Day 1
Holiday started off to a shaky start with us set to miss our pre-booked ferry crossing due to traffic congestion. A bit of judicious fast driving coupled with obstacle avoidance skills meant we were driving on to our ferry just as they were closing the doors.
On arrival at the campsite a force 3 to4 gale was blowing off the sea with gusts to force 5-6. To say we had fun pitching was an understatement. This was our first full pitch of the Biarritz 9. I only have room in my garden to try out the inner only & this took 40 mins in calm conditions.
Laying the poles out ready we all took a deep breath and start to pitch the inner. In the gale that was blowing the inner simply became a parachute. Having pegged a couple of corners I set about trying to place the poles into their pins with the wife trying to hold the dome up. Only problem was the wind had other ideas. Ever time I managed to put one pole up and start on the next the wind would whip it off the ground and the pole would ping out of its ring. You can not begin to imagine the language that was starting to float around; accusations & insults being traded at a rate directly proportional the ever increasing resignation that we might never pitch this dam tent. 1 hour later & still no inner but I one proud owner of a busted pole. After successfully putting the 3 dome poles in the wind was so strong that the whole structure was still being lifted off the ground and flapping about like some monstrous giant hand was slapping it about. How more poles didn’t break I don’t know. So, a change in tactics me thinks. I fully pegged out one of the bedrooms and erected its poles at the lee wind side. At last some stability. After that it wasn’t too bad, taking a further 4 hours to finally start driving the last of the pegs. The supplied pegs are a bit flimsy; I managed to bend over 20% of them, still plenty spare as I had bought some deltas with me. Spent ages trying to insert the vent openings little poles. As mentioned by other members they must have measured their length incorrectly during design & manufacture as they are far too long to insert properly. I ended up splitting one; it was so tight in its mounting gussets. Note to self; must shave off 1mm each side with dremel when get back home. The whole tent was misshapen as I simply could not reposition it without the wind deforming any lose sections. Still, it was up just as the suns last rays of light disappeared below the horizon, although I did spend the next half hour making adjustments in torch light. I have never spent a night in bed with so many crossed fingers, hoping that we would not be blow off the edge of the cliff into the raging seas below. Every creak and groan of the tent brining on a nervous tick in my whole body, as I tensed up ready to grab everybody out of the mangled remains of the tent.
Next morning the overnight wind had undone the knots in three of the flysheets rubber chord attachments. Also the front porch had come adrift from one side and had partially torn the mud flap from the fly sheet. Re-pitched the front porch and re-tied the rubber chords and re-attached to pegs. Repaired mud flap with some gaffer tape. Several torrential cloud bursts later, we were at least 100% waterproof. For the moment. Never mind the wind and rain the holiday must continue.
Day 2
Pitched kyham wind break to use as kitchen. Wind immediatly tore one off one of the sides off its pole. Tried to pull poles out but the pointed ends of the poles broke & were left behind in the ground. What a pile cack. In the bin !
Day 3
Had arranged via this forum to look out for other UKCS members. Melian 101 said they would be there too so I set about finding them. Couldn’t see their wind sock anywhere and by chance the campers opposite us said hello and was I a member of UKCC. What are the chances of two separate sets of campers from different parts of the UK, travelling days apart talking about meeting at a camp site only to end up pitching next to each other by complete accident?
Day 5
Sat down to have a nice breakfast of bacon & eggs with the rest of family on fold out picnic table thingy when it collapses underneath me & unseated the rest of the family and their food all over them. It’s the bin for you table. Erected a washing line from remains of wind break. Got back from day out to find no washing on the line. Wind had blown it all away. Resigned myself to having to go & buy OH some new clothes. Wait ! some kind soul had rescued it & put it inside the tent. Ta whoever you were.
Day 6
Accidentally walk into tension strap at porch entrance and rip it out from flysheet. Go out for day only to return & find the UKCS laminate that I had pegged to the ground had been blown away and the porch entrance had become partially unzipped letting some rain in. Once again thanks to whoever shut it again for me beofere I arrived.
Day 7
Airbed bursts in middle of nigh. Had to sleep on hard ground for rest of night. Off to Newport to buy new one next morning.
Day 8
Got food poisoning today. Spent rest of evening and night being violently ill. A campsite is not the place to be with D&V. To every camper there I unreseverably & whole heartedly appologise if I woke any of you up in the night. No, it was not some hiddeous alien life form thrashing about, its bellowing, gurgling mating call cutting throught the silence of the night; just my stomach turning insideout !
Day 9
Still feel very ill. Sad to strike camp, but a whole lot easier then pitching was. Whilst taking down flysheet I noticed that I had tied it too tight to the poles and subsequently during the high winds the flysheet had rubbed on some of the metal ferrules of the poles and damaged the waterproofing.
Royal Biarritz 9 Pros
Loads of space for price
Light & airy inside
Large bedrooms with no tent-fabric-in-face issues
Bottom vents give good air flow throughout tent
Loads of useful pockets
Porch large enough to cook in if need be
Large porch roof window
2nd door in middle bedroom
100% waterproof (well ours was anyway)
Withstood some quite severe wind gusts
Cons
Vent inserts too long & so one splintered
Bedroom zips were very tight in a couple of places but I will put this down to pitching with all the entrances unzipped as I was in a hurry and too distracted from stopping the thing being blown away.
Better pegs could be supplied
Things to do when get back:
Sew mud flaps back on
sew back on porch front tension strap
Repair bent pole ferrule
re-waterproof damaged areas of flysheet
modify porch entrance mub flap with extra eyelets
fix splintered vent pole
book next next camping trip
buy new table
buy big box of valium
Hi Dargha
Having read your story I had to wipe the tears from my eye's (laughing). No not funny at all. At least you were 100% waterproof. After the rain mine took last weekend I had some small drips towards the rear pod but could not determine if I had a leak or if it was just heavy condensation. The wind was causing the inner to touch the flysheet in this area. I have also marked my vent poles to be shortend. Regards pitching in the wind I had the help of the OH plus my 2 kids which does make it easier. I also set-up a wind break to make it a little bit easier.
have to agree the wind was pretty rough, think that is the only thing that would put us off returning to this site as other parts of the island didnt seem as windy.
Although the Rage stood up to all the weather could throw at it, we stripped it of its poles etc. and threw the rest in the bin befor we left and have now replaced it with the campus brekenridge deluxe, which looks very similar to the Biarritz.
Glad to see you all had a good time despite the trials and tribulations and hope you are all well. And you never know, maybe we'll bump into each other again.
Quote: Originally posted by melian 101 on 13/9/2006
Hello Dargha,
have to agree the wind was pretty rough, think that is the only thing that would put us off returning to this site as other parts of the island didnt seem as windy.
Although the Rage stood up to all the weather could throw at it, we stripped it of its poles etc. and threw the rest in the bin befor we left and have now replaced it with the campus brekenridge deluxe, which looks very similar to the Biarritz.
Glad to see you all had a good time despite the trials and tribulations and hope you are all well. And you never know, maybe we'll bump into each other again.
Hi Mellian 101
Good to hear from you again. I thought the rage had stood up marvellously to the elements but the brekenridge looks like a fabby tent. I hope you had a a fab rest of holiday after we left. We were due to leave for Amsterday three days later for our 10th wedding aniversary. I only went & tripped over going to the post office to buy my euros and broke my hand ! This was only a few hours before we had to leave for the airport. Never had time to go to casualty so spent whole time over there with wife having to dress/feed/etc/etc for me. Felt like royalty except my hand bl**dy hurt and was twice its size.
It was a pleasure meeting such friendly and pleasant campers, ps. thanks for all your help, it was really apreciated. I will definately go back there again, maybe not so close the cliff edge next time. Untill our paths cross again, happy camping and regards to the rest of the family & yourself.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Biarritz 9, trials & tribulations at IOW
The big question is did it put you off.....I hope not.
