 Having seen mention of this on the Furtech site, I'm delighted to see a nice photo here and a lot more detail has been added to the shellta wordpress page since I looked last week. I've been looking at similar things from the US & Canadian lightweight manufacturers (Integral Designs, Six Moon Designs, Mountain Laurel Designs etc.) but 1) they are hard to come by in the UK and 2) I don't think any of them claim to be capable of 'all of the above'. That said, it's a membrane so a bit on the heavy side compared with silnylon - and certainly heavy compared with some of the Cuben spinnaker stuff available in the US. But that makes it a more appealing bivvy bag so I suppose you pays your money and... Either way, it's an interesting take on the problem of carrying versatile shelter and as before I wish Andy great success with it. I'd have a few questions to pose here if Andy was as open & helpful as he was about his Furtech jackets. 1) Hydrostatic head? Is there a risk of squeezing water through the membrane if it's against the ground? 2) Drying time. If it's hydrophilic, and presumably the face fabric can eventually wet-out, does it take a while to dry? 3) Does it need any special care to keep the membrane functional - as would be the case for Goretex or Event 4) As the fabric isn't gas permeable, is the bivvy bag mainly an emergency / under-shelter use option 5) Is there any risk of damaging/delaminating the membrane if it is stretched out between guy points? I have to admit to being a bit skeptical about whether the hydrophilic nature is sufficient to 'dry out' a Nikwax analogy fabric. I do believe, however, that wearing a waterproof poncho over any breathable waterproof jacket will up the breathability for a few reasons. Firstly, there's some airspace for the surface moisture to evaporate off; secondly there might be a slight warming of the gap between poncho and jacket so the vapour transmission of most membranes would improve (the r.h. should fall on the outside of the jacket so permeability should rise in most cases). John
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 can we see a photo please
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correction on my part sorry just seen pic
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There are plenty more here
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 Looks rather like the old Army poncho. Only in a lighter weight fabric.
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Presumably from the days when they were known as the Red Coats?!? From memory, the poncho's (Bashas) I used from MoD stock had no hood and used poppers to close them down one side or join two together for a larger shelter. Do you mean something else, CP?
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I'm thinking of the poncho my Action Man had, perhaps, which had a hood... But Action Man stuff was based fairly firmly on military kit, possibly US-based, though. I'm sure Trevor will be able to give us the full story... I've certainly seen military ponchos with a flap over the head opening.
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It seems there was this one : 58 pattern poncho ; but it also had poppers. I'm not sure what the one I used was. It was DPM but I don't remember it having the loops to hang it from a line as seen on google. Oh well. Either way, I'd rather have a ShellTA; but does it come in any 'discreet' colours, Andy?
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 Of the top of my head, if you use it in bivvy bag form, the fabric isn't air permeable, so you'd need to keep it vented. I'm sure Andy will be along to answer the rest of your questions 
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 cp, the older army ponchos had a hood for sure, mine did in the TA in the early nineties. After that they issued a non-poncho style plain old full basha sheet type of shelter sheet minus any hood, right up till nowadays. The need for a poncho really went out of the window because of the issue of better breathable membrane waterproofs basically, replacing those old crap ones that everyone sweated buckets in! The American forces still issue their guys a poncho though, plus good breathable membrane waterproofs as well. But then they get twice as much individual issue as our forces guys get! They are even issued out there in the US camouflaged wrappered condoms!
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| Edited: 31/10/08 20:22 |
Some DPM - camouflage British Army Disruptive Pattern Material - basha sheets have those side poppers, some have eyelets instead, others loops, or occasionally you see some types with a combination of two or three even of those features together. The best most sought after ones in bushcraft circles are still the Aussie style 'Hoochie' - from Hooches, the indiginous local area tribal houses in Vietnam, from the Oz troops service there in the Vietnam conflict - ponchos, similar to those issued to the Australian armed forces still even now. The old German army style ponchos too, and the Dutch and the French ones, along with a few others of the European armies too had a head hole in them so as to make the thing more universally useful as a waterproof poncho too.
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| Edited: 31/10/08 20:32 |
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 I have to say the photo of Eddie Meechan a few months back in TGO walking on a hill somewhere wearing this as a poncho was one of the funniest things I'd seen all year!
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If I remember the aussie hooch was heavy, over a 1Kg
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.jpg) J B Ponchos had no hood. They certainly did up to the fifties, we called them groundsheet capes in those days. And they popped together to make a decent shelter , we would often carry an extra one, depending on the area and time of year. I still have two and carry one every week on day walks.
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There is a lighter weight one too, carried by the Australian SAS for long range recon jungle patrols. Harder to get a hold of though as surplus. Recently either Web Tex or else BCB started doing a cheaper copy version of a Hoochie I think too. Some seem to otherwise go for very silly prices these days. Especially after their popularity was boosted by Ray Mears, using the jellybean pattern Australian army ponchos and other stuff like water bottle covers in Oz jelly bean camo, in his popular bushcraft tv shows!
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| Edited: 31/10/08 22:28 |
PS My weekly walking is aways in the Derbyshire Dark Peak area.
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The hooded 1958 pattern British Army poncho married up to the poncho rolll on the 58' pattern webbing of the same period. You had to secure it in quite well though or the poncho would come out and get lost quite often! In the end I secured mine into place with a paracord tie fixing the poncho direct to the poncho roll. Good poncho overall, but crap webbing system I think! Especially bad in the wet, as it soaked up water like a sponge becoming very heavy indeed, and could be a real pig to put together from its constituent webbing parts - yoke, belt, kidney pouches, right and left ammo pouches, and water bottle pouch, NBC pouch and the poncho roll.
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| Edited: 31/10/08 22:47 |
 I once had to [reluctantly] stay over at a relative of my mothers a long time ago, in the days when it was normal to ride to and from school on your bike.
It was pissing down the next morning and this harridan insisted I wore a bright yellow plastic poncho over my school uniform and bike to keep me dry.
I can only explain how I felt when my friends saw me in this ridiculous garb further down the road in my native Scouse vernacular:
'A right tool'
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 The first thing I thought when i saw it was; its a lightweight red army poncho!!!
No doubt this one is actually waterproof though, and unlike when i used them before you would be trying to sleep under one on your own and not with your buddy.
Since using army poncho's/groundsheets for basha'ing up I have always saw tents as rather limited items. Army issue may be heavy but it usually does it job plus a couple others. Poncho for instance; personal waterproof, pair shelter, stretcher, plus many more i cant think of*. On the other hand there is that great saying, that usually summarises multi purpose kit: Jack of all trades, master of none!
*alcahol consumption, why am i online again?!
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