Boom Tent 2

More progress on the boom tent and a test run.

Here it is all buttoned up. I made a decent boom crutch and bungee cord loops that go under the hull.

I 3d printed some hooks to attach a bungee cord from one deck carlin to the other. Once the loops are in place under the hull, secondary hooks come up to the tent’s webbing loops. It’s a bit fiddly getting the tension right on everything but I think it’ll be more difficult to get the loops under the boat and attached to the tent all at the same time. The knot on the tail end tells me this is the first loop to put on which goes up towards the bow.

This way I can unhook a few to roll the tent back and not worry about the whole thing falling apart.

Boom Tent

I’m hoping to go back to NJ this summer and continue my trip down Barnegat Bay and I figured transportation wise it’d be a lot easier to plan if I do an overnight trip. The polytarp setup I used on my lone overnight trip to Tangier Island was absolute rubbish so I’ve decided to build something a little more purpose built. It’s a 10′ x 10′ ripstop nylon rainfly from Amazon that I cut to follow the hull. Then I made some triangular doors at the back from the scraps. I hemmed the edges and sewed the panels together and moved some of the webbing tie downs. It’s pretty cheap but it only needs to last until I get Long Steps built in the next couple years.

Next I need to make a permanent boom crutch at figure out the attachment method. I’m currently leaning towards passing shock cord loops under the hull.

 

 

Camping ideas

The last improvement to the boat was the addition of a turning block for the boom downhaul. Previously I’ve just been using the tail of the main halyard to pull the boom down, but I’ve been a bit wary of doing it that way since it could increase the time to get the sail down in a hurry. So today I drilled a hole through the base of the mast, chamfered the edges well, and attached a low friction ring in a loop of line. We’ll see if I need to add any purchase or not.

With the sailing stuff pretty much finished, I’ve been thinking of some sort of tent. I’d like to use the sprit as a ridge pole with a crutch on the transom. I think having the tent low at the bow might be a good idea to try and get the boat to weathercock into the wind too. I’ll probably make a prototype out of polytarp and carpet tape and just clamp the crutch onto the motor well for the first few outings until I can get a better idea of how it needs to work.

Possibly the tent could be used in this position too in calm conditions.