When NOT to use full length battens?

True, only about 99% .

 

I have never been disappointed with a retro fit of full battens! That is all I can say and anecdotally I am convinced that they deliver better life, at least in the dacron sails I have used.

 

Most of the time it's the opposite problem... customer reads about some wacked idea on the internet and wants us to build it. About half the time we talk them out of it, the other half we charge double, make them sign a waiver, and build it. Crazy thing is, no matter how poorly it performs, the customer is always thrilled.

 

I've had numerous sails built with full battens for a rig not necessarily "designed for it". All worked great and I will positively go that route with my next sailboat. I will say feeding the bolt rope into the mast on a 29' could be more of a challenge than standard batten. It still does not change my opinion.

 

We retrofitted full length battens to the mainsail on our Cole 43. It worked a treat even though we didn't change the track sliders. The rig was masthead and had no runners. The battens helped remove some hooking from the leech, quitened the main down when hoisting/dropping and did not cause any issues with the existing rigging. They did add a bit of weight but I think the trade off was worth it. Our next main (replaced the original due to installation of a longer boom) was also fully battened and worked even better.

 

I understand that with slides the retrofit is more straightforward. How does it work with boltrope?

 

I am building a roller reefing/furling boom for my Lindenberg 26 and will be having a full batten sail made,obviously the battens need to be paralell to the boom rather than right angle to the leech but i also cant use slides as i need to go the bolt rope route. My understanding is that when dropping the sail with full battens as the batten drops at the outer end it torques the mast end when using standard end fittings and this causes friction which makes the sail hard to drop bu im thinking that this will not be the case with my settup as i will be standing at the mast keeping tension on the halyard with one hand and rolling the boom with the other so it should come down smooth,does this sound reasonable?
As far as hoisting goes,i will have a shaft through the mast with a crank on the front so the tack will be as close as poss to the mast,i will enter the bolt rope into the track a lot higher than normal to minimise the entry angle and use a prefeeder in between,maybe a floating one like on a headfoil so i can adjust it until it feed right and of course regular doses of Mclube,sound ok?
Steve.

 

With roller reefing in general you need at least a good topping lift. Vangs that have the boom holding feature work better.

 

Most roller boom furlers have the 'luff groove' on the mast extended away from the aft face of the mast, either by using a riveted extrusion or a 'soft', fabric based extension piece on smaller boats.

This ensures the luff bolt rope furls and unfurls directly under the luff groove No change of angle.

I use the Danish Sailtainer system which works well complete with full battens.

 

The rigid vang furls more evenly than a topping lift.

 

How does the sail know the difference?

 

With a topping lift the tension is changing with the movement of the boat.

 

I've never used this system. Heck, I have never even seen one.

Can you tell us if the boom needs to be on CL for it to work well?

 

How?

And why would that impact the sail-to-boom interface?


Have you used this furling system with both a topper and a rigid vang?

 

Yes, I have used roller furler with different setups. Even sheeting hard, the boom moves up and down which makes the tension on the sail uneven. This ends up in wrinkles.