Boom tent idea

DoubleEnder

DoubleEnder

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I’m thinking about a boom tent. This would go over the boom and extend just forward of the hatch and just aft of the cockpit. The purpose would be to allow me to keep the hatch and companionway open when it’s raining. The cockpit won’t be very useable under the pitch of the cloth but it will stay fairly dry. I don’t have or want a spray hood, and Habitent won’t fit.

There would be no poles or tubes, just cloth. It would essentially be like the flysheet on a ridge tent.

My boat has limited stowage, very limited. So I want this item to roll up nice and small, and I’m thinking about making it from heavy ripstop spinnaker cloth rather than acrylic canvas. Any thoughts ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Thank you
 
gdallas said:
I’m thinking about a boom tent. This would go over the boom and extend just forward of the hatch and just aft of the cockpit. The purpose would be to allow me to keep the hatch and companionway open when it’s raining. The cockpit won’t be very useable under the pitch of the cloth but it will stay fairly dry. I don’t have or want a spray hood, and Habitent won’t fit.

There would be no poles or tubes, just cloth. It would essentially be like the flysheet on a ridge tent.

My boat has limited stowage, very limited. So I want this item to roll up nice and small, and I’m thinking about making it from heavy ripstop spinnaker cloth rather than acrylic canvas. Any thoughts ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Thank you
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My wife has made a couple of them using Sunbrella with a decent domestic sewing machine. Given the cost of that much canvas in a reasonable quality, we have always prototyped up in cheap cotton sheeting first and only started cutting the canvas once we were happy with the design.
 
I think that if you use spinnaker cloth the tent is likely to flutter a lot.

I am looking at my North Face climbing tent as I write and that is made of rip stop nylon BUT it depends entirely on inserted alloy tubes, so there is no edge under tension to start fluttering.
 
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We have a sun cover that flies above the boom. It is made from PU coated acrylic canvas. Light material can make a lot of noise. Durability of spinnaker cloth would be an issue. We have just made a new wind scoop for the front hatch today as the old was made of spinnaker material and it died of UV. May not be a problem if you are not in the Tropics
 
I have a simple boom tent made of strong rubberised canvas - best way I can think to describe it, afraid I can't remember where I got it, decades ago.

A simple rectangle with lots of eyelet holes all along the longer edges - it just drapes over the boom then shockchords with plastic hooks snap onto the guardrails.

It works very well keeping off the rain on holiday cruises so I can keep the main hatch open and leave stuff in the cockpit, on rare occasions it works as a sun shade too !
 
I agree that spinnaker cloth would be somewhat light making it very noisy. Because it would flap a lot its waterproofing would deteriorate fairly quickly, as does clothing made of similar stuff.

It is possible to buy good waterproof cloth from marine materials suppliers, thickness less than Sunbrella and similar but more than spinnaker cloth. We have an awning made from one of these, a lot lighter than the same thing in full weight material. These suppliers are always happy to send out samples.
 
You might well find suitable material on E-Bay at a fraction of the price sailmakers offer, if you only want a simple boom tent as I described.

Amazon do simple eyelet kits complete with a punch - I hate to mention their name but Millets used to have these too, no idea if they still do - I think John Lewis sell eyelets but not the punch tools.

A quick google came up with this;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coghlans-U...s=eyelet+kit&qid=1559627343&s=gateway&sr=8-37
 
In the versions that we have built, we put a shroud cleat on the backstay which gave us a point closer to the transom that we could use to secure the aft end of the tent, thus lengthening it to cover more of the cockpit.
 
maby said:
In the versions that we have built, we put a shroud cleat on the backstay which gave us a point closer to the transom that we could use to secure the aft end of the tent, thus lengthening it to cover more of the cockpit.
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Good idea but what did you do about the topping lift going through it? (assuming you have a conventional topping lift of course)
 
Poignard said:
Good idea but what did you do about the topping lift going through it? (assuming you have a conventional topping lift of course)
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On the first one we made, we had a vang, so the topping lift did not really do anything and we would simply secure it to the mast. We did another one on a boat that did not have a vang - that had an opening that the topping lift passed through. It's not ideal and you can't seal it completely, but you don't really lose anything in terms of rain protection relative to a tent that only runs the length of the boom and in light rain you get the entire cockpit protected.
 
maby said:
On the first one we made, we had a vang, so the topping lift did not really do anything and we would simply secure it to the mast. We did another one on a boat that did not have a vang - that had an opening that the topping lift passed through. It's not ideal and you can't seal it completely, but you don't really lose anything in terms of rain protection relative to a tent that only runs the length of the boom and in light rain you get the entire cockpit protected.
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We made ours out of shower curtains, very light and small. If there’s a pitch to the sides they don’t need to be fully waterproof.
 
maby said:
On the first one we made, we had a vang, so the topping lift did not really do anything and we would simply secure it to the mast. We did another one on a boat that did not have a vang - that had an opening that the topping lift passed through. It's not ideal and you can't seal it completely, but you don't really lose anything in terms of rain protection relative to a tent that only runs the length of the boom and in light rain you get the entire cockpit protected.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
 
gdallas said:
I’m thinking about a boom tent. This would go over the boom and extend just forward of the hatch and just aft of the cockpit. The purpose would be to allow me to keep the hatch and companionway open when it’s raining. The cockpit won’t be very useable under the pitch of the cloth but it will stay fairly dry. I don’t have or want a spray hood, and Habitent won’t fit.

There would be no poles or tubes, just cloth. It would essentially be like the flysheet on a ridge tent.

My boat has limited stowage, very limited. So I want this item to roll up nice and small, and I’m thinking about making it from heavy ripstop spinnaker cloth rather than acrylic canvas. Any thoughts ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Thank you
Click to expand...

Get a tent tarp, they cost as little as £17, & come in various sizes like the one below;

f2eff5aa9a11e827c6653d704d19d97f.jpg

https://www.blacks.co.uk/equipment/...xFONH1cls4SoEOis81EaAnUZEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

ours is similar and folds into a tiny little bag which came with it and of course it weighs practically nothing.
 
Have a look at camping tarps if you want lightweight material. They are typically ripstop nylon but with reinforced edges and corners (mine even has flat webbing sown along the ridge). You should be able to pick one up for not very much, and plenty of sizes available. Bungy cords are the bees' knees for keeping everything under tension to prevent flapping, especially if you have an extruded toerail that you can hook into.

Edit: I agree with Cactus, though would probably go with square rather than tapered.
 
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If you want a ready made one go in to Decathlon, theirs is just under 3m.square, comes with poles and guys which you just replace with shock cord, modern fire resistant silver coloured tent material strong, compact, light, translucent and easy to modify if needed, less than £30. Keep the guys and poles and you can take it ashore when you are barbecuing your mackerel on the beach
 
Quandary said:
If you want a ready made one go in to Decathlon, theirs is just under 3m.square, comes with poles and guys which you just replace with shock cord, modern fire resistant silver coloured tent material strong, compact, light, translucent and easy to modify if needed, less than £30. Keep the guys and poles and you can take it ashore when you are barbecuing your mackerel on the beach
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+1
 
maby said:
On the first one we made, we had a vang, so the topping lift did not really do anything and we would simply secure it to the mast. We did another one on a boat that did not have a vang - that had an opening that the topping lift passed through. It's not ideal and you can't seal it completely, but you don't really lose anything in terms of rain protection relative to a tent that only runs the length of the boom and in light rain you get the entire cockpit protected.
Click to expand...

Vang is simply the American or big boat ( ie like J Class ) term for kicking strap; I think what you meant to say you have is a boom strut.
 
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