I had posted here earlier expressing concern about my new MacCat deluxe's length, which to my amazement was 7" shorter than my stock HH Exporer tarp. Most people responding had only used the MacCats with the shorter ULBP. But a couple had used the delux with the explorer with good results, which reassured me.

Last night I set the Explorer/MacCat up with forcasts of heavy rain and wind by morning. But by bed time (I wasn't planning on sleeping out) it was already raining, the forecast had changed to very heavy storms/ straight line winds and ( sacttered) large hail, and possible tornados. I was regretting being set up, but was to lazy to go out in the rain and pull it all in. Besides, I figured this might happen in the wild, so I'd just see what happened. And maybe the hail would be elsewhere. But I wouldn't have set up in this with such a forecast.

About midnight I was awakened by incredibly heavy wind lightening storms and the sound of large hail! I figured Oh well, that's it, and the hail would destroy my tarp and hammock. This morning I looked out expecting to see, at the least, that the stakes had pulled out of the rain soaked ground and the tarp blowing around wildly. And at the worst, everything shredded by the hail. To my amazement, all was intact. The tarp seemed to be flapping in the wind a little more than normal for the MacCat, not as tight of a pitch( no bungee type tensioners used). I went out to the now swamp of a backyard to survey how much water got in the HHSS. Not one single drop! As far as I could tell, the undercover of the SS did not even have any water on the outside of it. I guess I lucked out and the wind driven rain did not come in from the ends. Still, I am impressed! Not one drop! Of course, I wasn't in it causing it to hang lower under the tarp, and that might of made a difference. More tornado warnings this A.M., so I pulled everything inside.

So it looks like the length is adequate for the Explorer, and wind performance has been superb. Much better than the stock rainfly. I would still prefer it to be longer on the ridgeline. If I had it to do over I would probably get one of the other MacCats that are a little larger than the Deluxe, though for some reason they seem to jump up in weight a good bit, more than the small size increase would indicate. They may be made a little more heavy duty. I would not want to risk the Standard or Micro with the Explorer.

Some of these end covers I'm seeing here might be just the insurance called for!