Shortened Hammock

[Junglecomfort]

I'm fairly new to the hammock world, I've only done some weekend camping trips on the beach.
Soon that's gonna change so I'm looking for any advise at all. In january I'm planning on going down a river in the jungle on a boat. it's gonna be about 8 people and during the day we will be on land and at night we sleep in hammocks on the water (for our safety and the boats').

It's only going to be a week but the thing is, the width of the boat is only 6.5 ft. Most hammocks are a lot longer and friends of mine that have done the trip before say they have to tie a part of the actual hammock around the posts. But that causes the hammock to almost be like a narrow tube and the fabric ends up being right by your face. Also there are loads of bugs. There is like a roof on the boat. Oh and also I'm only 5'3 and female. I hope that's enough information for some of you guys to help me on my setup.

Is there anyway I can make a hammock shorter? There's obviously going to be some hang so it could be longer the 6.5 ft, but how much longer? Would it still be comfortable? I do have some friends with great sowing skills so we could make one. Any ideas on what I need for a jungle trip would be a great help!

[Kroma]

Just to answer the hammock length part. If you use a ridgeline 83% of hammock length you could have a hammock 7ft10in and be right at 6.5 ft with ridgeline. Of course you'd need a little room for suspension so maybe 7.5ft would be long enough. Still a short hammock even for a 5'3" person but may be doable. Sounds like a unique situation you'll be in. Good luck to you.

[Double]

Use a 90 degree hammock or wide fabric with a short hammock.

[tangara]

6.5' is a little tight, but if you get a wider hammock and hang it at a more extreme angle, you'll still be able to get a comfortable lay. If you don't like the fabric flopping in your face, consider a knotty mod. In the tropics, most of the places that I've used hammocks has been on places where the ends are much closer than the 83% ridgeline that everybody talks about. Skip the ridgeline and if you need a line to hang things from, put a separate one from the posts. I've hung from places where the hammock was more than 45 degrees to the posts. Some of the huts I've hung in are made of bamboo, and they wouldn't hold up to even a 30 degree pull on the side posts.

Do you have a place where you can mock something up before you go?

[Snowball]

Hang the hammock(s) diagonally if possible
dia..png

[brianb]

If you can sew, go to a fabric store or even walmart and grab some fabric and build a prototype. You don't need ripstop for the prototype, just grab some polyester. I haven't had to build a smaller hammock. I'm betting if you make one and sleep in it then you'll know if it's going to work for you.

Also for the bugs, a cheap solution is to grab a sheer fabric panel from walmart in the curtains section. You can attach this one corner to the other where your hammock suspension would go. With the shorter length your dealing with you'll need to make some adjustments.

Post some photos if you make a prototype. I think you'll get a lot of responses.