tinkboats

Sleeping on a Gull again

A fellow Gull owner asked for pictures of my sleeping arrangements so here goes as of September 2024

General view – it had rained all night and I was very nice and dry
Hard to see but the success of this simple system is the movable gooseneck that tensions the front and the topping lift the back
A Line of 2mm Dyneema runs under the gunwale inside and outside 
The four corners just have rope tails, easy to tie and tension correctly 
Along the sides simple plastic jib hanks
Corners at front tying both tarps
Front is builders tarp pulled forward on a line to the bow used when raising the mast 
Stows in a little bag

But then

Being the end of summer and a chance walk through the middle aisle of Lidl and I’m walking out with a two person pop up tent for £15

Two lines with clips hold it at the front and the guys are clipped to the shrouds 
The back simply tucks under the gunwale moulding with the guys clipped on
This has then required a additional sleeping boards
These nicely stow at the back
Tent on top
Tarp covers this to prevent any snagging 

A few years ago I saw Mary Dooley with her pop up tent on a Mirror at the Dinghy Show. Mary has made a video and her system is much more thought out than it at first appears

A few highlights for me

  • Putting front boards out, folding down the tent to attach the tent at the front
  • The back of the inner tent not attached and the sliding the backboards into place 
  • Oars and sail storage. I have experimented and my oars can stay in the same position as sailing, sticking out the back. Sail rolls around the boom and nicely ties along the gunwale. 

Where I do differ from Mary is that I have the opening at the stern. This allows getting on and off over the stern, I usually anchor stern in. It allows access to my stern storage. It does however leave forward storage inaccessible, some planning will be required.

3 comments

  2. Hi,

    I like the little yellow edged strip round the sides of the fore-deck. I guess they make waves spray outward rather than up and onto the boat? What are they, 25mm wide? Would wider help or is that all they need?

    Cheers,

    Steve.

    Like

    Reply

    • There is already about 5mm of thickness to the gunwale and the 25mm yellow strip overlaps this giving a return. This appears to work well at deflecting the water, yes it could be bigger but size I used bent well

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment