Tips on shaping a fully battened mainsail

[alec]

Now have a fully battened main but none of the extra niceties like special cars or stack-pak etc. It does however go up and down very well in the berth, probably because I have a smallish boat.

I have the means of adjusting the battens a bit but would very much appreciate the knowledge of users of this system. Is it more or less the same as short battens i.e. kicker, luff tension , clew out haul etc ?

If for example you wanted to put more or less shape what would you do ? Or can't you do that much anyway ?

Have to admit that the extra option of altering the batten tension has thrown me off a bit.

Any ideas or suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bobgoode]

Fully battened are less shapable than short battened mains...their big advantage is that they need less shaping. Once you get the batten tension sorted they will take a decent shape every time. The basic rules still apply but each tweak simply has less of an effect as the battens are holding the shape in. Concentrate on getting the batten tension firast.

 

[William_H]

I have a fully battened main and confess I have not fiddled the tension much.
Certainly in light weather particularly when running after a jibe you find the sail cmabered in the wrong direction and you have to jerk the mainsheet to get air pressure to force correct shape, that is a sure sign of too much batten tension.
Ohter wise more is good. Except you don't want too much camber in strong winds and that is certainly not a time to start adjusting batten tension.
So yes in absence of any better information just adjust the sail with outhaul halyard vnag mainsheet and mast bend. olewill

 

[ytd]

generally I set the batten tension for a very flat heavy weather sail with max outhaul, halyard vang, cunningham and mast bend. Once you let everything off there will be plenty of draft. If it's too much and the sail doesn't easily pop when gybing, loosen the battens off a bit. Use the cunningham or halyard to control the position of the draft for the light weather set. More tension brings the draft forward.

One of the big benefits of a fully battened sail is that there is less flogging when reefing or tacking.