Has Anyone Made Their Own Tapered Sail Battens?

Yes, in the late 1960's I made tapered top battens for Merlin Rockets, when we were experimenting with what we call gaff rigs, now known as square topped main sails.

It's much easier to make a sheet and then cut into strips for battens.


  • You need a sheet of glass or some similar smooth material, an old kitchen worktop would do, (I used my mother's worktop, when she was away for a weekend, but didn't tell her:)
  • Some release agent, wax or whatever.
  • Glass or carbon cloth, we used glass, but I guess you'd use carbon now)
  • Resin, polyester or epoxy, again epoxy would be the obvious choice, but that wasn't readily available in the late 1960's
  • Start by applying the release agent to the glass.
  • Then apply resin to the glass.
  • Place a layers of cloth slightly longer than the longest batten and work the resin in, I've found a plastic squeegee, just a bit bigger than a credit card works well.
  • Then place a second layer of cloth, slightly shorter than the 1st, with resin and work it in.
  • Repeat with ever decreasing lengths of cloth, the aim being to make the batten thicker at one end so that it takes up an airfoil shape when put in compression.
  • Finnish with a layer of peel ply, worked in well to absorb excess resin and give a good resin to fibre ratio.

I can't remember the number of layers and lengths of glass cloth we used to achieve a foil shape, we did it by trial and error.

When I buy sails now, the battens are made from a uniform cross section, I've asked sailmakers why they don't use tapered battens, the answer has always been that the sail shape comes from the cut of the sails not the battens.

So although it was great fun at the time, trying to "cheat" the rules by gaining extra sail area in the main, (that was before the class association brought in rules limiting how high the top batten could be placed) tapered battens may not be that useful now.
 
Ian_Edwards said:
Yes, in the late 1960's I made tapered top battens for Merlin Rockets, when we were experimenting with what we call gaff rigs, now known as square topped main sails.

It's much easier to make a sheet and then cut into strips for battens.


  • You need a sheet of glass or some similar smooth material, an old kitchen worktop would do, (I used my mother's worktop, when she was away for a weekend, but didn't tell her:)
  • Some release agent, wax or whatever.
  • Glass or carbon cloth, we used glass, but I guess you'd use carbon now)
  • Resin, polyester or epoxy, again epoxy would be the obvious choice, but that wasn't readily available in the late 1960's
  • Start by applying the release agent to the glass.
  • Then apply resin to the glass.
  • Place a layers of cloth slightly longer than the longest batten and work the resin in, I've found a plastic squeegee, just a bit bigger than a credit card works well.
  • Then place a second layer of cloth, slightly shorter than the 1st, with resin and work it in.
  • Repeat with ever decreasing lengths of cloth, the aim being to make the batten thicker at one end so that it takes up an airfoil shape when put in compression.
  • Finnish with a layer of peel ply, worked in well to absorb excess resin and give a good resin to fibre ratio.

I can't remember the number of layers and lengths of glass cloth we used to achieve a foil shape, we did it by trial and error.

When I buy sails now, the battens are made from a uniform cross section, I've asked sailmakers why they don't use tapered battens, the answer has always been that the sail shape comes from the cut of the sails not the battens.

So although it was great fun at the time, trying to "cheat" the rules by gaining extra sail area in the main, (that was before the class association brought in rules limiting how high the top batten could be placed) tapered battens may not be that useful now.
Click to expand...

Interesting thanks. I suppose one could make a very wide "batten" that way and cut into strips.

I can't agree with what your sailmakers are telling you about using untapered battens.
 
On dacron cruising boat sails, it won't make any difference. The shape is indeed cut into the sail, and you can move the draft about using haliard, downhaul, and kicker tension.

If you're talking about racing yacht sails, then the battens have to be immensely strong as the compression loads are huge. For tapered yacht battens take a look at CT sail battens (made by C-tech in NZ, and sold by Fraser Brown in the UK).

If you want dinghy battens, the best ones are from Fibrefoam (made in Austria). These are carbon layup with a foam core and are very light and make a beautiful shape of laminated sails. I used to use these on my skiffs and Int. Canoes.

Trying to make your own would be a waste of time and money IMHO
 
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I have made short ones out of ash, worked ok, but you have to experiment a bit. 32 foot boat. If you know someone with a table saw it is an easy job to cut them from a suitable block.

A few years ago I made some out of thick polythene, they were ok as well, the trick is to put extra ones in till the support is right. Not tapered though but indestructible.
 
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Bobc said:
If you want dinghy battens, the best ones are from Fibrefoam (made in Austria). These are carbon layup with a foam core and are very light and make a beautiful shape of laminated sails. I used to use these on my skiffs and Int. Canoes.
Click to expand...

Fiberfoam make battens for larger boats as well. My Dragonfly trimaran has them. They are 17 years old now and still going strong, only 1 replacement required in that time. I have them transferred from sail to sail - keep the battens and have a new mainsail made around them :).
 
As has been said, full length battens are not usually tapered these days.
Short battens may (should?) be soft at the front.
In the old days, the easy way was to get some cruciform section batten and attack with file or belt sander.
The problem is, batten GRP is often very lean on the resin front, so is prone to glass fibres breaking out when sanded and then bent. Sometimes the battens are covered in heatshrink tube to contain the glass.
Another thing I've seen done is epoxying carbon tow to part of a batten to stiffen it.
Also simply doubling up the back half of a batten.
Maybe with the carbon rod you can buy on ebay these days?
I will admit to tapering some old wooden battens for a cruising yacht mainsail. It worked absolutely fine!
 
There must be hundreds of worn out or unused sail board sails in garages all over the country. Some had some lovely full length battens. Not long enough for a mainsail batten on a cruiser, but OK for a short batten set.
I had to dispose of half a dozen old sails & saved all the battens for my own use in the future. Handy even if I never use them !!
 
lw395 said:
As has been said, full length battens are not usually tapered these days.
Short battens may (should?) be soft at the front.
In the old days, the easy way was to get some cruciform section batten and attack with file or belt sander.
The problem is, batten GRP is often very lean on the resin front, so is prone to glass fibres breaking out when sanded and then bent. Sometimes the battens are covered in heatshrink tube to contain the glass.
Another thing I've seen done is epoxying carbon tow to part of a batten to stiffen it.
Also simply doubling up the back half of a batten.
Maybe with the carbon rod you can buy on ebay these days?
I will admit to tapering some old wooden battens for a cruising yacht mainsail. It worked absolutely fine!
Click to expand...

It's a racing yacht with short battens for the jib. I would probably just buy some but I actually want to experiment and try various stiffness's.
 
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