Vertical battens in furling mainsail

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I'm having a new mainsail made by Kemp. The apparently very knowledgeable team has suggested that as I have a furling mainsail that I should have short vertical battens in the new sail. This apparently supports a slightly larger leech/roach and also prevents the leech turning inward due to the furling "habit" of the sailcloth. The result being a better sail shape and a slightly larger sail. That makes sense to me. Obviously the battens have to furl in to the mast with the mainsail which is slightly worrying; does anybody have any experience of whether vertical battens have successfully furled or been a pain in the backside? It's a Selden mast.

TIA

Rob
 
They go in fine if your sail is in reasonable condition as each batten is in vertical order and none overlap vertically.

Ensure you release vang and topping lift tension before you furl; keep light tension on the outhaul as you furl.

Consult Selden site for some very good info.

GL
 
Robih said:
I'm having a new mainsail made by Kemp. The apparently very knowledgeable team has suggested that as I have a furling mainsail that I should have short vertical battens in the new sail. This apparently supports a slightly larger leech/roach and also prevents the leech turning inward due to the furling "habit" of the sailcloth. The result being a better sail shape and a slightly larger sail. That makes sense to me. Obviously the battens have to furl in to the mast with the mainsail which is slightly worrying; does anybody have any experience of whether vertical battens have successfully furled or been a pain in the backside? It's a Selden mast.

TIA

Rob
Click to expand...

Thats what I have on my boat.

Works great.

Look here.
 
Works fine on mine also, I do have an original Proctor in-mast main and the slot is substantially wider than the modern ones that I have seen though.

PS. The picture on the Avatar is of the original 30 yr old sails without battens. Some forumites are very eagle eyed.
 
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You may find tightening up the sail inside the mast before bringing it out will make for easier deployment and reduces possible jamming.

This is more important on fully battened sails where more room is taken up in the mast but one gets a better shaped sail.
 
Hi, I have just removed a maxi roach main from my boat (just personal perjudice) but the vertical battens seemed to work well, but those in my sail where long, almost tha complete length of the sail, seemed to furl OK. Wouldn't dream of having a furling main without.
 
Dolphin made a main for me with 3 leech battens. Sets well and no problems furling/unfurling so far. Agree topping lift and kicker (and leech line?) must be released before furling to ensure satisfactory setting of sail with no snarl up.
 
I have Selden in-mast and short vertical battens on Penguin and they work fine. Sail is UK Syvesen.

I guess it must be possible for a sailmaker to get them wrong - too thick or not properly vertical so they won't roll away, but I haven't had any trouble.
 
Vert battens

I have a MaxiRoach with Selden mast. The sail has four vert. full length and three short battens at the top. The sail is now 7 seasons old. For five years it was perfect no problems, two seasons ago it started jamming while coming out. We removed the sail sent it back for a full tune up and replaced it at the start of this season but we still have some issues, I think the sail has stretched.
 
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