Thanks Martin. I did spend a lot of time thinking about the design because I wanted something that worked well while being very easy to use and that didn't take up too much space. I was also fortunate in having a sail maker that came up with some good ideas.
The hoop was already fitted to my boat (I'll explain why below in case you're interested). I wanted to use this hoop because it saved fitting new hardware and drilling more holes, but the sailmaker commented that they could easily fit a new hoop if required. It's just an aluminium hoop designed for sprayhoods, etc. As an aside, apart the supporting the tent, I use this hoop to support the boom when at anchor, etc, and it stops the boom swinging as the boat pitches.
The "rear sprayhood" is zipped to the hoop and attached on the outside of the aft coming using "lift the dot" fasteners. There is an extra flap to ensure there isn't a gap around the mizzen mast. There is also reinforcement to the material at the top of the hoop to protect the tent from the boom when it is lowered on to the hoop while camping.
My vision was that the aft section of tent would remain attached to the hoop when sailing. This was to minimize how much we have to store in lockers, etc, which are already quite full of food and gear when there are 4 of us cruising. For that reason, we decided against a large aft window (which was on the original design) because this would make it far bulkier, but we did keep 2 side windows and the light from those is welcome. There are 2 panels that fit to the inside the windows to act as curtains. In practice, the sprayhood is so quick to fit and remove and packs so small (again, because there isn't a large window) that so far we have removed it when sailing.
The "roof" zips to the aft and forward sprayhoods. Kemp Sails fitted a zip and poppers to the existing SwallowBoats sprayhood as part of the service.
The side panels zip to the roof and loops of shock cord secure the bottom to small tabs screwed to the underside of the gunwale. Kemp Sails supplied bags for the roof and side panels and they are easy to stow because the panels fold to a small size.
The tent cost about £900 (I am away from home at the moment so can't check, but it wasn't more than £900 and wasn't much less either). That is a lot but in my view worth it because the finished tent is so effective. It was also justified by the amount of work spent by the sailmaker getting the tent right - they came on site on at least 4 occasions to make templates and then fit and adjust the tent until it was right. They also didn't charge me extra when I made changes midway through the project! When I think about what I must have paid them per hour worked I think this was very good value and the quality of the tent means we'll get a lot of use from it and extend how we use the BRe.
I mentioned about the pre-existing hoop. I bought my BRe "off the drawing board". The original design used a gunter rig (as used on the open BR). Matt included the rear hoop to support the yard when it was lowered with a secondary use to support a cockpit tent. Although the BRe's design changed to the one piece carbon mast, the hoop was part of the design when I placed my order so it came with the hoop. I was going to buy a tent from Swallow Boats/Yachts but Matt subsequently changed the design so that it didn't use this hoop. I wanted to keep my hoop given that it is screwed to the boat and had become so useful to support the boom.
I hope that helps!
