Making a stackpack - do I need battens?

[YachtAllegro]

Hi

I'm planning to make a zip up sailcover with lazyjacks for Allegro. I'm fairly happy with the basic design, essentially a long trapezoid bag which will be caught under the bolt rope at the bottom and zip up along the top, with attachments for lazyjacks a little way out from the zip along the top.

Reading these forums, though, I've heard some people talk about battens in their sailcover. Is this an important feature? I imagine these run longitudinally along the inside just below the lazyjack attachment points in order to lift the whole bag, not just the three points where the lazyjacks attach. Is this correct? And how necessary / universal are they? Shouldn't be difficult to add to the design if it makes a significant difference, but I don't want to do so if they're unneccessary!

Oh, and while we're at it, if anyone who's done this learnt any other useful lesson in the process, do share!!

Cheers
Patrick

 

[fastjedi]

I think battern or rod is necessary. We have just made one with pockets for two lengths of contract batten. Ours consists of 2 acrylic panels linked by the a strip of sail material at the bottom (under the bolt rope) and the zip at the top. The pockets are formed by a fold + sew line where the stackpack turns from horizontal to vertical.

The hardest part was getting the shape right for the mast cover (the professionals often get this wrong as they cant mess about like we would)

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

I would have assumed them vital. Without them the attachment points naturally pull closer together and the bag looks droopy.

As shown below with sail batten the attachment need not be at the end.
Use small blocks at the joints higher up to make them run smoothly.
Ideally bring them down the mast so they are easy to slacken off. Makes hoisting easier.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

When I made the stackpack for my previous boat I included a batten on each side. This was a rigid plastic tube 1/2" bore that is sometimes used for water distribution in buildings and was common before the advent of flexible tubes like Acorn, etc. They fitted inside a pocket made from a strip of material, doubled up with the matched edges double sewn to the main project. The webbing for the lazyjack triangles was caught in between the pocket and the project. The ends of the pocket were folded inwards (forming a triangle) and hand sewn, thus permitting insertion and removal of the battens.

I think that battens are necessary because they give a crisp appearance to the bag. Also, when the sail is out, the bag reduced to virtually half its vertical dimension because the material between the batten and the zipper will fold neatly inside.

 

[TQA]

No battens in mine but I do have a full length batten main.

Pack works a treat.

 

[john_morris_uk]

We have full length battens in the main and full length battens in the stack pack - it works a treat so I would suggest that yes, battens are preferable.

 

[bigwow]

This might be handy, and it's free

http://www.profabrics.co.uk/shop/show_product_info.php?id=KS5

 

[fishermantwo]

Check out sailrite.com for their video on how to make a stackpack. Mine uses 20mm plastic tube, can't imagine it would work without.

 

[lustyd]

Take a look at my blog for instructions. East coast fibreglass sell grp rod which will be the cheapest and best solution for you.
Cheers
Dave

 

[lustyd]

Check out sailrite.com for their video on how to make a stackpack. Mine uses 20mm plastic tube, can't imagine it would work without.

10mm grp rod would probably be stiffer than tube even at 20mm so worth looking at.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

And flat sail batten would be even better as it bends much less than rod.

 

[charles_reed]

Hi

I'm planning to make a zip up sailcover with lazyjacks for Allegro. I'm fairly happy with the basic design, essentially a long trapezoid bag which will be caught under the bolt rope at the bottom and zip up along the top, with attachments for lazyjacks a little way out from the zip along the top.

Reading these forums, though, I've heard some people talk about battens in their sailcover. Is this an important feature? I imagine these run longitudinally along the inside just below the lazyjack attachment points in order to lift the whole bag, not just the three points where the lazyjacks attach. Is this correct? And how necessary / universal are they? Shouldn't be difficult to add to the design if it makes a significant difference, but I don't want to do so if they're unneccessary!

Oh, and while we're at it, if anyone who's done this learnt any other useful lesson in the process, do share!!

Cheers
Patrick

I've had both, with full-batten sails and battened stackpack, and with conventional bolt rope sail and no battens in the lazyjack.

Battened stackpack is considerably superior to an unbattened one but the full-battened sail is an even greater inprovement.

 

[lustyd]

And flat sail batten would be even better as it bends much less than rod.

Ah but at 10 times the price, batten is difficult to justify. You're right, of course, but for a stack pack it's probably not worth the cost unless you have a huge boom

 

[alahol2]

And flat sail batten would be even better as it bends much less than rod.

Actually it doesn't work as well. I've had both and the rod hardly bends at all (on any axis), the batten tends to do its own thing and end up snaking along the boom.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Actually it doesn't work as well. I've had both and the rod hardly bends at all (on any axis), the batten tends to do its own thing and end up snaking along the boom.

Clearly your batten was too thin. Look at the picture above.

 

[alahol2]

Clearly your batten was too thin. Look at the picture above.

I think that photo rather confirms what I'm saying.

 

[lustyd]

This is with rods which are straight as can be

Stack Pack How-to