.JPG)
When the boat was bought there was a tent placed to cover the steering cabin completely. This tent was in a bad condition and a new one was made in house by my neighbor Jan who helped me over the years with restoring the boat. Going over several web sides covering the Storebro 34 I noticed that originally there is no tent to cover the steering cabin, this also explains to me the two large drains in the steering cabin floor. The pictures contain some dimensions and additional text as further explanation, but as with any boat port and starboard side might not be the exact same length and height.
The old tent was not used as example for the new tent since the windows in the tent did not lined up with the metal supports which keep the tent up and in position, it was just used as an idea how to fabricate the new tent. Materials were bought and with the help of U-Tube short films a plan was made to fabricate the tent. The metal support was kept as original and positioned the same way onto the deck. One disadvantage of this tent is when it is closed that during arrival and departure the aft deck is difficult to reach since the railings on the aft cabin are covered by the tent so there is no way one can keep " One hand for the boat and one for yourself"
The tent is connected to the hard top by way of a aluminium rail with a groove where a tendon ( Cord) is placed in, This tendon is sowed to a strong material where the actual tent is sowed on.
The connection to the hard top is made with a zipper to be able to remove the complete tent when required, mainly during a sunny day. The zipper is also connected to strong material to give it a reinforcement for holding the zipper onto the tent.
To make sure that not all the tension of the tent is placed onto the zipper a Velcro connection is made between both sides of the zipper,on side onto the rail in the roof other onto the tent.
The tent is kept in position and giving the required height by two round metal bars which are on a sliding rail which is mounted on the roof of the aft cabin.
The tent is hold into position around these round bars by means of tent material and a full length zipper, this way the tent can be removed from the support bars .
The side windows are now made in line with the tent supports, which gives it a nice look from outside, originally the supports could be seen from the outside through the window.
On positions of the corners and where tension is expected where the tent touches the hand rails additional tent material was sowed onto the tent at the inside this way expecting that the tent will last longer.
The tent around the forward side windows I would make it different if a new tent is made in the future. I would make it a straight line with the roof , which would give it a nicer look in my opinion, this was not done since we followed the original design at this point. One challenge could be mounting the tent clips under the roof, difficult drilling a hole.
The height of the tent was kept the same as the height of the roof of the steering cabin.
The aft window can be completely opened for a not so sunny day but still warm enough to sit dry while sailing. This is accomplished by a zipper on either side of the window.
Below some pictures with dimensions. At the aft side both corners straps are placed to give some tension on the tent and to keep it in place , supports are mounted onto the aft cabin roof.
Over the last few years I noticed that the wood in the steering cabin started to discolor again , my boat in the marina faces south, asking my friendly neighbor Jan again if he could make a window cover for the steering cabin.This cover goes over the forward window and side windows. I admit it is getting a bit dark inside but on the other hand temperatures stay a bit lower and the discoloring of the wood will be slower.Minor advantage the sliding side window is now also covered which will prevent from water entering inside.
The cover is as with the tent connected with clips onto the wood a few at the front and the sides, to make it easier for fabrication the window wipers are placed on top of the material.
On the side the cover is placed under the tent so that the gap between the tent and the wood is minimized. In the past I had some ingress of rainwater and even snow depending off course on the wind direction.
Where the cover meets the tent the cover does have so called tent rings , this way the clips hold the cover in place and under a minimum of tension.
