Yacht Battens. DIY?

[savageseadog]

What material though? Polyester or epoxy + glass. Carbon fibre?

 

[lw395]

What do you want from these battens?
If they are run of the mill, you can just buy 'contract batten' from a sailcloth supplier and cut to length, or use old dinghy battens cut down.
Or you could buy pultruded GRP rod from EC Fibreglass or similar.
Carbon is an option, but not easy to get at a sensible price in long lengths.

Unless you know exactly what you want, I doubt it's worth laminating your own. If I did, I'd use unidirectional carbon fibre and epoxy resin, probably on a foam core.
Polyester won't be good enough for a batten that gets seriously bent IMHO. The trade may use vinylester as a halfway to epoxy.

 

[Bobc]

Why bother? You can buy them for less that you can make them for, without the aggro

 

[savageseadog]

Why bother? You can buy them for less that you can make them for, without the aggro

To paraphrase the old saying, "Because it's there"

 

[ridgy]

I'm just about to make a small dinghy and was going to try using thin strips of epoxied oak for the battens.

 

[lw395]

I'm just about to make a small dinghy and was going to try using thin strips of epoxied oak for the battens.

Fibreglass really is better.
Unless it's a full length batten, you normally want to make the front end flexible.
But any wood will do if you don't have long battens or lots of roach.
Straight grain obviously a big plus.
Whatever you use, it's bad news if they break in the sail.

Most dinghy sailors have old grp battens lying about. They are expensive to post though.