Christian Nally's News

For Christmas, Dad made me some custom canvas. =) We've been calling it a 'boom tent' on the phone, but I've had a hard time deciding how to refer to the thing since it seems to be somewhat rare.

I'm not able to stand up down below when the hatch is closed, but was wanting to make the boat more useful as a place to stay in wet weather. Dad to the rescue, nice having a sail maker in the family eh? I simply sent him some measurements and he sent me the goods, for Christmas no less.

The thing is a complete system, integrated into the main sail cover. There are at least three modes of putting the thing up, and I'm going to be having fun discovering a few more. One mode is simply as a normal main sail cover. Columbia 26 Mk-II sail cover

The second mode is fully deployed as a tent. There are two cloth panels that come down each side of the boat. One zips into the sail cover and covers down to the life lines, the second zips onto that and hangs vertically down. Check it out: here and here

A third mode has only one side protected, perhaps as a wind shield. In this case, the unused roof panel is bungeed back under the boom to the protected side. I've no images of it working that way just yet, get back to me this coming spring. ;-)

Dad and I have viewed this as a "get it live-aboard ready fast" kind of prototype. If there is interest in the community, he might be persuaded to do up a "Mark 2" with some mods suggested by my experiences, for instance, how best to deal with the stays positioning when it comes to covering up the front, or perhaps some 'bones' for the structure to create more volume to hang out under aft.

You know those clubs that use a stuffed animal and send it 'round the world, taking goofy shots of it in weird or notable places?

Maybe this photo is the first of such a series for me and the boat.

Here... Gem sits in Coal Harbour at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club's D float.