Thought I would share my favorite Hennessey mod. Down south it gets HOT in the summer, and with the tarp up it can be like a sauna at night in the hammock. If you leave the tarp off it is much cooler/better... unless it rains!

My Expedition came with the A-sym tarp. I use a hex cut for cool weather, but in the summer I use the A-sym rigged as in the pics. NOTE: you can't rig a hex cut this way, as it has four guy points.

I put a grommet in the hammock fabric at the head end, and a split ring on the ridgeline. A piece of braided dacron (200# kite twine) is tied to the split ring, goes through the grommet, and clips onto the end of the tarp after threading it through the "carrabiner" part of the figure nine.




If the weather is nice, I just set the tarp up with only the foot end tied off, thread the braided dacron through the figure nine, and attach it to the head end. Then I just push the tarp down over my foot area. Get to star gaze, catch breeze.

If it starts raining, or dew is a problem, I reach up, grab the ring, pull it down the ridgeline till it's tight, and my tarp is deployed. Tie off the braided dacron to the ridgeline with a couple half hitches, and stuff the extra line in the little gear net that is on the ridgeline.

As an aside, I've been using the figure nines this way for over five years. No bending, breaking, or whatever. I am a little guy, but a friend of mine who is a svelte 250# has been using them for almost as long, with zero problems.

That's about the fastest way I've seen to pull down the tarp.

How does it work with some blowing - do you have any way to hold down the sides?

Man; the tarp is staked out as usual. You can (barely) see one of the tie-outs in the last pic. It is an asym tarp, only two tie-outs, so I can pull one side down farther than the other, but neither side all the way. Once I pull the head end up from inside, and tie it off the tarp is as taut as it would be normally.

By the way, I replaced the original tie-outs and ridgeline with 3/16"Amsteel Blue dyneema yacht cord; 5,400 lb avg strength. This is a continuous piece, so my ridgeline is MUCH stronger than original (widowmaker protection). When I first did this I had a problem with tying off the braided dacron onto the ridgeline inside because the amsteel was so slippery. I eventually just undid one end where the hammock was gathered and tied, pulled the amsteel out and tied a simple overhand knot in it about 18" away from the end. The knot serves as a stop for the braided dacron, keeping it from slipping up the ridgeline if it gets windy.

Doing it this way I can rig the tarp very close to the hammock as you would when expecting wind and rain, yet allow plenty of ventilation - even more than if it were rigged high above the hammock, thus risking getting wet from a sideways wind.

My Expedition is an old bottom entry, and I use a 3/4 length blue closed cell pad most nights. It is one huge PITA to get out, rig my tarp, and get back in - in the dark, in the rain. With this rig I can wrap up tight in about 30 seconds!

I was worried the figure 9 would damage the rope.

Canoe 42...you are right in that the Amsteel is so soft that if you put it in the figure nine according to the diagram it will dig into the toothed portion. Then it is hard to get out, plus will abrade the line.

What I do is bring the line through the hook side, then back under the standing part (to the hammock), back through the hook, back over the standing part, back through the hook, back under the standing part, and then pull the tag end into the toothed portion.

This looping back and forth takes most of the strain off the tag end as the Amsteel tends to tighten on itself. Once I started doing it this way I have had zero problems with untying, and no abrasion to the Amsteel.