Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Thursday, 6 February 2014

more musings about boat tents for Arwen

Whilst we are battling the elements here in Britain, my thoughts still turn towards, perhaps, a summer, in which Arwen and I can go camp cruising.  Sailing down to Fowey and on to Falmouth; pootling around the Fal and other rivers in the locale sounds great.....and I can't wait.

Paul, from down below the equator I think, suggested I get hold of a copy of Woodenboats 2014 small boats magazine which I did (thanks Paul). Four or five great little article about designing boat tents for dinghies - highly useful. certainly gave me some food for thought!

  • many went for the option of getting a couple of really cheap tents, butchering them and re-stitching them to create one purpose designed tent for their boat
  • most of these approaches used hoop tents with door openings either side in a porch area
  • poles ran through outer sleeves and were highly flexible
  • these tents attached to the boat via bungee straps in the lower tent sides attached to hooks arranged along gunwales or under rubbing strips
Some made tents out of sunbrella fabric but followed a hooped tunnel tent design. instead of poles - plastic water piping was used...slid through sleeves. hitch pins were inserted into their ends which fit into purpose made blocks strategically placed along side decks or on gunnels. Cords were run from each end of the hooped structure to pull the whole tent taut and these were tied off on masts or fixings to transom and foredeck.

many had zipped door each end and some had doors made of insect mesh as well as actual fabric doors giving a variety of options.

the one I liked most was designed by Francois Vivier for his own boat....a tunnel hoop shaped tent which used flexible sail battens as hoops. he put the sail boom onto the side deck and strapped it there and the whole hoop tent then covered that and the opposite side deck as well. Neat!

I have only scanned the articles briefly since school work continues to demand four hours every night preparation....so Saturday I have created some 'me time' to read the articles more fully and really draw out those invaluable snippets of advice. In the meantime, plenty of food for thought.......thanks Paul

Steve

No comments: