When NOT to use full length battens?

[Koch]

In-mast furlers are far better than the old behind the mast furlers... but that is damning by faint praise. If you are doing a furler, a boom furler is best.

[Steve W]

Koch,its great to have a sailmakers insight,thanks. What im planning to do re the vang is have dedicated reef points with luff and leech cringles just like with slab reefing but no intermediate lacing grommets,the reefs will be just above a batten and i will use a line through the luff cringle at 45 Degrees down so i will be holding the new tack down and fwd,i will have an internal outhaul which will attatch to the clew with a snap shackle,so when i have a reef rolled in i will disconect the outhaul and hook it onto the reef cringle and if necessary tie it down also,although having a batten just rolled on to the boom may be enough(most of the Corsair guys tie the reef in)
Ok,now the vang,since i will have dedicated reef locations i am going to attatch the vang to the boom with a webbing strop,it is going to be a double vang/preventer arrangement which will be 4:1 each side with a single line running back to the cockpit,the bottom end of the tackle will go to a strongpoint at the toerail each side so there will not be the strong foreward component pushing the boom foreward at the gooseneck or trying to pull the strop fwd,so i will have reinforced patches sewn on the sail at each reef point with a hot knife cut slit just like we used to have in the foot for reef line before loose footed sails,so that when you roll a reef you unsnap the tackle from the strop and dump it on the deck,roll the reef and then thread the strop through the slit and rehook the vang,i see no reason this approach wont work fine,i should point out that my sole reason for roller furling is ease of putting the sail away,the reason for the double vang is to get rid of the traveller in the cockpit,i dont want it.
Steve.

[Koch]

Sounds like it might work, Steve. Make sure the slit in the sail for the strop is well reinforced, just in case it takes an unexpected load on some occasion. Another option is using a boom claw, like this:
http://www.boatcatalog.biz/prods2/5237.htm

[gggGuest]

Best system I've used had luff and clew cringles and a zip fastener to tidy up the slap. With full length battens to roll the slab round it was quick and neat. This was for a dinghy where you put the slab in on shore and the mast reefed along with the sail.

[Steve W]

Koch, boy i havnt seen one of those boom claws for decades, your right that would work well actually, i may start looking for a suitable one online,my boom tube is 3.5" diameter. i have a sailmking question for you,my boat came(from e bay sight unseen) with a bunch of sails,mostly old but i got pretty excited when i opened the mainsail bag and im seeing crisp dacron,shiny cringles ballpoint pen marks and no blackmarks on the bolt rope and i said to my son,this thing is new but as i spread it out on the lawn my exitement waned as i saw that although the luff lenth was about right at 28ft 8" but the foot which should have been 9ft was 14ft, 5ft too long, its a nice sail but what odd proportions (maybe a fu?) ,anyway now that i have decided to lengthen the boom it is now (only) 3ft too long so is it possible to recut this sail to 11ft on the foot and add full length battens? It would be a shame to waste it.
Steve.

[Koch]

That's a lot to cut down. It can be done, but don't expect the result to be perfect. Generally, a 10% reduction is about the most you want to cut.

[Steve W]

Thanks Koch,i thought it was a lot but i may try it as i dont think i can sell it because of the extremely low aspect.
Steve.