vertical battens

[boatmike]

My snowgoose cat has a very small mainsail, in that the mast is set very far back and the boom is necessarily short. I have had a vertically battened mainsail on an in mast roller system for a while and am not convinced that the additional roach that it gives the sail is worth the bother. The battens only just clear the slot in the z-spars mast and if they don't enter properly tend to jam on the way out. The batten pockets are also wearing fast and I lost a batten earlier in the year through a break in the stitching. I am considering dumping it in favour of a new battenless roachless sail. As the sail can be made slightly longer and lower on the foot I wouldn't loose much area. What does the panel think? Anyone else disillusioned by vertical battens? How many with in mast mains don't bother with battens?

 

[Talbot]

have you tried the sail without using the vertical battens, and assessed the difference? IIRC you also have a maxiroach main - cut far too high at the clew for my taste.

 

[boatmike]

Without the battens the roach flaps like a bleedin' seagull on speed. Its not cut all that high but could come down a bit. The stupid thing is that the sail is cut to miss the twin backstays which it only just does with roach. Without roach the foot could be longer and still miss the stays....

 

[Becky]

I should do that then; get rid of the battens and have a longer foot.

Been there on my Moody 27. Had a Maxi-Roach sail which wasn't. At least it didn't have a big roach. Richard was all for sorting out the guy at one of the boat shows. But I sold the boat anyway.
Now have a simple triangle on an on-mast roller and we can reef in a gale; at least Richard can. Never had a blockage. And the smaller size suits the sail balance so obviating weather helm.

A win win situation /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[rwoofer]

When I replaced my previous furling main, the advice I got was not to touch full length battens because of the issues you mention. However the solution was to have short vertical battens that do not overlap, therefore minimising any furling snags. Never had a problem in the 3 years I had the boat. Here is a pic:

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

ooo... that looks good for an in-mast.... who made it?

 

[rwoofer]

White Sails - unfortunately no more as Jeremy White, the owner, found he preferred to be making sails rather than running a business. He now works for Elvstrom Sobstad so I'm sure he could do the same there.

I've just ordered a whole suit of sails for the new boat from him.

 

[boatmike]

Actually your pic illustrates my point quite well. If that was taken with the full sail unfurled you could have a longer foot and still maintain the same sail area it seems to me as you have a lot of boom unused. Actually on my sail it has 3 full length battens and 3 half battens like yours. After 5 years wear (admittedly with some pretty heavy use) the bottom of the half battens are wearing through the bottom of the pockets and flying off into orbit. Its not such a problem with the full length ones that aren't so heavily stressed. I can't reinforce the batten pockets any more or they will jam in the slot. If you drew a straight line from your boom end to the masthead you would probably find your roach inside that line, so why not have it cut that way in the first place and get rid of the evil battens entirely?

 

[rwoofer]

That is the photograph distorting reality as it was taken from under the end of the boom - the small remaining amount of travel is to flatten the sail and give some room to take up stretch.

My previous unbattened sail had an even shorter foot. The difference in sail area between the two was significant with the performance difference even greater.