....I'll give it a try. It looks like you have a single strap passing under the boat to hold it down?

Mike

62816inBerlin's picture

I've got lines attached to the front, centre and end loops of the the tent on one side and pass them under the stern to pull them under and around the boat. At present, they have random lengths and I tie them to the corresponding loops on the opposite side, which is a bit silly because it's difficult-to-impossible to get a really tight fit (as can be seen in the pictures and videos). I should really be looking into a length of bungy cord in each line and a hook at the end of each line to get a good fit.
The main reason for the rather "makeshift" arrangement is that I only go for real cruises about once a year, so the annoyance factor is not so great as to drive me to find perfect solutions.
I'm not prepared to sacrifice the tent design to accommodate the mast (because I hope to find shore camping locations more frequently than having to sleep aboard), but theoretically one end of the tent (it's the same shape at both ends) could be slitted and fitted with a zip, allowing to wrap around the mast and cover the front deck as well. We had quite a heavy downpour while hiding from heavy weather in Sassnitz and although the front deck of my boat was exposed, only about a litre of water actually collected in the "bilge". To have room in the cockpit, I put my waterproof bags on the foredeck when camping overnight, the openings facing back so that I can get stuff out, but the contents are protected from getting wet anyway.
Cheers,
Gernot

curlew's picture

Mike
I think the tarpaulin I have is Topgrade, supplied by Bradshaws in the UK, https://www.tarpaulinsdirect.co.uk/tarpaulin-guide
This is the medium strength one. I have it rolled up to a wooden strip screwed under the boom. No one else does it this way! The edges overlap the hull by a few inches and I tension it down using about 4 strings each side passed through tiny holes under the gunnel. The strings are tensioned using anorak cord adjusters. I gave up on eyelets in the tarpauiln and just poke small holes trough for the strings and use a chunky knot and a big washer on the string. I should be able to find a picture.
David