Boom Tent options?

BarryH

BarryH

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Spent this weekend on the boat. I'm on a swinging mooring or at anchor. I couldn't get out of the sun unless I went down below. What I need is a boom tent, the only problem is that the boom doesn't go over my cockpit. Its stops just short of the companion way. Any ideas on how I might rig one?

The canvas work is not a problem. I have an industrial sewing machine and plenty of acrylic canvas.......
 
This will probably give you the best idea of waht I mean aboyt the boom........

picture.php
 
BarryH said:
Spent this weekend on the boat. I'm on a swinging mooring or at anchor. I couldn't get out of the sun unless I went down below. What I need is a boom tent, the only problem is that the boom doesn't go over my cockpit. Its stops just short of the companion way. Any ideas on how I might rig one?

The canvas work is not a problem. I have an industrial sewing machine and plenty of acrylic canvas.......
Click to expand...

Do you have a back stay? Or a spinnaker pole?

I was pondering the same today, and wondered about using a pole attached to the boom to extend it backwards over the cockpit. I have a back stay, so I could extend the boom to there with the whisker pole or a piece of rope.
 
I have a backstay, but it splits, you can just see where in the photo if you look carefully. It splits a good 2 or three feet above the level of the boom.
 
Barry,

You should be aware your pics haven't posted. However, one approach to a solution is to use 'hoops' made of e.g. blue 32mm MDPE water pipe, or 5mm GRP rods, or whatever you can acquire that's cheap, robust and just sufficiently bendy.

You'll need a length for each pair of side-deck stanchions adjacent to the cockpit, each long enough to be secured to two stanchions ( P and S ) and arch over the cockpit, giving the headroom you want. Use cable ties onto the stanchion-guardwire junctions to provide loose loops into which to feed the ends of the 'arches'.

Make up your 'roof' from the acrylic canvas you have, with a 'tunnel' sewn into the forward and the rear edge. Feed the fore and the aft hoop into its appropriate tunnel, then feed the ends of the hoops down through the cable-tie loops. Intermediate hoop(s) need no tunnel.

Whether you choose a wide canopy-roof, which will throw rain clear of the cockpit, or a narrow one which simply provides shade - or both - is a matter for you. :)
 
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boom tent

A horizontal pole across the split backstay worked for us in the caribbean, make sure the sides drop down to the side deck if you want to keep the boat cool. No bimini so we needed hats when sailing but the boom tent worked well at keeping the boat cool and giving a cockpit out of the sun.
 
Use GRP rods such as
these which are very cheap. Unfortunately you'll then have 3m bits of rod to stow (I've been thinking about this too). These are probably the more flexible option since you can get differing thicknesses for different flex. For a bimini I'd go for 10mm rod but for a tent the 6mm tube I linked to would be ideal. Then it's just a case of sewing tubes into the canvas to slide them into.

Alternatively, buy something like this and use the poles that come with it since they will fold down for storing.

Cheers
Dave
 
I use my boat hook or deck brush tied on to the boom and backstay. I normally lift the boom slightly and then i use a tarpaulin over this to the sides. Mine is normally to keep the rain off the back to give us a little more space but it keeps the sun off too.
 
 
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