Rib tents for sleeping

[tinker]

Currently in Greece and there are loads of Italian based ribs with these tents/canopies. They all sleep overnight in them moored of beaches and in the harbours, seems like a great idea

[Easedalenovice]

Seen a few of those also in Greece. I bet it gets a little hot in there

[tinker]

Gets hot on any boat over here, unless your on a super yacht with aircon , look at this beauty we passed yesterday......

[fastasfox]

I can't remember who had the idea on here ,but basically they suggested maybe using old liferafts ro camp in on the water itself...and old liferafts are as cheap as chips.

There was also an Inflatable tent with a stiff floor,somewhat like a paddle board construction and this was designed to sit across your sponsons....have a look in the boat world catalogue.

[Steve509926]

I can just hear what reaction I would get from Diane if I suggested anything similar
unless it was the super yatch in #3 of course.

[fastasfox]

Originally Posted by Steve509926

I can just hear what reaction I would get from Diane if I suggested anything similar
unless it was the super yatch in #3 of course.

I dunno....I bet you could make a liferaft cozy...or romantic even

[tinker]

Originally Posted by fastasfox

I can't remember who had the idea on here ,but basically they suggested maybe using old liferafts ro camp in on the water itself...and old liferafts are as cheap as chips.

There was also an Inflatable tent with a stiff floor,somewhat like a paddle board construction and this was designed to sit across your sponsons....have a look in the boat world catalogue.

Here it is https://www.rib.net/forum/f8/old-liferaft-as-a-tent-88829.html

It's not for me, well the Mrs, hard enough to get her in a 35ft boat with a cabin, heads and galley let alone a tent on a boat. Her face said it all when I took a picture of the tent on the Rib, one word "NO!"

Tbh I have never really enjoyed sleeping afloat either , it's cramped, either to hot or to cold not to mention the condensation.

Sleep on land and play on the water.

[Trello]

...

[Fenlander]

>>> never really enjoyed sleeping afloat either

I haven't slept afloat for some 25yrs but have very fond memories of the times when I did. Usually in the fore cabin surrounded by bagged sails and with the distinct smell of the anchor and chain in its adj locker by my feet. Aided by a full belly from the nights supper of tinned mince, tinned beans, tinned potatoes and tinned peas all mixed together and cooked in one saucepan. Pudding usually tinned peaches topped with carnation milk paste squeezed from a tube. Happy days.

[Trello]

Originally Posted by Fenlander

>>> never really enjoyed sleeping afloat either

I haven't slept afloat for some 25yrs but have very fond memories of the times when I did. Usually in the fore cabin surrounded by bagged sails and with the distinct smell of the anchor and chain in its adj locker by my feet. Aided by a full belly from the nights supper of tinned mince, tinned beans, tinned potatoes and tinned peas all mixed together and cooked in one saucepan. Pudding usually tinned peaches topped with carnation milk paste squeezed from a tube. Happy days.

This did make me laugh: on the one hand, your description of it makes it sound like hell on earth - and yet they are, as you say, happy days...

[Trello]

(or perhaps they are happy days only in retrospect!)

[willk]

Originally Posted by Trello

This did make me laugh: on the one hand, your description of it makes it sound like hell on earth - and yet they are, as you say, happy days...

"But you know, we were happy in those days... We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years"

[Fenlander]

Camion stew... food of the gods some say.

[Fenlander]

>>>or perhaps they are happy days only in retrospect!

No they really were truly amazing experiences. Of course I mentioned a character forming example but sometimes if the cabin allocation went well you got an en-suite... and if truly blessed access to the emergency steering... i.e up 'tother end.

[Trello]

I think I've been lucky - all of my (albeit few) experiences of sleeping afloat have been at the much more comfortable stern end. A lot less motion, I'm led to believe - and you don't end up playing footsie all night with the person who's at the other side of the vee.

The thing that has been most sleep-disturbing to me is the constant clanging of the rigging with the slightest of breezes; and even if you sort it out with sponges / rags on your own boat, there are umpteen other boats in the marina joining in the chorus.

I'm never quite sure what the meaning of Camino stew is - is it just a generic term for a meal made from a hotch-potch of available ingredients?

[Fenlander]

Yep it's really a truckers phrase but I think the ingredients from tins and single pan cooking method are broadly similar to some of the smallest liveabords I've experienced with no fridge and just a two burner/grill setup.

The rigging noise is funny... for me a massive positive trigger as we've never lived near the sea and it is always the first sound as you open the car door arriving at a boating location. Now the grumbling noise of a dragging anchor echoing through the hull... that is a real wake up call.

[Trello]

Yes, I imagine that that would bring you to full wakefulness pretty quickly. Fortunately one I've never heard.

[Trello]

What made you stop sailing and start motoring?

[Fenlander]

Once myself and Mrs F got together in our 20s we got involved in stuff we both enjoyed plus had busy careers so added to always living way inland boating faded in favour of activities that didn't need a two hour drive to the coast. My late father continued to own boats through this period so we had intermittent refresher outings but it was only after he'd given up we found enjoyment returning to the water with smallcraft (trailed initially). We were literally at crossroads either to return to some sailing with a Drascombe we were offered but a similar size GRP coble with 8hp outboard for the same money won the day. Then a couple of GRP sub 6m boats later by accident I bought a 3m Zodiac which opened our eyes to the simplicity and low maintenance of out of the back of the car sibbing.

[Trello]

Just looked up the Drascombe and Coble: both beautiful, but the Drascombe would have had my vote - I always love the look of a ketch-rig.


I don't often get the chance to do any "big-boat" sailing, but a friend is currently on the hunt for a yacht to sail off the coast of Wales, so if that comes about, he'll find me on his doorstep more often than he suspects.

I wouldn't be able to afford one myself, and, TBH, living in the Midlands, it wouldn't be very practical to own one anyway. Those people I know who have owned sailing boats spend so much time fiddling with them (and the same is true, of course, with SIB/RIBs), that you really need to have your boat close to where you live.

(And apologies, Nasher, for going off subject a bit!)