full boat awning use?

[Scaramanga F25]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

The wind strength your awning will cope with depends on its size, style and construction.

We have a 5m long boom tent that slides onto two tracks on the boom that take 6 mm luff tape. It rolls up and is secured with velcro tabs when sailing or if the wind pipes up above about 25 knots at anchor. The force on it when you try taking it down gives you some indication of the wind strength it can handle.

Awnings are absolutely brilliant in summer. With the boom tent up on our boat, the shaded cockpit becomes the living area and the cabin is kept significantly cooler:

Nicest rig I have seen.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Scaramanga F25

Nicest rig I have seen.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone.

I will post details of the design when I dig them up on my old Netbook.

SWL

[Franst8]

Hi sailors,
If you google the term boom tent you should find a company that makes and sells that exact type of awning. I saw an ad for one somewhere and I'm going to try making one.

[roverhi]

An awning without cross poles will be a pain to maneuver around under going forward. By having cross poles you can easily walk under it without having to tie and untie the side fastenings. The awning needs to be built strong with generous reinforcing at each of the grommets. That's especially true in the Caribbean where anchorages can be quite windy. A lift point attachment in the center to attach a halyard to will help to give standing room under it. An awning that shades the main cabin and cockpit is the difference between enjoying being anchored in tropical waters vice constantly hot and miserable.

Our foredeck awning was a pump tent affair that doubled as a wind scoop. The center of the forepart was tied to the head stay, the sides down to the life lines in a pup tent like triangle form. The aft part tied across the cabin top just aft of the fore hatch. The 'V' fore section caught the wind forcing it below through the hatch. The foredeck shading and the nice breeze through the boat made life quite livable even through a Tahiti Summer at anchor.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

The wind strength your awning will cope with depends on its size, style and construction.

We have a 5m long boom tent that slides onto two tracks on the boom that take 6 mm luff tape. It rolls up and is secured with velcro tabs when sailing or if the wind pipes up above about 25 knots at anchor. The force on it when you try taking it down gives you some indication of the wind strength it can handle.

Awnings are absolutely brilliant in summer. With the boom tent up on our boat, the shaded cockpit becomes the living area and the cabin is kept significantly cooler:

Ive got a very similar set up. But I rig the lines for the awning to a fore and aft running line down near the base of the stanchions. Did this after high winds damaged a stancion. This also makes it easy to step over the awning lines to move fore/aft on the deck. When rigged low like this their outboard ends are almost flush with the deck.

Makes a big difference in temps in the deck house.

With the leading edge into the wind, as it normally would be at anchor, they handle moderate wind (~25 knots) well. I furl them up at night if I think there is any likelyhood of a squall.

I also use them to cover the boat when laid up.

[zboss]

We are also cheap. Got high quality white tarps from home depot with heavily reinforced corners and grommets every foot or so. About $15 each but they are heavy duty so they do not look like plastic until you get right up on them, otherwise they look like white canvas.

We attach them with bungie balls and don't bother taking them down when high winds are forecast (although we only saw one 40+ last year). We would probably take them down if any winds above 35 or 40 were expected.

If they rip, they cost $15. Got through one year and they still look new.

[Seaworthy Lass]

I have had a few requests for more details on how our boom tent was sewn.

The boom tent is 4.82 m long x 1.73 m wide each side (this width was selected as it used up all the width of fabric). I added a protective flap on each side that covers the tent when it is rolled up so that rain and dirt don't collect in the roll. This has worked extremely well, protecting the boom tent from UV when not in use and keeping it clean and dry.

Sewing machine used:
Sailrite LSZ-1

Fabric:
Sunbrella Plus: 15 m x 1.54 m Dune (I bought an extra m as well just in case)
Cut two lots (32 + 122) x 496 and one lot (77 + 77) x 496

Notions etc:
Tenara thread, clear
V-138 thread: large spool (simply to secure the initial couple of lines of sewing, I went over these later with Tenara)
Needles: size 20 for the V-138, size 18 for the Tenara
White velcro rolls (hook and loop): 38 mm x 25 metre
Luff tape with bolt rope fused in: 6mm x 10 m
White PVC fabric for chafe protection: 1 m x 1.3 m (sewn on a few small patches where the mainsheet etc would rub)
Sail batons: 2 x 15 mm x 4.8 m
Stainless steel eyelets: 20 mm x 16
Braided polyester line: 5 mm x 12 m

There was an existing 5m long track riveted on each side of the boom, with a gap suitable to hold 6mm luff tape.

If you click on this image and select "Open in a new tab" the diagram will be downloaded in a larger format and the figures easy to read.
Measurements are in cm:

[Seaworthy Lass]

This is a photo of the underside of the boom tent at the rear, showing the track more clearly, the protective bits and the velcro strips (there are velcro flaps on the other side - see other photo):

[CAELESTIS]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

This is a photo of the underside of the boom tent at the rear, showing the track more clearly, the protective bits and the velcro strips (there are velcro flaps on the other side - see other photo):

That is a brilliant design! Looks very easy to deploy. For those of us that cannot sew, here is an alternative Shadetree Boat Awning Systems | Shadetree Boat Awning Systems

[sailcrazy]

When we did a refit in Phuket a few years ago, we had the local canvas guy make us both a mast-to-radar arch sun shade, and a full cover rain cover. The sun shade is made of porous, lightweight synthetic fabric that provides shade, but lets the rain and wind go through it. The 2-piece rain cover (solid fabric)goes from the bowsprit back to the radar arch;1 piece from the bow to the mast, and one from the mast back. Both covers rest on top of the boom, and have a reinforced tape that we stretch between the mid shrouds and the upper corner of the radar arch....that gives us a nearly level center section (so we can walk under it), and then there is a shorter continuation section that hangs down about halfway to the safety lines/stations. We use lightly stretched bunge cords with plastic clips to secure the flap to the safety line-that allows them to move with the wind, but stay in place.
We use them both all the time as we cruised Thailand, then the Medd, and now the Caribbean-they really make a difference. We put the sun cover up at almost every anchorage/marina, unless we get in very late in the day and plan to leave the next. We put the rain cover up and leave it when we are in one place for a longer time, when we wintered the boat (on the hard) in the Medd, and it's up and on the boat now as she's up on the hard in Puerto Rico for the summer/fall season. We did hire a "boat watcher", and if a big blow or hurricane is coming they will remove it....otherwise it will be up all season to protect the boat from sun, rain, and excessive heat. Both are very handy to have, easy and quick to put up/take down(less than 10 min with 2 of us). They do, however, take up some storage space. below

[amytom]

I'm looking into making a bow shade for our PDQ. We have a hardtop Bimini that shades the cockpit and aft cabins nicely but the salon and trampoline are in full sun. I was thinking of attaching to the front of the hard top then out to the shrouds on the sides then forward along the furled genoa sheets with tie downs to the bows and an up haul in the center with the spinnaker halyard.
Mentioned my idea to a local canvas guy and he suggested the bow-up stern-low idea would cause issues with rain and higher winds and that I should have the bow down low and the aft end up high.

What do most sailors use; bow up or bow down?


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by CAELESTIS

That is a brilliant design! Looks very easy to deploy. For those of us that cannot sew, here is an alternative Shadetree Boat Awning Systems | Shadetree Boat Awning Systems

Beautiful work!

Mine is similar, but lashes to tabs on the bottom edge of stack pak. I can roll it and lash nice and secure.

Made locally from PVC coated fabric I found in Guate. Inexpensive and very durable. Has a section of PVC tubing in the outter edge to roll up around and give some stiffness.

Either way, roll underhanded so it does not collect water.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by amytom

...
Mentioned my idea to a local canvas guy and he suggested the bow-up stern-low idea would cause issues with rain and higher winds and that I should have the bow down low and the aft end up high.

What do most sailors use; bow up or bow down?

I rig mine lower in the bow. Leading edge into wind helps reduce load at anchor (bow to wind). When used for stowing boat at dock is more problematic because bow may not be into wind.

Also keep in mind if you need to furl it when wind picks up. I can get edge into wind and let it "sail" to roll up in a good breeze.

[Perstarebob]

We carried one for a while in Eastern Carib . We anchored out and were very afraid to leave the awning up when we left the boat . We called it the " Great Flat Sail " . Imagine three or four hundred square feet of sail when a squall popped thru , scary stuff . Think about the extra load on your anchors . They are nice but ain't nothing perfect !