sail battens - who needs them?

[dylanwinter]

racing man - now cruising

I like battens in the mainsail. In fact I know of some boats with battens in the leach of the jib. I have used them myself from time to time.
A leach that flutters is very annoying and must be inefficient.

The ideal shape for the end of any foil is eliptical. This tends to minimise the air flow over the end of the foil. (sail) A pointed end (top) for a mainsail tends to waste power from the top of the sail as well as being bad for the induced drag of the flow of air from one side to the other across the top.
Many modern sail designs have a huge roach at the top held out by battens to approach this eliptical shape. So it is more of a concern at the top than the middle of the leach to a have a roach.

I get a bit sad that cruising sailors will continually compromise the sailing efficiency of their boats to make them easier to handle. Any sail boat is meant to sail and as well as possible olewill

I am, or at least used to be, a terrible sail tweaker. No choice given a life time of racing. You are dead right a fluttering leach drives me crazy and generally I hate to see a badly set sail

but I was amazed at how good the shape of the sail was without battens - and it is a sail that had been cut to require them

Up until the nene trip I would never have considered a Bermudan rig without a battened main. Now I am prepared to re-think.

As for speed in a boat..... as my journey progresses speed becomes ever less important

Dylan

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

I need a lot of sessions with a good 'sail tweaker.'
There's been so much to learn from having my first boat some 7 years ago, and although I've sailed on and off since a student, the actual theories have been learnt from books, forums/i and experiments.

 

[haydude]

In-mast furling, no battens, never felt the need, always cruising to decent speeds even in light breeze.

 

[Lakesailor]

..always thought Dylan was short of a couple of battens.



I think it looks a bit like battens would help the sail shape

 

[dylanwinter]

downhaul

aha

Mr Picky

that was taken just after I had dropped the boom

no downhaul you see

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/keepturningleft1951.jpg

once the human downhaul leaps into action then the sail shape improves

given a boom of the right length you get a pretty good shape

Dylan

 

[Lakesailor]

I haven't mentioned anything about slack luffs.

Having been abused like that myself I thought I would save you the hurt.

 

[dylanwinter]

the boom was six inches too short

I haven't mentioned anything about slack luffs.

Having been abused like that myself I thought I would save you the hurt.

the spinnaker pole being used as a lightweight boom needed to be a bit longer

but it came from an x boat

the boom asides.... there were no other sailors to admire my KTL Slugomatic instadrop M) rig as I was straying where few other sailors dare to go

the rig dropped easily - most of the time

not on this occasion though

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/the-nene-wonderful/river-nene08-bad-sail-handling/

Dylan