Habitent. Cockpit Tent. What are they like?

Cheap lightweight bit of kit. Something like that made properly out of canvas and a substantial frame would cost at least 5 times as much.

You pays your money......
 
a tarpaulin and sewing machine, a weekend with a tape measure and scissors, and i bet you could make one for less. Or just throw a tarp over the boom, and a couple of bungies to hold it down.

Our cockpit tent and a boom tent on identical boat which i am rafted up to.

holiday08152.jpg
 
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Without seeing the fabric it is difficult to see just how robust it is. A decent cockpit tent is a great boon, we have a purpose built one and wouldn't be without it. On previous boats we have used tarpaulins etc with varying success.
 
Under £400???

Having looked at it, it would have to be under £100 to tempt me.

Just another example of expensive bespoke "marine" pricing.

Go and look at Frame tents that you can buy, big solid and robust for a fraction the price. then ask why something with less fabric, less robust looking should cost more?

Ah, because it's for "marine" use.

Sory if I sound cynical, but that's just the way I see it. If I wanted something like that I would have to get the sewing machine out.
 
maxi77 said:
Without seeing the fabric it is difficult to see just how robust it is. A decent cockpit tent is a great boon, we have a purpose built one and wouldn't be without it. On previous boats we have used tarpaulins etc with varying success.
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I had the same problem, I had no idea what 150 denier looked like. A bit of searching revealed that workwear is made of 300 denier cloth, so 150 must be pretty flimsy. Based on our experience with various awnings and cockpit covers I suspect this one would be very noisy in anything more than a force 2.

I also don't understand their 'cumbersome' description of conventional cockpit tents. It looks far more fussy than ours, which zips to the hood and only has one hoop. A great investment for our northern climate.
 
Cockpit tents are great - ours stays up all the time on a swinging mooring - keeps the cockpit dry and clean.
Adds to the living space - and it goes up as soon as it is raining or the evening gets chilly.

The tent you link to does look a bit lightweight - our spinnaker is a lightweight material - but it only lasts a couple of seasons before it's blown out ...

So - I would hazzard a guess that in the weather you want to use the tent - ie wet/windy/cold - the tent will take a good bashing and probably won't last as long as a canvas tent (in the same material as your sprayhood)
 
We currently have a boom tent. A good canvas shade and rain shelter over the cockpit. Fortunately the boom covers the cockpit.

Have previously had full covers/enclosures zipping to the sprayhood and a single hoop with zip/roll-up sides and windows. neither was difficult to rig and the full cover and zip up sides made another room out of the cockpit.

Have messed about with cheap lightweight plastic tarps and and lightweight fabric, they are really noisy when the wind gets up (which is when you want them to get out of the wind and rain).

On the last boat the boom didn't cover the cockpit so our tent had a batten in it to make the ridge.
 
Habitent is a boon

Before slagging off a product, I suggest you actually examine or sample it. We bought an original Habitent when they were first introduced. It is now in its third season, and while it is used only occasionally, it has been invaluable. It has withstood gales with gusts (measured onTackTick) of 47 knots with no damage. While it is actually a little too short for the cockpit of our Oyster UFO31 we have made slight adjustments to the way we rig it which speeds up the set-up process.
The Habitent is made of a very high quality rip-stop nylon, superbly stitched and with three separate zip-open panels each comprising a clear flexible acrylic type window, a separate zip-down curtain plus a fly screen. The quality of the zips is extremely high as is all finishing work. We have also spent many years of all-season camping, and you're talking tosh to say quality tents of an equivalent size and quality can be bought for a hundred quid. Our latest four-man cost nearly £600 new.
With the wonderful hot, dry, sunny weather we have had in Brittany since the end of June this year, it has provided us while in port and at anchor with a perfect, airy shade - envied by those with biminis.
We unhesitatingly endorse the Habitent, and suggest once more that, to be really helpful to other sailors, contributors to YBW should write from personal experience rather than waste space and time with ignorant, uninformed remarks.
 
jezza said:
We unhesitatingly endorse the Habitent, and suggest once more that, to be really helpful to other sailors, contributors to YBW should write from personal experience rather than waste space and time with ignorant, uninformed remarks.
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But, but, but, how then can we comment on stuff we know nothing about?
 
One of our live aboard neighbours bought one of these a month ago. Being live aboards it is a permanent fixture, they are well impressed with their "extra room".
 
I email Christine at Habitent regularly trying to get them to make one big enough for a 35ft AWB.

They have other priorities.

I have seen these in action and close up. Well designed and made piece of kit
 
FullCircle said:
I email Christine at Habitent regularly trying to get them to make one big enough for a 35ft AWB.
M
They have other priorities.

I have seen these in action and close up. Well designed and made piece of kit
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Agree one of my neighbours has one on his boat, excellent gear.

I'd be in the market for a larger one, £1200 just for new canvas on my tent:-
 
I wanted one for our Pegasus but the dont go small enough for the narrow transom. Imho the poles are horrid... when we looked at them last year were very heavy fiberglass which take up a disproportionate amount of stowage and look ugly, I despise them in tents and in spite of putting them in touch with an excellent pole manufacturer that does our Everest type mountain tents with hyperlight ultra strong alloy poles they were unable strike a deal. And fwiw, show prices are exactly that, dont expect a deal any other time, not at all accomodating.
 
I bought one a year or so ago. Its not a perfect fit on my Confessa 26 but it spent all last winter in a marina without damage or problems.
They are lightweight and look it. But it works.
 
Vara said:
Agree one of my neighbours has one on his boat, excellent gear.

I'd be in the market for a larger one, £1200 just for new canvas on my tent:-
Click to expand...

We were also asking for a larger model, but they were not promising anything soon
 
We have had a Habitent on our M29 for two seasons and I think a fair price for a good product. One of the photos on their site is of our boat with the shelter up the first time of use.

It is lightweight but stands up well to strong winds and rain, tho it does not pretend to be a hurricane shelter!

It breaks down to a readily storable bundle and after the first couple of goes putting it up, can be pretty quickly assembled & set up.

Much cheaper option to a cockpit tent.

No connections, just happy with the product.
 
winsbury said:
I wanted one for our Pegasus but the dont go small enough for the narrow transom. Imho the poles are horrid... when we looked at them last year were very heavy fiberglass which take up a disproportionate amount of stowage and look ugly, I despise them in tents and in spite of putting them in touch with an excellent pole manufacturer that does our Everest type mountain tents with hyperlight ultra strong alloy poles they were unable strike a deal. And fwiw, show prices are exactly that, dont expect a deal any other time, not at all accomodating.
Click to expand...

2017 now , so resurrecting an old thread, but their new "sirocco" version accommodates very narrow sterns down to 1m, so it should be good for my cobra 750.

It's been a long time coming. They have them made to their specs at a foreign tent manufacturer and make them for stock, so I don't think they can do one offs, or change the spec once they have committed the design.

Uk fabricators can do one offs , but they cost a lot more. Horses for courses etc.
 
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