Tag Archives: sailing systems

Full Length Battens-4: The Hardware.

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I hope the earlier essays have covered the issues surrounding the full batten question from the sail performance, efficiency & speed perspective.

The ease, or lack of it, with which a FB mainsail can be operated during the various maneuvers a crew must make while at sea full battens offer these advantages:

On boats with aft sweep to the spreaders, it is important to have the area where the batten pocket bears on the rigging to be reinforced with sacrificial chafe protection.

On boats with aft sweep to the spreaders, it is important to have the area where the batten pocket bears on the rigging to be reinforced with sacrificial chafe protection. This image shows just such protection on the pocket of a Deerfoot 60 mainsail Hood built. While chafe protection is a good detail to have on your sail when going of into the open ocean, it is more important on FLB sails due to the grinding effect the batten imparts on the stays, or anything else the batten and sail are bearing on.

 

  • The mainsail is much quieter when flogging the battens reduce the frequency at which the sail flaps-This is because the stiffness and mass of the batten resists the wind force more than a mere “cloth.”
  • The effect of the batten separating-pushing the luff from the leech makes it easier to get a hand full of sail and to some degree put it where you want it, particularly if there is some kind of boom bag for the sail to settle in.
  • Full battens are more effective at keeping the sail constrained between lazy jacks, even more so if the lazy jacks are located with respect to where the reef points and the batten’s leech ends are.

The real trick that makes ALL of this work as an integrated system is to mate the hardware to the boat, the sail and the intended use of the boat. This requires a combination of learning about the pluses and minuses of each version plus some other contemplation: Much of this information can be supplied by the sail makers and or rigger, but as with any business, they most likely have their own favorite hardware, mainly because they are used to in.

In no particular order some of the details to decide or to think about before even picking up the phone are:

  • Track or no track and
  • Ball bearings or no ball bearings.
  • Number of battens
  • Will the battens be installed from the Leech OR the luff
  • How the batten pockets will made to will resist chafe
  • How the sail is to be captured when it falls down
  • What you are realistically going to do with the boat/sails/battens–The further offshore you go, the higher value the most friction free gear you can get will be.
  • Stack height
  • Reefing details
Making sure the reefing system is coordinated with, in particular, the placement of the battens and cars is one of the important details to get right.

Making sure the reefing system is coordinated with, in particular, the placement of the battens and cars is one of the important details to get right.

This installment will begin to cover the available hardware for making the most of the benefits of the full batten sail which are to my mind “ease of handling”. It should be noted that the bulk of the following information pertains to the hardware I have seen and or had experience with in the US.  Regardless of hardware the principles are the same.

First off a definition is in order for the idea of “ease of handling”

For this discussion ease of handling includes:

  • Any hardware-Tracks cars batten boxes etc.
  • Or sub-system-Lazy jacks boom bags etc.
  • Or technique, practice skill in handling the boat during sail handling activities

OR

  • That which makes the manhandling of the mainsail on the boom easier and/or less stressful, and/or safer, whether hoisting, lowering, reefing or unreefing.

Reefing in a seaway is potentially one of the most hazardous parts of sailing a boat. The crew is, often out of the cockpit, it is blowing, often quite hard, there is a sea running perhaps quite large and there is the personal  stress factor, both on the part of the crew member doing the work and the master worrying about his crew….

wx map 13 April 13

When your weather map looks like this you better be sure that all the gear, especially the sail handling gear, on your boat works 100%, is easy to work, fast,simple and tested.

Traditionally one of the hardest parts of dealing with a mainsail is the friction generated mainly by the slides operating in the track. This is closely followed with what to do with the bunt of the sail after the reef is secured. On modest sized boats this is not so much a problem. If the “Depth” of the reef is say 4,5,6,7 feet- and boat that has three reefs at 7 feet apart might have a rig close to 45-50+ high feet, so perhaps a 40 footer. Depending on all manner of variables it may be sufficient to let the bunt flap to leeward, although personally I would roll it up and tie it off. Boats with a larger gap between reefs of course get progressively larger; the size of everything goes up as do the loads and the weight of everything. The requirements, desirability and the cost (all equaling value) of using low(er) friction luff sliders increases with the size of the boat, the sail and owner’s horizons.

As if this writing, I identify the following categories of luff slide hardware-And yes all of it can be used with a conventional sail with just leech battens too. These categories are:

CARS/SLIDES: With ball bearings and without.

This is a Harken ball bearing car for the batten box to attach to. Originally the red dummy track was used to keep the balls in the car. This has been improved on now so that the balls are held captive in the cars, minimizing one of the great arguments against ball bearing cars.

This is a Harken ball bearing car for the batten box to attach to. Originally the red dummy track was used to keep the balls in the car. This has been improved on now so that the balls are held captive in the cars, minimizing one of the great arguments against ball bearing cars.

Antal track slider & Toggle with Antal leech loading batten box.

This is Antal track slider & Toggle with Antal leech loading batten box.

TRACK: Those that employ a dedicated track that needs to be installed into the existing mast groove with track. AND NO (dedicated) TRACK-Those systems whose sliders operate in the mast’s groove.

Dedicated track requiring attachment to the spar is a hallmark of a high end ball bearing system

Dedicated track requiring attachment to the spar is a hallmark of a high end ball bearing system

BATTEN BOXES: Those that are adjustable, to tension the batten in the sail and those that merely accept the batten and the batten tension is applied elsewhere, usually from a lashing or Velcro arrangement on the leech.

Batten boxes come in almost as many flavors as the systems themselves. Top two items, L-R: Antal slider with leech load box, Tides Marine slider with their leech loading box. Bottom three, L-R Sailman box and slider from Bainbridge, Rutgertson box and slider and a Battslide brand box with toggle.

Batten boxes come in almost as many flavors as the systems themselves.
Top two items, L-R: Antal slider with leech load box, Tides Marine slider with their leech loading box.
Bottom three, L-R
Sailman box and slider from Bainbridge. A Rutgertson box and slider
and a Battslide brand box with toggle. This toggle would fit into the Harken batten car, shown above, in the red dummy track and all of the others reference here except Dutchman.  Not shown is another box called PNP, roughly similar to the bottom three.

 

This detail shows a leech loading batten pocket tensioning mechanism. BUT not only should the leech tensioning method tension the batten, it needs to be engineered in a way that makes it really hard to loose the batten out the end, as when flogging the sail in hard wind while reefing or attending to some drama aboard. This is a good reason for the luff loading battens with adjustable boxes. Adjusting the tension on the batten is a lot easier too-You do not need to be scrambling around up on the boom to get to the leech of the sail, rather you can stand at the mast and use typically a hex socket or sometimes a screwdriver.

This detail shows a leech loading batten pocket tensioning mechanism. Not only should the leech tensioning method tension the batten, it needs to be engineered in a way that makes it really hard to loose the batten out the end, as when flogging the sail in hard wind while reefing or attending to some drama aboard. This is a good reason for the luff loading battens with adjustable boxes. Adjusting the tension on the batten is a lot easier too-You do not need to be scrambling around up on the boom to get to the leech of the sail, rather you can stand at the mast and use typically a hex socket or sometimes a screwdriver. In this image you can see a length of light spectra lashing , far right, secured through the batten end and around the webbing strap. The batten is tensioned by a lashing (not installed yet) passing through the webbing and the grommet on the flap, to the left.

TOGGLES: These are usually metal devices that connect the batten box to the luff car. They are superior to merely webbing the batten pocket to the car because they maintain a separate specified rigid distance between the sails edge and the car. For the batten box to slider connection a more or less standard M10 and M12 threads on the studs entering into a matching female on the box. The boxes in the image above the one of the leech loading pocket detail, are all connected to their respective slides by the toggle.

Virtually all toggles are a variation of this version on a Rutgereson roller slide.

Virtually all toggles are a variation of this version on a Rutgereson roller slide. Most batten boxes have a matching M10 or M12 female into which the stud threads. This slider BTW is one of the crossovers in that the ball bearings are in the wheels, which bear on the outside of the mast tunnel-No dedicated track required.

CROSS OVERS: There are at least a couple of products that offer in-mast sliders that require no dedicated track and have ball bearings or some kind of roller on the slider.

This is one of the most elegant cross-overs-The Ronstan Ballslide. They come in two sizes a 6 and an 8

This is one of the most elegant cross-overs-The Ronstan Ballslide. They come in two sizes a 6 and an 8. You can see the “feet” held in place by the screw, on the left of the image and the balls in their cavity. If memory serves the numbers refer to the diameter of the balls.

 

 

Ronstan ball slides on a Sabre 30. Perhaps a tad over kill for some, but the owner wanted to be able to reef the main from the cockpit. He reports being able to exactly that. In order to achieve this for him I had to rework a chunk of the reefing system on the boat. All done remotely-He In Michigan & me in Newport.

Ronstan ball slides on a Sabre 30. Perhaps a tad over kill for some, but the owner wanted to be able to reef the main from the cockpit. In order to do that, incorporating all the inherent friction from such a reefing arrangement he needed a low friction solution at the luff. In order to achieve this for him I had to rework a chunk of the reefing system on the boat. All done remotely-He In Michigan & me in Newport. A particular advantage of the Ballslide system is the ability to simply remove the sail from the mast with out worrying about the carriage carriers. In fairness most of the Ball bearing systems with track now do this too but not having to install a track is something many find attractive.

 

 

This image does not do justice to the Selden system. On the other hand since you need a new spar tube, it is not the most marketable system. The cars operate INSIDE the spar in a cavity extruded into the spar and are introduced through the black fitting seen here.

This image does not do justice to the Selden system. On the other hand since you need a new spar tube, it is not the most marketable system. The cars operate INSIDE the spar in a cavity extruded into the spar and are introduced through the black fitting seen here.

CARS/SLIDES: WITH ball bearings:

HARKEN: It will be no surprise that most people’s first thoughts turn to Harken, at least in the US, when the phrases “boat gear” and “ball bearings” are used in the same sentence. The brothers Harken have cars and sliders, ball bearing and not, plus the required track for every size of boat from small, like a J-32 to 90 feet and/or 140 sq. meters, about 1500 sq. feet.

A very typical combination of Harken ball bearing car with a Battslide box.

A very typical combination of Harken ball bearing car with a Battslide box. The Battslide box shown here has been superseded by a later generation with improvements on how to get the batten in and tensioning details. Battslide boxes are manufactured by Schaefer.

RONSTAN: In some quarters, perhaps expats, like me, familiar with Australian sailing equipment, recognize the Ronstan name too. Like Harken, Ronstan has track and car systems for boats as as small as 40 FEET up to 45 METERS.To be fair to Harken, they too offer custom solutions for boats over 90 feet

This is a one combination of the Ronstan equipment

This is a one combination of the Ronstan equipment. The sticker says Frederickson because that was the name of the company before Ronstan purchased them a few years ago.

FACNOR: Followers of French boats would recognize the Facnor name in reference to headsail roller furling and not associate them with roller bearing mainsail luff track hardware. The Facnor equipment is nicely made and revolves around one track size, with the cars getting progressively bigger for larger sail/boat applications. They offer systems suitable for sails up to 130 square meters.or roughly 1,400 square feet.

Facnor track car toggle/Stud with a Sailman box.

Facnor track car toggle/Stud with a Sailman box. The track size stays the same but the cars get progressively bigger for bigger loads.

 

SELDEN: offers a hybrid in their MDS system. This however requires a new spar tube since the Selden cars run inside a special cavity extruded into the tube, so rather impractical unless you are getting a new mast or boat as in fact this owner was doing-A Saga 43 in this case. Selden also has a track and ball bearing system called RCB in two sizes. Selden calibrates the correct equipment based on the boat’s displacement. This system is interesting because it has a novel way of easily disconnecting the sail from the cars, the latter thus stay on the spar.

These four all use a dedicated track.

TRACK ATTACHMENT: There are four ways to attach the track to the spar. Either fasten the track to the spar with the appropriate sized metal thread fasteners. Use the connection slugs offered by the equipment maker, slide the tack into the mast groove-Tides and Dutchman or glue it on, for Carbon  spar applications

RONSTAN: has a cross over product called a Ballslide that has recirculating ball bearings in the car and a variety of screw-in shapes they call “feet” that will, at least in my experience, fit any mast groove one is likely to find. This is one of the hybrid products.

RUTGERSON: Another hybrid slider with ball bearings, albeit really small ones, is from a long established Swedish sailing hardware firm called Rutgerson. Their products are distributed in the US by Challenge Sail cloth, another supplier of sail making bits and pieces to the trade. The Rutgerson cars/sliders look like a beach or moon buggy and the bearings are in the wheels of the buggy.

DUTCHMAN SYSTEMS: From the folks who brought you The Dutchman flaking system, is their entry in the luff track stakes. The Dutchman has two versions. A dedicated track option and a track-less roller bearing cars option. The later has a similar “Beach Buggy” looking batten slider, see below.

CARS/SLIDES WITHOUT ball bearings:

BAINBRIDGE- ALLSLIP: At the simple end of the spectrum there are “regular” luff slides that can operate in the masts own luff groove and do not need a dedicated track. The most common slides one step up from merely using the slide the sailmaker would use regardless of whether the sail had FLB or not, are called Allslip Slides. They are marketed in the US through Bainbridge, one of the main suppliers to sailmakers of the nuts and bolts of every-day sail making as well sailcloth. Allslip slides are made from a low friction plastic, not nylon as the bulk of the rest of the luff slides are.

A Bainbridge Allslip slide with a stud to a PNP batten box.

A Bainbridge Allslip slide with a stud to a PNP batten box. When using Allslips, there needs a toggle with a slightly different front end, where it connects to the handle on the slider.Regardless of the connection to the slider the box connection will use an M10 or M12 thread.

Bainbridge also offers their own integrated FB line they call Sailman. Sailman consists of a range of slides, toggles and boxes for three varying sizes of boat or sail area.  The toggles they use in the Sailman can also be used with the Allslip slides. This feature works particularly well with Selden spars whose luff groove profiles are unique to their mast sections.

TIDES TRACK: A company based in Florida called Tides Marine, that is in the slippery plastic business, offers a high value product.  This is an extruded low friction plastic that comes rolled up in a spool, like a garden hose thus minimizing shipping costs. The requisite number and type of slides go to the sail maker. The track mates to your existing mast track, particulars of which are determined by a set of templates they send you or their dealers have. Propriety stainless steel slides that work only in their track (and others slides do not…) are available in three sizes of height: Intermediate, batten or reef slides and head slides. They are roughly 1”, 2” and 3” tall respectively.  Tides offer their own batten “boxes” aka receptacles but these are leech loading only.

DUTCHMAN SYSTEMS: The ever enterprising Martin Van Breems is also in this arena with two products. One is similar to the Ronstan Ball slide and the other is a track system product similar to Tides System using a low friction plastic proprietary extruded track and dedicated sliders. The Ball slide version incorporates small SS balls in wheels that run on the outside of the spar’s groove to accept the compression from the FLB and look largely like the Rutgerson moon buggy design.

The main difference between the Dutchman dedicated track version and Tides product is the Tides slides run INSIDE their track and the Dutchman system runs on the OUTSIDE of their track. The second important difference is the Dutchman track system hardware is unique to Dutchman.Thus no other cars or sliders will fit on the track and they do not have the ability to use third party toggles or batten boxes.

ANTAL: is a prominent Italian manufacturer of all sorts of sailboat hardware hardware. They have a dedicated track with slider system. These sliders have a low friction fiber composite insert. Antal also has roller bearing cars at the upper end of their range. They too come in a variety of sizes suitable for smaller boats up to 100 feet. They offer their own propriety batten boxes. Their batten sliders come with the virtual industry standard 10 mm and 12 mm threaded studs.

SCHAEFER MARINE: also has an offering in this non-ball bearing field. They have a selection of “normal” sliders, toggle connectors and the very widely used original Battslide batten boxes. They also have a dedicated track one can install but I have never seen the advantage of this unless the spars extruded track is damaged in some way. They offer a wide cross section of sliders to fit probably all mast sections built in the US in the past 50 years, With and with out “rigid” toggles, but attached by shackles to the slider. Thus their products is frequently seen on smaller boats where the proportional cost of Full Length battens and related hardware is a bigger percentage than on a larger boat.

 

Next up: The Battens followed by “all the things you didn”t know, you didn’t know…

 

 

 

 

Full Length Battens: 2b. In mast furling

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A reader on LinkedIn posted a response-comment-observation regarding FLB and conventional battens  with respect to in-mast furling so I will add this essay as a small side bar. My apologies I do not have many pictures for this subject, so you will have to read it, not look at it…

The question posed by this fellow is this:

And then there is the roller furling main! New experience for me as I have always sailed a traditional main (with battens). Very difficult to get used to looking at my main with the foot not fixed to the boom. My sail does have battens but the one nearest the head had to be removed to allow for the sail to be completely furled within the mast. I have been told that battens are not really needed in the furling main but started showing up because there was a “demand” for them. i like to convenience, especially when single handling, but………..would appreciate comments.

First a bit of background/History:

Most of us know that the original in-mast furling was invented and brought to market by Ted Hood, sometime in maybe the early 1970’s. They were unique at the time, had the Hood Cache and were almost the default spar on a long list of various sized Little Harbor yachts and then later other yachts particularly bigger ones, up to 80 footers which were big then.

Compared to the current crop of in mast furling spars, the Hood spars were really easy to work with from a sailmaker’s perspective. Not the least because they were designed by a sailmaker rather than a mast maker. There are two primary reasons related to this ease: The cavity into which the sail rolled was large.  Second, the slot through which the sail passed was wide, perhaps an inch or more. Boat for boat both these items were larger than the same parts on spars today.

Between the time of the Hood Spars introduction and the early/mid 1980’s Hood was the 800 Lb Gorilla: There was Hood Sailmakers and Hood Yacht Systems with the latter incorporating the Sto-Away masts and later on an in-boom furling arrangement  for a time plus the Hood Sea Furl furler, another virtual monopoly-No Harken, Profurl, Schaefer, Facnor, Furlex. There were a couple of older makes of furling (not reefing) head stays, one by Hyde and another by Stearns but they were not designed for using the headsail reefed. There was a particular part of the Hood Sea Furl Systems that made this viable. Regardless, if you wanted an in mast furling spar you went to Ted.

But things change. Hood sailmakers was sold in 1986, which is when I went to work for the new owner but Ted kept Hood Yacht Systems and brought it with him from Marblehead/Little harbor to Melville in Portsmouth RI.

Over time other mast makers began copying the Hood Spar, but of course they needed to be among other things, cheaper than the original (Hood Spar) in order to get a foot in the door. Anyway we now fast forward to the 21’st. C. Hood Yacht Spars was sold to the UK distributor of Hood Spars who sold it to another UK spar company who eventually went broke. Hood Yacht SYSTEMS, largely the furler’s, remains in business based in Florida and is a division of POMPANETTE. Roughly parallel with this progression many spar makers who used to do production aluminum spars have switched over to carbon and so today there are three remaining heavy weights in the production aluminum spar (In–mast furling) business:

Z spars, Charleston Spars/SparCraft both French and Selden, Swedish.

And on the edges of the In-mast terrain there are, or used to be, a couple of products you can bolt on to the back of the existing spar and some folks have taken a normal headsail furler and attached that to their spar with custom parts.

With respect to the sentence in the fellows remarks above, on “demand”, sailmakers (and cloth guys too) are forever trying to do something that will set them apart from other sailmakers. Battens, full and leech, for in-mast furling sails is a classic example of this. I am pretty sure that a Hood Franchise in Sweden invented both the batten idea and the necessary mechanics and sail designs to make it all work. Hood in the US marketed them as Vertech Mainsails and promoted, as does every one, the idea of more roach as opposed to the standard battenless sto-main with leech hollow, like a headsail.

Very broadly speaking, as viewed from my perch at Hood Sails for 15 years, there has been since the 1980’s an increase in people coming to sailing who did not grow up with it and so have a different seamanship background than say my generation who was sailing from age naught. Thus people buying boats (as well as a lot of others) were attracted to the idea of doing everything from the cockpit, so the in-mast furler’s, are now more common again than for a while. Without doubt the ability to “get the sail out and be sailing in one minute” or variations on same are pitch’s that do not quite fill the air at boat shows but is close.

Remember though there are two primary differences between the present in-mast spars and the original Hood Spars and they are the internal diameter of the cavity-Where the sail rolls up and the width of the slot through which the sail enters and leaves this cavity.

For all sorts of reasons the newer masts are smaller on the inside and the slot is much narrower than a Hood spar. Since the customer has a specific boat with a specific mast sailmakers are obliged to come up with ways of making their sails fit what the owner has, at a price they can sell them for while making money and having them work with sufficient success that the owner can use it, maybe enjoy it and so may return for other sails.

So, to the sails:

There are three flavors of in-mast furling mainsails: No battens, partial battens and full length battens. The latter are inserted vertically into the sail from the foot. These battens are usually in sections so they can be connected in some way. The ones we used at Hood, screwed together with custom fabricated terminals. The length of the sections, at least in the US, is determined by the maximum length UPS will carry so they can be shipped economically compared to shipping”regular” of FLB by truck.

With regard to sails, we know that the corners of a sail are reinforced with layers of fabric, the so called corner patches. The bigger the sail the larger, in area, are the patches. They are also thicker-more layers of material laid into the corner. This latter issue has a direct impact on the process of getting the sail in and out of the spar. The short answer is that for the current range of production spars the patches need to be thinner than they should be. This has a direct impact on the life, the shape retention life, of a sail because the corners distribute the loads into the body of the sail, less distribution surface, more load.

This thickness issues plays out with battens too. Let me first mention a couple of points about battens. As a general rule a batten’s length ought to be long enough so that 1/3 is “outside” the straight line between head and clew and 2/3 are inside. So the “inner” 2/3 is holding the outer third in place. This gets to be more critical the larger the roach-Hence full length battens in the first place.

This batten length calculus is relatively easy to meet in a conventional mainsail. It becomes a bit trickier with an in-mast sail. This is because when the batten is vertical, the batten needs to be a lot longer overall, in order to meet the desired ratio of batten inside versus outside the straight line. When the batten is longer it needs to be stiffer to achieve the desired effect. Given a same material, say polyester fiberglass, a pretty common material for battens, then a stiffer batten is thicker than a batten doing the same job on a conventional sail which will be shorter.

Still with me?

Then there is the batten pocket: It adds thickness to the sail. Typically the batten pocket is a couple of layers of material of the same weight as the sail’s cloth.  The pocket has a pleat in it so the there is volume inside the pocket to accept the batten and there is some kind of mechanism to keep the batten in the sail. Velcro is a favorite these days as are folded over flaps with lashings as well. This construction is often as thick, or thicker, than the corners AND it is on the leech so all the battens, all four or five of them must be able to roll inside the mast….

All of the above is of course at reasonable hazard of chafe. The pockets where they go in and out of the slot. The sail skin itself is liable to chafe when being rolled in or out in any condition apart from head to wind. The chafe issue applies to all flavors of in-mast furling sails: plain or with battens. On the full battens, where the connections are, they are a tad wider than the neighboring batten material so when the sail is passing the edges of the slot, there is chafe at each of the perhaps dozen or so connections.

Re-read the remark in the original question above where the owner had to have the top batten removed so the sail would get into the spar. This means I hope that the attending sailmaker had to re-fair the leech too otherwise the “local roach” at that batten would either wave around in the wind or be pulled into a curl by the leech line. Any way I digress…

Now connect the particulars of a sail so designed and built with the newer masts with smaller cavities and narrow slots. The end result is that sailmakers need to make the sails “thinner” in order to fit into the spar. Plus the batten’s are thicker and there is added thickness for the batten pocket assembly.On more than one occasion a prospect was unable to purchase a battened in-mast sail for his boat, at least from us, because when I looked into the particulars of the mast he had and the boat (so I could spec. the sail appropriately) comparing the width of the slot to the thickness of the battens and related structure, there was barely enough wiggle room and this was without the sail skin or the pockets.  I can recall one spar I was looking at, from one of three makers cited above and the slot was quoted as being only 16 mm wide, perhaps 9/16″. The battens, the pocket and sail was close to 12 or 13 mm.

The same problems or issues occur too with full length vertical battens only there is the additional complication of having to install the battens in the sail with the sail fully unrolled. Think about this for a minute…Would you willingly unroll (or hoist) your mainsail at the dock in the marina and let it flap around for the time it took to get the battens in? Perhaps not. This drill is required though with the full length battens in order to get the batten (s) into the sail. For instance on a Little Harbor 46 footer with in fact a Hood Spar, so it was actually pretty easy to operate the sail once the battens were in the sail, it would take me 45 minutes to an hour to assemble the battens get the sail into the spar and the battens into the sail. And it could only be done either on a calm morning or with only a light air wafting across the boat from the direction in which the bow was pointed.

All of this would make one think that the in mast furling system is not possible to manufacture and sell which is patented not the case. Rather I am presenting some of the issues that go on behind the curtain. For the sail these are:

Thinner or lighter base material, smaller patching both in area and in total weight in the patch and thinner battens and/ or pockets.

So, I hope this has offered some food for thought as well as a bit of a glance around “behind the curtain” into what goes on in the minds of, and discussions of, sail makers, their reps and designers.

I’ll get back to “regular” full length battens-soon.

Full length Battens

Image

 

YES, NO, MAYBE, WHY?

The subject of full length battens and whether or not you and your boat need them is one of the longer discussions sailmakers and their customers have. Like much else around the boat, there are plusses & minuses and maybes’ and what if’s. This series is intended to outline the various issues to be contemplated when you get the idea to have full length battens on your boat or new sail.

Briefly

What they can do:

A Class 40 with a so called Square Head mainsail

A Class 40 with a so called Square Head mainsail

 

a)      Full length battens can support a more pronounced roach than a sail without full length battens.

b)      They can be retrofitted to revive the shape in an older sail

c)       They can make the mainsail “smoother” minimizing bumps, creases or hard spots at the forward end of short battens

d)      Maybe easier to flake and fold

Side rails to attach lazy jacks to.

Side rails to attach lazy jacks to.

e)      They can make capturing the sail as it is lowered less of a dance IF the boat has either a Dutchman OR a dedicated Lazy Jack’s system designed for the sail

f)       Reduce drag at the top of the spar, square head only

g)      They make the sound of the sail flapping less loud which has its own many benefits above the longevity of the sail fabric.

 

Issues to consider:

a)      Make the sail jump into its kennel all by itself–NOT

b)      Rating issues (if you do any kind of racing, an “oversized” mainsail will get a new handicap allowing for the perceived speed gain) with oversize roach, except when purely cruising or sailing open classes.

Kress LJ ears (1)

c)       Are they really faster as some have remarked?

d)      In the case of the large roach/square head sail the compression on the luff from the batten is considerable.

e)      Chafe esp. with aft swept spreaders. Also the batten pocket OR sail will chafe where the batten crosses the lee rigging when sailing down wind. It is perfectly possible to saw a hole through a sail overnight (I have inspected a sail so damaged) if this is not either addressed on the boat or in the construction phase of the sail.

f)       Whether to employ luff loading batten pockets or not. By this device the battens are inserted in the luff end of the sail with the leech end sewn shut thus making it really hard, as in you must really try to shake the batten out of the back of the sail. Much harder but not impossible.

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g)      The larger the boat (mainsail) the more likely the sail needs low friction track and cars.

h)      Additional costs related to the detailing on the sail and the cost of the hardware.

A selection of available batten hardware

A selection of available batten hardware

i)        Value versus regular length battens

j)        Potential for damage when sailing-Like an all standing gybe where the sail lands up against the formerly windward runner usually with a great shock.

k)      The material from which the battens are made, there are mainly three flavors.

l)        Carrying spare (battens and parts) on voyages including the stowage on board, the shipping if necessary, the ease with which a long batten can be removed from the sail if the batten breaks

m)

 

Batten sliding systems

There are two categories:

  1. Those using a dedicated track and

  2. Ronstan track and car system

    Ronstan track and car system

  3. Those that do not have a dedicated track but rather the “cars” run in the mast’s original track/groove.

Within “A”: there are two sub-decisions, ball bearing cars and slider cars without bearings.

Within “B” there is one variation from the almost universal use of simply some kind of slippery plastic and that is a car that has bearings incorporated into the car itself. I am aware of only two products that fit this last description.

 

Components

There are three components to the fully battened system.

  1. The “cars” these may be simply a beefier version of the sail slug/slide the sailmakers might use anyway on a small boat’s mainsail. OR on bigger installations with ball bearing cars they are substantial pieces of engineering.
  2. The “batten box”, aka batten receptacle. The device into which the forward end of the batten is captured. This is in turn attached to the car by:
  3. Toggle”, aka universal. This can be as simple as webbing on a small sail or as complex as an unlimited multi axis universal ball joint on bigger hardware/boats.

There are of course all manner of small parts, screws bolts, nut, balls or slider inserts that are included in the various parts outlined above, but you get the idea

 

Do I want them or not?

Considering all the above the rational human would surely ask him/herself do I really want this headache versus what will I gain from having full length battens?

 

Read on.

 

 

 

 

Sailing coaching and sailing systems consulting

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If you are reading this website you are most likely a sailor. It is a great activity and can be very satisfying, but for many folks, especially those who came to sailing later in life, there are some things that can make a nice day on the bay, well, not so nice. Ring a bell?

  • Do you avoid using your cruising spinnaker, or shun the idea of one because it is “too complicated”?
  • Would an easier way to set, trim, and lower your cruising spinnaker add value to the day’s downwind sail back from say Block Island, for those of you in the NE?
  • Do your headsail sheets always get caught in the shrouds thus slowing down the tack and making for a big grind by the “grinders”—aka your spouse, partner, non sailing buddies or the kids?
  • Have you dreamed of making a longer passage, regardless of destination, something that pushes your comfort zone pretty hard, but  just cannot get all the details, equipment, and systems coordinated?
  • Would you like to improve your anchoring, mooring, and docking skills?
  • Do you race, or want to race but have difficulty training and organizing crew?

If, like many weekend sailors, these are just a few of the small (or large?) tensions experienced while sailing, relax. There are solutions to all of them.

All you need is someone who can identify the problem and show you ways to solve it. Someone with skill across a wide range of boats locations and scenarios. Someone professional. In short, someone like me.

Solving Your Sailing Challenges

I have worked with clients to solve their sailing challenges and enhance their enjoyment of sailing. During countless hours on the water with clients — both new sailors and experienced boat owners — I have:

  • Created more efficient deck layouts &  improved sail trimming tools
  • Coached couples and Bermuda race crews on spinnaker flying and more efficient ways of tacking
  • Organized crews, both racing and cruising and coached them in more efficient operation on board
  • Developed fast, simple, and relatively inexpensive ways to set small sails under a large, light, and full 150% roller headsail, which as we all know is not much good in 20 knots, is it?
  • Increased clients’ understanding of sail shape, and their skill in manipulating sails
  • Consulted on upgrading hardware — both the equipment and creating the techniques to make better use of the hardware (rather than merely adding some new shiny widget in the hope that all will be better)
  • Coached clients on faster and easier reefing methods

It makes sense to try and maximize the “Fun Factor” (AKA VALUE) of each day (hour) on the boat, especially in the Northeast where we only get half as much time as balmier climes.

Call so we can discuss the following services to improve the value of your sailing hours:
1.    An on-site review of your boat and its deck layout and equipment with you including an extensive interview to prepare a list of things to make sailing easier
2.    Managing the upgrades with your yard or rigger in the event you want to proceed with my recommendations
3.    Onboard coaching for cruising, such as ways to set and douse the cruising spinnaker, answers to sail trim techniques and integrating the techniques into the system
4.    Offer racing coaching on strategies & crew work & related organizing
5.    Consulting on preparing a boat for an offshore passage

I look forward to your call.
Cell: 401 965 6006
Email: Cooper-ndn@cox.net

Cheers

Coop