flaming
Well-known member
Indeed! Though if you look at the gybe at about 5:30, they don't seem that quick in getting it back on...
Standard Vs Fully-battened mainsail on cruisers or racers
- Thread starter horatio_nelson
- Start date
Indeed! Though if you look at the gybe at about 5:30, they don't seem that quick in getting it back on...
LadyInBed
Well-known member
Great answers
I still want one...
Can a standard sail be retro-fitted as fully-battened?
Yes, see my post 13!
ps just remembered that I have some pics after retrofit
may be large so will put up link!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/roi1tynp1gnfie4/PICT0819.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p3gvy0pfsfruyj6/PICT0820.JPG?dl=0
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Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Full length, but were the short battens left in place, or are those just the old pockets?
Woodlouse
New member
Looked to me like the lazy runner went on before the boom went over. It might not have been very tight but there was enough tension in it for that guy to use it as a hand hold as he crossed the stern.
LadyInBed
Well-known member
Just old pockets left in place.
Peroo
New member
Following an incident, we needed a new rig and sails. The sail maker recommended a fully battened main for cruising. Great.
However we are a ketch, and upwind we find the mizzen is all but useless due to back winding from the fully battened main. We can only really use the mizzen well off the wind, or if we seriously reef the main, or we sail genoa and mizzen downwind, with the main stowed.
Been an interesting new sailing and performance discovery process!! Upwind we sail as if we we are a somewhat smaller boat.
Haven't seen an answer to this conundrum yet........though we keep trying different strategies - suggestions most welcome.
However we are a ketch, and upwind we find the mizzen is all but useless due to back winding from the fully battened main. We can only really use the mizzen well off the wind, or if we seriously reef the main, or we sail genoa and mizzen downwind, with the main stowed.
Been an interesting new sailing and performance discovery process!! Upwind we sail as if we we are a somewhat smaller boat.
Haven't seen an answer to this conundrum yet........though we keep trying different strategies - suggestions most welcome.
Keen_Ed
Active member
Plus means you don't break off the mast above the hounds when under kite.
Seajet
...
Angus;
'Sailing performance on a Dragonfly comes more from brute force and ignorance than any twiddly sail shape tweaking '
So why inflict your opinions and insults on others when your boat tuning amounts to this, and as a designer chum of mine said " a multihull is only really stable when it's upside down ! "
Best see to your own garden before telling others how to plant theirs.
Personally I think fully battened mains are ugly; I've had a Dart 18 with them and sailed among many a dinghy fleet looking at Solo's etc'.
Unless one can tension each batten to suit the camber required on the day I don't see much point, they're also prone to breakage wth resulting hassle and costs.
The complexity, potential for a nasty problem ( polite version ! ) and silly cost cars, trapped mpoisture all the way along and chafe at the luff are just a few of the other reasons for an experienced sailor to avoid them, if I couldn't tune my sail without taking it down and setting batten tensions quite often - every day, every few hours, every few minutes according to how I felt, it would be a right pain.
Roll tacking in light airs to reset the battens is more difficult on a sizeable cruiser too.
'Sailing performance on a Dragonfly comes more from brute force and ignorance than any twiddly sail shape tweaking '
So why inflict your opinions and insults on others when your boat tuning amounts to this, and as a designer chum of mine said " a multihull is only really stable when it's upside down ! "
Best see to your own garden before telling others how to plant theirs.
Personally I think fully battened mains are ugly; I've had a Dart 18 with them and sailed among many a dinghy fleet looking at Solo's etc'.
Unless one can tension each batten to suit the camber required on the day I don't see much point, they're also prone to breakage wth resulting hassle and costs.
The complexity, potential for a nasty problem ( polite version ! ) and silly cost cars, trapped mpoisture all the way along and chafe at the luff are just a few of the other reasons for an experienced sailor to avoid them, if I couldn't tune my sail without taking it down and setting batten tensions quite often - every day, every few hours, every few minutes according to how I felt, it would be a right pain.
Roll tacking in light airs to reset the battens is more difficult on a sizeable cruiser too.
Lucky Duck
Well-known member
AngusMcDoon
Well-known member
Because, oh angry one, every sail has halyard tension as a means of adjustment (even mine), and if you read and are able to comprehend the thread, you will see that was what the discussion was about.
I'm not sure how the stability of multihulls is relevant to a discussion on fully battened sails.
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Daydream believer
Well-known member
I really think you are more than a little wrong in your assessment of fully battened sails
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Seajet
...
You would, just for the sake of an argument, but to a sailor fully battenend mains are ugly, and it gets worse from there.
Useful if tuned individually batten by batten on racing boats, otherwise a fashion statement.
Useful if tuned individually batten by batten on racing boats, otherwise a fashion statement.
AngusMcDoon
Well-known member
Beauty or ugliness is subjective so I'm not going to disagree with your opinion; there is no right or wrong. On your other points (which I don't recognise from my experience of FB mains), if you don't want one, don't have one. Simples.
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Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Seajet obviously got rubbish Christmas presents. Maybe a boxed set of Victor Meldrew DVDs.
Seajet
...
No TK quite good actually, inc a waterproof camera which I hope to bore you with.
I base my comments re fully battenned mains on experience as always.
I had a great Christmas, hope you did too.
SJ
BrianH
Active member
Ugly ??? Funny way to describe a mainsail. My motor sailor has never raced nor ever will and no part of it could be called a fashion statement, certainly not the very pedestrian mainsail, which on its articulated luff needs no cars. It sets well without individual batten tuning (how would you do that?) and it drives better and points higher than the partially battened sail it replaced.
Daydream believer
Well-known member
That looks as if there are only 4 luff sliders. Is that correct because one might have expected them every 450mm or so, & definitely one per batten ,
At least it would stack fairly low on the boom
How do you tension the battens?
Mine are adjusted by an allen screw from the mast slider.
In spite of what Seajet might tell you the sailmaker told me to apply light tension & leave alone for the season. I do not have to adjust for differing wind conditions,
But i do slacken them off when putting away for the winter
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BrianH
Active member
What you see are the fixed (to the original sail luff slot) connectors of the continuous articulating luff within which the sail runs. It is a Profurl in-boom system.
They have a tongue that exits the pocket, covers the batten end and is Velcro fixed back in the pocket.
Exactly how I do it too.
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howard easton
N/A
Visited my daughter and grandsons 2 and 4 last couple of days and I took with me a copy of Bethwaite's tome on high performance sailing. This guy is a sort of Adrian Newey of sailing and the book is full of all sorts of graphs and wind tunnel results on sails and rigs etc. Long and short of it is that a fully battened main is good for an extra 15% or more of forward drive provided it is properly tuned with batten giving exactly the right shape etc. But the play off between traveller and sheet is quite different to that for a soft sail.
LadyInBed
Well-known member
I understand that tuning to middle G is the height of fashion :ambivalence: