Sewn up the material I got from ebay, uncoated woodland ripstop…. after cutting it….well… i did a horrible job cutting it…
the original tarp plan called for an asymmetric hex tarp that used 18 ft of 64″ wide material, and has a 9 ft 9 1/2 inches seam…..with a 12+ ft ridge line…well, somehow I mis-cut somewhere and ended up with a nearly symmetric tarp with the 10 ft 6 inches seam..
Lesson 1; confirm the material’s length. I assumed 6 yards, clearly it is more than 6 yards if the 126″ seam is any indicator… it IS 64″ wide material though.
Lesson 2; get a proper cutting mat big enough and a big enough table……..
Lesson 3; use Catenary curves and cut to curves for maximum tension……
Lesson 4; measure twice, maybe thrice before cutting, and confirm the orientation of the end cuts!
first set up with seam on diagonal; decent coverage….
quarter view; yes theres floppy edges on the tarp…
view inside…there’s room….its a little wonky looking thing though..
second set up…ridge line is way too long….less coverage too…hmm.
not as much coverage…..although..for the view, it can’t be beat!
Ah that’s more like it! shorter ridge line, 126″ seam, so 126″ ridge line….while theres less end coverage, it still covers the whole hammock, positioned right over the quick links of the hammock suspension to tree straps. And theres more coverage on the sides, so in case of hard rain, it protects more of the person in the hammock!
quarter view, you can see how much wider it is, and how much it covers the ground..
another view, with the black harness clipped to the tree strap. the brown pouch is what holds the tarp, the large green pouch holds the hammock.
Cascade Tactical 