Trampoline storage modification ideas?

Jake, I just posted this on the other thing about tramps, but then I saw you started a new thread, so I copied it over to this one.

If you have a tramp that does not have lacing down the middle, I think the best (and easiest) idea is a fairly deep (fore-aft) flap all the way across the front of the tramp (open edge facing aft), with the front and side edges sewn to the tramp. As far as whether you want the thing to be totally open all the way across the back or divided into compartments or use velcro or grommets or whatever, that is an individual, creative thing. If you have a mesh tramp but want the stuff in the storage area to be able to be kept relatively dry, you can make the whole flap section, bottom and top, out of a waterproof material.

I like a similar flap, just mesh, not as deep fore and aft, all the way across the tramp at the aft end, but with the open part facing forward. That would be for storage of items that do not need to be kept dry and are not too bulky. And it would be nice to have that aft flap closed with velcro or something so things cannot get washed out of it or washed into it and so you can't trip on it or whatever.

These are just my opinions as a crew who likes a clean deck and the ability to stuff something quickly out of the way, but be able to have it easily accessible.

(If you have lacing down the middle of the tramp, you would have to divide the above into two compartments on each side both on the front and back of the tramp.)

If you want a spinnaker-storage "compartment" sewn onto the tramp, that would be separate from the generic storage compartments, and design and location would be a matter of personal preference.

I HATE tramps with little storage flaps sewn on with the open side facing forward. They are so tight you can barely get anything into them, and when you try to get something out of them, you risk losing it overboard over the front beam.

The tramp pocket set up I like is one I made for my boat two years ago. I used tramp material, which was as wide as I wanted the pocket and twice as long as I wanted the finished product. I then folded the material to form a pocket. I then inserted a piece of two inch wide webbing down the sides and sewed this to the pocket. Another two pieces of webbing on each side of the mouth of the pocket and then turned it inside out, so the sewing is on the inside.... and then I added grommets on the corners and every six inches or so along the sides of the webbing. These grommets are added so I can affix the pocket to my tramp, when I want it and when I don't is stashes easily in the car or elsewhere. This arrangement is simple to sew because one isn't having to mess around with the big tramp on the sewing machine...and it isn't a permanent on the boat's tramp...which makes it lots easier to replace, reconfigure, make bigger or smaller or move forward or aft as one's needs or vision changes. One can also sew cinch straps on the pocket to allow it to be expanded or contracted, depending on what all one may have in it.... and as I see it.... adding a few grommets to the boat's tramp is lots easier than wrestling with it on the sewing machine and trying to sew on a pocket and having the pocket not stitched too tight or loose, compared to the tension of the tramp when it's on the sewing machine and when it's tensioned on the boat.

Just another idea for you to consider.

Tom H.

I've got a trampoline bag that I strap to the boat but I don't like it a whole lot because it's cumbersome, shifty, and a little more prone to entanglement than I imagine a pocket built into (and placed well) the trampoline would be. Although, grommets in the tramp would make attachment easier. However, I've got to restitch the trampoline anyway to repair weather degraded stitching and figured I would look for some ideas while I've got it off the boat.

My favorite is under tramp storage. You sew the "bag" to the bottom of the tramp and add a zipper to the tramp to access it. 3 to 4 inchs deep seems to work.

I like to divide mine into 3 sections. A zippered bag on each side of the center and a small tight pouch accessible from under the tramp for the righting line.

Even if you do not like the zippered idea. A tight pouch just for the righting line (and maybe the throwable) under the tramp really cleans things up and is worth the effort.

Did you ever have any reliability problems with the zipper? Sounds like a neat idea but I am concerned about the stress loads. I guess nobody could be on the trampoline when you're trying to close the zipper?

The under the tramp righting line storage is a great idea that will now be incorporated! Thanks!

A houshold sewing machine will sew tramp material fine. Just use the 16 or 18 needles. The best thread is teflon, (called something else now) especially when using a home machine. It will outlast your tramp, getting a small spool is a problem. See Sailrite. com. The next best is white Dabond. (White should stand up to UV better than black, almost all of my experience is with black and teflon). Teflon is worth the expense if you can find $25 worth. It can be conserved by using Dabond on the shady side.

Fabrics: very important! Normally polypropylene has poor UV resistance, but black polypro is made black by adding carbon black rather than dye like dacron or nylon. Colored polypro fabrics will be junk in a short time. Edge your tramp pockets w 1.5" or 2" black poly pro webbing folded in half or possibly (I'm just now trying) white polyester/dacron. Black nylon is better than nothing, but not much.

Round the corners of your pockets as much as you can. A big semi-circle works best if it will hold what you need. Avoid grommets by sewing webbing tabs. I have had mostly good success using the plastic triangles inserted in the webbing tabs for lacing, but I did have couple of failures, while the others have taken substantial beating. They're cheap, put in two.

There are, of course, lots of other things to consider like cutting the material on a bias (ala Perfomance Catamaran specs) to get a nice tight 2 direction stretch. But the stuff is really easy to work with. I don't like the laced on pockets either, and Tom House doesn't like to work on his boats until he has 1 day left before he drives to some remote part of Mexico and getting the tramp sewed is a little less important than having most of the standing rigging.

Hey Carl-

The first time I put my boat together I hated this tramp. It scrapped the skin on my knees and the two tramp bags will hold so much I was thinking about doing away with them because a crew could store their entire gear bag except the bags hide the lace-up space between the front of the tramp and main beam. With tracks on the rear and sides and the lace up to the main beam the main tramp has almost zero give. The front tramp can be made very stiff but not that stiff. As you can see from the photo the main traveler and jib sheet each work off of a 4:1 block systems that attach to the main and rear beam under the tramp. When slack these lines are supported by two bungee cords tied under the tramp. This is convenient for the crew but really sucks for who is steering the boat [singlehanded]. Or it does for me because I can't get the light weight lines to release without a lot of effort. The angle is to low for easy release. I thought about putting the bags under the tramp but with the front tramp you can't access the bags from on top.

thom

Have you looked at the Magic Marine spin. bag. I have mine mounted using shock cord at the corners of the bag into grommets through the tramp. This way I can stuff things under the bag if needed. If the chute isn't in there I can get soft cooler, throwable,etc. Everything for a day on the water. It also comes with zippers on the side of the bag. All you do is sew the zipper tracks to the tramp and that way you can zip it on and off. The bag has battens to help hold it open and zippered openings on both sides for access. I've had mine for two years now and no problems. The down side is it is a little pricey,about 130 bucs.

Mike

A fellow CA catsailor sent me this picture - I thought it was worthy of posting here for others to see too.

Hey! That's the one I built. Here's another:

My 1974 Tornado had pockets on the rear and front of the tramp. I used the rear pockets the most; I don't understand why all tramps don't have pockets on both ends...

thom

Wanted to jump in sooner, but too busy having a Merry Christmas. 'Hope everyone else had a good one too!

My Mystere 6.0 came with a rear tramp pocket. For an illustration of the pocket, go check out the tramp layout pictures at the Sunrise Yacht web site. First click on
http://www.multihullnets.com/
then click the enter button, then click on "beach cat store." Then scroll down to see the Mystere 6.0 tramp.

You'll see three pockets. A halyard pocket in front. A tunnel pocket in the middle, through which the 4-way sheeting system runs. Then you see a huge rear pocket with a forward facing opening.

I would strongly recommend this style of pocket to all beach cat sailors! It is far more handy than you can imagine. Just be sure to create some rear exit holes for sand and shells.

I often wished that the halyard pocket had a rear access. I may cut a zipper into the rear end of it. That would be very nice.

I'm with Steve and others who have mentioned using folded over webbing pieces here and there on the tramp to provide tie down points. I set a couple for my spin. bag; a couple more for my anchor; a few more for other misc. stuff.

You should make these loops large enough to pass a 1" webbing buckle through. Then you can buy webbing straps that have adjustable buckles on them (REI, $3) and lash down just about anything you want to including your crew if she is threatening to jump ship.

When Bill Mattson and I do our excursions to the Channel Island National Park, we focus on safety at sea. At one point, early on, we realized that we were going about gear stowage all wrong with too much weight inside the hulls. Weight in the hulls would be difficult or impossible to remove if you were turtled, with the cargo preventing you from righting the cat! So we decided that we had to have all of our supplies on deck and quickly removable.

The cargo on the wrong side of the capsize fulcrum needs to be jettisoned at once. To deal with this, we have put our heads together to come up with a rip cord system that really works. Besides having a ripcord system, we actually have rip cord lines that can be reached by a sailor when he is in the water.

For additional safety we carry what I call "anti-turtle lines" that trail while underway. They also are reachable from the water. When capsized, they are used in preventing turtling, aid the sailor in climbing back onto the boat, and can actually be used in lieu of a more conventional righting line. I'll stop digressing here in this stowage thread, however.

The ripcord is a bright pink dynema line that is so thin that draging it in the water is no measurable power loss. It attaches to each and all of the rip cord pins, all tied (in parallel) to the end of this rip cord line. When you give it a yank, all the bags fall to the water's surface. The bags are also tethered to the boat with leashes so that they won't float too far away.

For each bag, you need to have a grommet. The rip cord pin, a third of a plastic rudder pin, lays flat on the bottom of the tramp, overlapping the grommet. A circuit loop of bunige is passed through the grommet and around the rip cord pin.

On top of the tramp, the bungie loop is large enough to pass a 1" webbing strap. That webbing straps takes the following cirucuit:
Webbing buckle set near the bungie loop,

over gear bag, through a (webbing) tie down point on tramp,

back over bag, through bungie loop,

over bag again to a second tie down point,

back to and through the bungie loop and through the adjustmet side of the buckle set.

Now you can set the tension with the adjustment buckle. You can remove the bag with or without pulling out the rip cord.

If the grommet is large enough to pass two folded bungies through, then you can have two bags on one rip cord pin.

These rip cord grommets need to be at a place where you can reach them from the top of the tramp. You will need that if you are ever reloading the system after use. Also, there needs to be a tether line from the rip cords to the boat (dolph. strkr. rod) so that you won't loose them when they are pulled out.

Hope it makes sense!

My two grommets on on my forward cargo tramp. Suggestions: You can use the righting line grommet that Nacras and Prindles have, if you just pass your righting line over the cross bar instead of through the grommet.

GARY

I have an extra row of grommets sewn accross the front trampoline of my boat. I tied a line so it has loops sticking up from every grommet, and the line runs above the tramp from one grommet to the next. Tons of places to tie stuff down this way. I'll probably get one of those huge "Accross the Tramp" storage bags with the big clear map pockets on top of it for distance sailing.

I tie an igloo cooler to the forward port side of the mast beam. The line runs from the forward tramp grommet-line, over the cooler (actually through the handle), around the mast beam and back under the cooler. It goes around twice. This way I can push the little lever/button on the top and pivot the lid fore or aft to get at the iced drinks, without the cooler being able to come loose.

The zipper system is on a Redhead Tornado Tramp. The zippers are very heavy duty plastic, like you would see on good quality luggage. The area around the zipper and above the bag is reinforced with sailcloth. This distributes the loads and keep the tramp from stretching around the zipper. I have no problem with the zipper on a tramp tighten by two strong men using all their strength.

Gary brought this thread back up in another post and I remembered that I had something to add. I put a mesh pocket at the rear of my trampoline as shown in this picture (almost exactly). It works great! minus one thing. I did not choose my fabric well because I can no longer sail bare-kneed. After one day of buoy racing and crawling back and forth across this bag my knees were scratched and bleeding. YIKES...make sure you pick a flesh friendly fabric (FFF)!

Oh yeah - if you choose a bag like this, you may want to sew some velcro at spots of the entry between the trampoline and the bag opening. If you stuff your boat into a wave and decelerate quickly ALL your gear and water bottles come flying foward out of the bag.

Be sure to add a flat pouch under the tramp(center front) for a righting line. This puts it where you need it, when you need it. You can make it big enough to carry a "throwable" if want.

Heres a couple of pockets added to a tramp...
Drink holder
Righting line storage on bottom

you've got three trap wires on that solcat!?

I want to second Carl on the under tramp ideas.
I have had a small pocket sewn under the center of my tramp, near the dolphin striker, for the righting line ONLY.
We are supposed to carry throwables in most areas. Somebody like Salty Dog knows exactly how to make a square edged, under tramp pocket for it.

I added a righting line pocket on my tramp bottom but after I used the line, it was too much of a hassle to stuff it back in there. So now I am back to carrying it on top of the tramp.

GARY

Of Course... don't you?
They are for the kids, so all three riders may get out there.
Its a blast if its blowing hard and you get three good looking sqeeling girls out!
Oh... plus everything on that boat is [color]red , white and [color] blue ... so had to make one of each color.

Heres the rightling line bag photo on my Sol Cat 15...