Wynnster Curlew 6 tent. Like a home from home ish. (Wynster Curlew 6 Tent)

Member Name: Dexter01

Product:	Wynster Curlew 6 Tent
Date:	16/07/09 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good size, easy to put up and take down, cheap to buy in the right place.

Disadvantages: Would not sleep 6 in comfort.

Having had a recent camping trip to Le Mans to see some 24 hour motor race, I found myself in the need of a tent. Being a complete novice at this camping malarky, I decided a trip to Camping International, in Gillingham, Kent was in order. Having a ponder at all the tents they had set up, the Father-in-Law (my companion for said trip) and myself settled on the Wynnster Curlew 6 at a fair price of £119.

I say that is a fair price, well, really I thought it to be very cheap, considering a tent place outside Medway sold 2 person tents for upwards of £200!!!!

As you can probably see by the picture (if you looked at it), the tent is a pretty standard tent shape when set up. The tent is 5 metres in length and 2 metres wide, so fairly big (make sure you check your pitch size). Luckily for us, our pitch size was a rather genrous 7metres x 5 metres.

There are 2 zip up doors that are on either side of the tent lengthways. They are situated approximately 1 metres up from one end and cover around half metre once fully open. 2 doors was rather handy, meaning you can enter from either side and not have to worry about what way the tent was facing for the doorway. At the bottom of the doors, there is a 6 inch flap, which you can fold up just inside the door to prevent water or rubbish getting in when the door is open. A very genious idea, as I discovered when it rained hard on our trip.

There is a walkway through the tent, going from one door to the other, kind of like a small hallway. Either side of this walkway are 2 sleeping pods. The smallest of these pods is the width of the tent by about 1 metre. According to the tent guidelines, this area can sleep 2 people. I am by no means the largest of people in the world, in fact, I would go as far as saying I am a little small. I laid in this area and it felt very small and cramped to me. You would struggle to sleep comfortably in this area if you are a larger person or even if there is just 2 people in there. We actually found this area to be very useful for storing our luggage, which it was the perfect size for.

The second area is again the width of the tent, but around 3 and a half metres in length. Again, according to the guidelines, this area sleeps 4. I would agree with that in theory. 4 people of my size could probably sleep in there in relative comfort, not 5 star or anything, but still a night's sleep of no complaints. If it was 3 of you, then it would be a very comfortable night sleep, well, as comfortable as you can get in a tent. We had 2 single airbeds in here and still had a large area down the middle of the pod for us to walk through.

Before I waffle on more and forget. The tent is a very good height. I did not have to crouch down in anyway to get in or out and could stand fully inside the tent. I am around 5'7" in height, so not massive, but I still thought that was pretty good.

Now, the construction of the tent. Well, the outside is made of tent material, no idea what that is, but it's the same as every tent I have seen. There is a groundsheet, which is attached to the outer skin of the tent, making one big piece of material that opens to the tent shape. The groundsheet is attached a little bit further in on the outer skin, meaning that once it is put up, the outer skin floats down a bit like a skirt, thus keeping rain away from the groundsheet as best as possible. Located on one side by a door under this 'skirt' is a a small zip, that when opened, allows you to pass through electrical cable for any electrical goods you may have. Another great idea I found, although I didn't have any electrical items.

The 2 pods inside the tent are made of some form of nylon material. They are separate from the main outer skin of the tent and connect to this skin once the tent is put up. A very simple toggle system is used to connect these pods in place. They are also colour coded to make sure you put the right pod at the right end.

Now the putting up and taking down of this said tent. We decided to have a trial run before we went to make sure all the bits were in the box. upon opening, we found the whole tent was packed inside a carry bag, although not small as the tent is quite big, it is still very handy and makes packing it in the car easier.

Taking it out of the bag, we found 5 tent poles inside a bag of their own, a bag of tent pegs on their own and the pods folded inside the main tent. Folding it all out, we saw the actual size outside of a shop environment and thought it is quite large. The poles are all fibre glass and fold on themselves in around 2 foot sections. They very easily open out and slot into thereselves to make them nice and rigid. All the poles are colour co-ordinated and match up with the tent nice and simply.

You do need 2 people to put the tent up. It could probably be done with one, but it would be a struggle. With 2 of us, we got all the poles into the right holes easily enough and then 'popped' the tent up to get the structure in position. No real effort was needed and it all seemed alot simpler than I was expecting it to be. Then, taking the guidelines out, which were already attached to the tent, and placing tent pegs in these to really stabalise the structure. After pegging every hole we could find, we found we had 4 spare pegs left, which is handy for when you lose one or two.

We then took it down in the complete reverse of how we put it up. Nothing to report here, pegs out, poles out, fold tent, repack bag. Simple. The re-packing of the bag was the worst bit, but it still fitted in, even though we folded it completely wrong.

Out in the field, I am happy to report the tent went up just as easily, in fact we put it up alot quicker (around 5 minutes total time) as it was raining rather heavily on our arrival. This time around, we noticed 2 small holes in the 'hallway' area, that matched up with some loops on the bottom of the pods. We discovered that with 2 pegs, we put them in the loop and through the holes, thus securing the pods into the ground, as well as the outer skin. This made the pods feel very sturdy and secure.

Our first evening at the campsite was eventful. The rain stopped, but the wind took it's place. I was worried about the wind, having seen it's effects on tents in the past. The wind was that strong that it caved in our friends tent, making it go from 6 feet tall to around 2 feet. Our tent just stood in it's position all proud and sturdy. It didn't even sway. I was mightily impressed.

By far the worst problem, which I understand is a common tent problem, was the heat. After the first day, the sun was shining and reaching around 30 degrees. Our tent was baking hot inside. Even with leaving the doors open, it was still very hot and you couldn't spend any time in there if you wanted to. Which reminds me, the 'hallway' area is big enough for 2 seats inside it, so if the weather is poor, you can put some chairs in here to get out of it and still have a stand up and stretch your legs.

Other than the heat, which I have no control of yet, I found no problems with the tent. Superb tent to sleep 3 people extremely comfortably, 4/5 people in relative comfort and 6 in rather discomfort.

Summary: Even if it's just for 2 people, I would say this tent is perfect for you.