: Actually tent poles are used only for the obvious.

: There are poles used for other uses, but they arn't then tent
: poles, running a shock cord thru tubing doesn't make it a tent
: pole just because it's often used that way.

: All the tensile strength in the world won't compensate for
: diameter, or lack of it, you can only make tube just so strong
: with very small diameter, diameter being the variable that
: effects strength the most after the material strength. It's much
: easier to use larger diameter thinner wall tubing to get
: reasonable strength with light weight. Still if the wall
: thickness is reduced too much it's not very damage resistant,
: doesn't take much force to dent a tube and then destroy it's
: strength.

: You're not by a long shot the first one that's experimented, or had
: the thought of doing so, with tubing frameworks in these
: applications.

: Bill H.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding something in what you're saying about tent poles. I was just using the term "tent poles" to indicate a small diameter shock corded aluminum or fiberglass tube set. I do get what you mean about diameter and the section modulus calculations I've found indicate that you're correct. A larger diameter tube with the same wall thickness will be stronger. Similarly you would have to increase wall thickness (and thus weight) for a smaller diameter tube to keep the same strength as the larger tube, just like you said.

I'm still inclined to try it with a few different diameter tubes just to see how small I could go for a boat and feel comfortable in a given environment. Experiments for the future, though, as I have too many designs and projects on my plate already.

Thanks for the input, everyone.
FrankP