Talk-Ab-Tents-art - 8/1/18
"Talk about Tents" by Mistress Alfrun Ketta.
NOTE: See also the files: On-Pavilions-art, shade-pavilns-msg, 16thC-pavilon-art, Select-a-Tent-art, tent-transprt-msg, p-tents-art, p-tent-const-art.
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NOTICE -
This article was added to this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium, with the permission of the author.
These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous
stefan at florilegium.org
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You can find more by this author on her blog at:
http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/
Talk about Tents
by Mistress Alfrun Ketta.
Regent tent belonging to a camp mate.
I find myself answering
questions about tents frequently in forums on Facebook. I take the time
to do this because I have had (or stayed in) most of the available period styles
at some point or another and have input about what things I would do (or NEVER
do) again, what I would change, and what has worked for me the longest.
I want to state upfront that I am a die-hard fan of Panther Primitives
Tents. They are not the only tent maker out there these days, and while I
have heard mostly good things about companies like Midwest tents, I have also
seen some other pavilions from other companies that made me cringe (seriously,
nothing should be STAPLED together on a tent). So yes, I am definitely a
fan of Panther, and should I ever buy another tent, it is guaranteed to come
from there. Even if you are buying a tent elsewhere, some of my comments
about tent styles might still be of benefit to you. ( http://www.pantherprimitives.com/ )
My first tent, which I do not have a picture of at the moment, was actually a Wall Tent. This was left over from my days as a
Civil War reenactor and my then-husband portrayed an officer, we had a wall
tent rather than a wedge. I actually have no faults with this tent or
this style. If you use the style that has only a ridge and end poles, the
length of ropes you need to stretch out the walls can take up excessive space
in camp, so that is something one needs to consider. These do, however,
tend to have a good deal of usable space inside, and front and back doors make
for good air circulation.
The second tent I used was one I borrowed, and that was 16X16 Regent. We actually used to have quite a few
of these in our camp (both the 16X16 and the 12X12) size. I like these
for their portability as they have very few poles involved. You lose
floor space due to slanted walls and the clipped corners, but the 12X12 is
particularly awesome for single people who might not need to put a large bed
inside. They go up pretty easy, but I prefer setting one up when there
are at least 4 people to help manage it. The walls are attached which
means that the person holding poles inside might bake a bit while everything is
set up. But as a whole, I find them to be attractive and functional.
They are also nice in that you can get a fly on the front as well, to
help with sun.
Carousel structure (photo from Panther catalog)
The next tent we had was an
18" Round Carousel Style Pavilion.
This is the one type of tent I would never, ever buy again. Rather,
I would never have one in this size, combined with the style. They look
beautiful and the carousel top means that you only have a single vertical pole
to deal with. The problem is that 7ft walls on the larger sizes means
that you have to have someone tall to add the spokes as you set up. We
also had attached walls on ours, which made it very difficult to get up to
begin with. I think they might only sell them with detachable walls now,
which is a good thing.
One of the benefits is that you can actually use the spoke system to hang lightweight
items like a few garments or your lanterns. The only other benefit is
that they look good. They look really good. This is what my brain
imagines all medieval tents looked like. The major drawback though, is
that the large sized ones always seem to have the top blow out after about 5
years, even with careful maintenance. There is a great deal of weight on
the top of that pole. In a single year at Pennsic, I knew of 4 or these
that ripped through. One happened when folks in my camp were there to see
it go. They heard the pop and then the entire tent slowly deflated and
shuddered to the ground.
Pennsic 2005, which we had a few round pavilions in camp (the one in the center of the image is the one that deflated a few years later)
Next came the grandest tent of all, the 18X30 Oval Marquee. This thing was glorious. We also had it decorated rather amazingly, with a variety of goods imported from Morocco and India. There was enough space that we had a foyer, a king air bed, a queen air bed and a huge "closet" wing. This type of tent, as well as other marquee styles, can make great use of the closet brackets that are also sold by Panther. There were four of us in the tent this year, and there was still plenty of space. However, it was a good deal of work to set up and maintain, so it now is being use by my household as our common tent/shade fly (it also worked beautiful to house guests waiting during my vigil a few years ago).
The next tent in line was the 18X18 Seam Engineered Rectangular Marquee. Rectangular marquees are also something we have in abundance in our camp, so I am familiar with other set-up options on those as well. There are, however, things I would never, ever again order in this type of tent.
Our Rectangular Marquee is the one in the back with the fly
I want to make a note here about Shade Flies for tents. These come in two types, one is a Side Mount Ridge Fly and the other is a Flat Fly. The former is fantastic, as it can be left up during a torrential downpour because it is angled in a way that does not readily collect water. The flat style of fly will collect water and can eventually collapse a tent. For these you need to tilt the poles every time it rains to prevent this (though I have also seen people add other internal structures to avoid this fate as well).
The inside of my tent. This is before I switched from the A frame closet, which did not work well on our slope, to one suspended from the ridge. There is ample space to move around and store things with either closet set up.
Finally, we arrive at my current (and very much loved) set-up, the Norman Saxon Tent. I will admit that I
resisted this idea for years. My boyfriend suggested these over and over
and I was very worried about all the things I heard about all of the things I
have heard about not having any space in these things. He bought one for
himself, and after a year of him using that and my friends and I using the
Marquee, I realized he was correct and he got me one as well.
We use one wedge for small events, or even occasionally for mundane camping and
there is plenty of space for a queen sized bed and our gear, as well as a chair
in the front for him. For Pennsic, we often are moving around at
different hours (and he likes to take naps), and plus I bring a ton of stuff
(class materials and garb, garb, garb) so we take two and set them up
side-by-side.
This style of tent goes up quickly. I am not strong enough to lift the
ridge, but I can roll out the tent and stake everything down, get a few hands
to insert the ridge and lift the roof and then I can finish on my own from
there. The whole thing can go up in less than 20 minutes.
There is also plenty of room in there for me for War, despite the amount of
things I take. I have a cot that is bigger than a twin bed and nearly as
tall, a small dresser and a cooler. I have tons of very large bins that
get shoved against the walls in the back half of the tent and I have rigged a
small closet rod (which I will post about later at some point) that hangs from
the ridge in the very back of the tent for my garb. Honestly, there is
more than enough space for me, even with my excess of stuff. In the
center photo below you can see his tent set up as vigil tent a few years ago.
The cot in the back is a tall XL cot and there was enough room to have it
running across the width of the tent rather than the length.
Another comment I want to make about the wedge tents is that they require zero
maintenance once they are set up. With a marquee or regent you will usually
need to adjust the ropes several times during a long event (sometimes even
daily). These require no effort at all. We also have had his wedge
tent set up on a mundane camping trip that had 60mph wind gusts and it never
leaked nor budged. They are very solid beasts.
A note about Ground Cloths.
This is a very contentious item on some of the forums. People love
them, hate them, have other alternatives, you name it. I will note that
we have the Panther Super Ground Cloth for each of our tents. I personally
love them. This is a canvas cloth that is cut to the size of your tent
and has a plastic tarp sewn to the bottom. Having the correct sized floor
is very important to properly set up tents like the wedges, which can be staked
to the ground before raising the roof. The tarp on the bottom means that
I don't have to carry an extra tarp (though some people do). These last a
very long time, and we take care to fold them so that none of the canvas floor
touches the icky damp tarp portion when packing-out from Pennsic. When I
get home I lay them out on the pavement in the drive way, tarp side up, and
bake off all the gross stuff in the sun, sweep it clean and then flip it over
to bake some more (and ensure it is totally dry).
I have one other thing to
add to my tent commentary, and that is regarding mundane
tents. For an event like Pennsic, you really do not want a
nylon tent if you can help it. Fortunately, there are a number of canvas
tent options these days that not only breath well, but they also set up with
ease (and take up little storage space compared to a pavilion), and, honestly,
they also can blend in a little better.
There are two companies that make very similar canvas tents, Springbar and
Kodiak. Friends of ours have several Springbar tents, and when we were
looking for a more portable option (that was not nylon) to using our wedges for
mundane camping, we decided to test drive the Kodiak. I have to say that
I love these tents. The components come in two bags, one for the poles
and one for the tent. This means that I can carry these items myself, as
separately they do not weigh overly much. My boyfriend could set one up
by himself, but I need help to raise the ridge (the same as I do with the
wedge). They go up in mere minutes and take up little space in the car
compared to a pavilion. If you are on a tight budget and cannot afford a
pavilion yet (or if you have space constraints such as apartment living),
something like this might be the best option for you. The Kodiak tent we
have, even has an adorable little built in sun shade on the front, and there
are accessories for inside that allow you to store some things up near the
ceiling. I cannot recommend these tents enough for those who can not yet
make the commitment to a period tent.
There is plenty of headroom in all of these options, and the bow sides mean
that you have less of a slant and less wasted floor space. The bottom of
the Kodiak is very heavy vinyl that keeps water out and we have never had an issue
with the tent leaking elsewhere either. We do use a small tarp under
this, because you cannot as effectively bake the bottom of the tent the way you
do with a Panther Super Ground Cloth.
We have the "8 Person" 10X14 foot Kodiak. There is a couple in
our camp that has one as well and it is more than sufficient for them for
Pennsic (and more comfortable than their previous nylon tent). I do not
know that I would consider going smaller, but they do have other sizes as well,
including a 10X10. (There is also a cabin tent style that I do not
recommend if you want fast set up. They are really neat in terms of the
shape and size, but take much longer to set up than the flex-bow design of the
tents we have.)
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Copyright 2018 by Jenn Culler. <jennelfculler at yahoo.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.
If this article is reprinted in a publication, please place a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.
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