One of my projects of late has been a boom tent that I have been making for Mallard. The reason for the tent is threefold. primarily it will give us more living space aboard when we are at anchor or in a marina slip, secondly it will keep water out of the boat and keep the sun off the boom and mainsail and thirdly it will cover much of the bright work which when not exposed to the damaging UV rays should last longer and be easier to keep in tip top condition. I ought to mention that the boom tent will not be made out of Tyvek but I have found that it makes a fantastic material for making patterns.
I spent a long time thinking about the best way to make a boom tent. The obvious way is to simple use the boom as a ridge pole and have material strapped down to the toe rail. While this approach would keep the sun and weather off the boat I discounted this idea early on as it would give very little room in the cockpit. What was needed was something else I surmised so after much head scratching I have come up with the design that you see the beginnings of here. Flexible fiberglass tent poles spaced at 24 inch centers sit into sockets on the inside of the toe rail. Because the width of the boat varies I cut the length of the poles so that when slotted into the sockets the apex is level fore and aft. The poles seem to work well, they give a nice rounded shape to the tent which leaves plenty of room inside for sitting on the cockpit seats and the poles self support the tent so that it will need minimal rigging to hold it down to the boat.
Here's a picture of me taken by my good fried Tom Dunn as I mark up the inside of the Tyvek. I am marking the position of the poles so that when I sew up the Sunbrella material I can to put pockets in it through which the poles will slide. There will be ends on it too both forward of the mast and at the stern which as you can see in the picture is open at present. I now have the pattern at home and am starting on the sewing. As soon as I have got along a bit further I'll bring you an update on progress here.
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