Mainsail Battens

[stretch33]

I've had my new main laid out in the garden trying to figure out how the battens are held in the sail. My old one the battens went in the luff and were tensioned by adjusting a the use of some webbing straps. The new thing has battens that slide in the leach with a velcro tab with a line attached (l reckon this is to remove batten)
I been out there scratchin the barnet and still can't see how this velcro bit goes into the pocket to hold the batten! There's velcro on the inside of the pocket, so this tab must poke in there some how. Help! By the way its fully battened and loose footed. Ta

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[jeffrey_matthews]

I think that you need to push the batten into the pocket and then fold the velcro bit over the batten and use a ruler or similar object to push the loop down the pocket so that the outside velcro bit catches on the velcro inside the pocket.

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[vyv_cox]

Velcro

Yes, that's it. My new main came with a length of batten about 1/2 inch wide for doing this. Each of my batten pocket flap ends has a small pocket that engages with the end of the prodder. Make sure you leave the length of line out, it's quite difficult to free the Velcro without it.

What an incredible invention Velcro has turned out to be. I've used it for all sorts of boating purposes, from holding a compass on the deck of a sea canoe, holding my organiser/forecast alarm to the instrument binnacle, attaching tide tables to a bulkhead, holding liquid soap dispensers, apart from the more usual ones of attaching cushions and adjusting oilskins.

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[jonjo]

I faced the same problem as you a couple of months ago, took me 20 minutes to figure it out.

The largest flat screwdriver in my toolbox was just the right size for the mini pocket at the end of the velcro strap.

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