Mainsail advice welcome

[[3889]]

I'm currently researching specs for a replacement main . I cruise exclusively (often singlehanded) i.e. no racing, and am inclined to Vectran cloth but am undecided on full or standard battens. I've had some conflicting advice from various sailmakers and would welcome opinions on the following :

For a boat with a P measurement of 13.18m, are 4 or 5 full battens desirable, considering stack height on boom versus stress dispersal?

Some say that modern 'flat cut' sails don't suffer from the de-powering issues of fully battened rigs (I regularly pick up moorings under sail). True?

Will a fully battened sail tend to be more or less durable than it's soft counterpart?

 

[Javelin]

I've just been through a similar process for my boat. (mgrs34 with masthead rig)
Again I tend to sail a fair bit on my own but I'm also a racer at heart.

I guess you're looking for sails for the 36i?

My thoughts against fully battened are they are heavy, are harder to depower, the power is on / off, I find them harder to read and can choke the slot.
Flat sails work well in flat water and but generally have less grunt in a chop and I find the sweet spot is harder to maintain.
A lot of the durability issues come from how you look after them and what weight cloth and type of sailing you do.

My main is small in comparison to the genoa,
Due to sailing mostly shorthanded I've decided to drop from a 150% Genoa to a 135%.
The main will have slightly more roach with a full top batten to support it.
Three slightly longer than normal battens.
2 reefs but the 1st reef will be where you would normally see reef 2.
With a soft main sail I can wind on the cunningham and backstay and depower it easily down to where you would normally deploy reef 1. (21 to 25 knts)
So in practice I never used reef 1 on my existing sail.

Cut is the next factor.
I like radial cut as opposed to cross cut.
I find it far more stable and easier to tune up wind.
In the past to have a radial cut main you needed a laminate.
Laminates with taffeta are pretty durable and are fast out of the bag.
However I find they degrade faster than good old dacron.
Trouble is dacron was not good for radial cut, until that is North came out with their Radian cloth.

So this is where it gets difficult as you get quotes for sails off numerous lofts but direct comparison is pretty hard to do as you're never comparing like with like.
In the end I've opted to go with a soft North, radial main and jib made from radian cloth.