Blayney's Shade Pavilion
When Blayney came back from his last trip to the USA, he was impressed with the simple and effective "BC" shade tents that are common in over there at SCA events. We'd also been having a few discussions about having some more period looking shade at tournaments and wanted something large enough to accommodate us and a few friends. Thus was born a cunning plan to make a "BC" tent. The BC apparently stands for "Battle Cruiser" and is one of those things that made it into the SCA lexicon in the states ages ago and has stuck.Dragonwing (USA company) make and sell heaps of these things amongst other pavilions and also are kind enough to have patterns and instructions up on their website.Originally the plan was to have the pavilion ready for 12th Night so we could enjoy the funky new event format in style. Mr B managed to get it finished in just under 3 weeks, however we had an unexpected hitch when the 12th Night stewards announced that the site was limited in the amount of pegged pavilions that could be erected and they had already reached that limit. So it looks like the new shade pav will stay home.Still, it looked impressive enough in our backyard so I'm putting up a few home happy snaps of the pavilion here to share. I must admit up front that I had nothing to do with the design or construction of the pav. Blayney did nearly all of the work, with Bleddyn doing some work on the poles.
The pavilion is made from cotton twill. It isn't waterproofed. Ideally we were after a poly/cotton blend, but this was what we could lay our hands on in a relatively short time frame for reasonable cost. Blayney made the poles, ropes and pegs as well. The poles are octagonal timber and slot together (3 pieces for the centre poles, 2 pieces for the side poles). It is about 20' x 15'. We'd wanted to make a 30' one, but couldn't get enough fabric in the colours we wanted. We're also going to make some floor coverings and other bits and pieces to make it comfy.On the whole, I think it turned out great and I look forward to getting to use it at an event at some point.
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Shade pav was trialled at 12th Night Day 2 at St Peter's Primary School. Gained quite a few positive comments and King Alfar is now keen to obtain one. (I've agreed to sell him my current tent poles when I make some smaller replacements).
During the day it was quite comfortable but as I've noticed in other ones it completely blocks any side breeze so can still be a bit warm.
The wind came up in the afternoon which gave it a good stability and strength trial. The fabric stetched a fair bit which relaxed the tension between all the poles but it was still secure and not at threat of losing a pole. Although ?I couldn't pick an area of particular concern I was worried enough about the fabric that I decided to pull it down as the wind increased. It came down with very little fuss even in the wind.
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