Mainsail conversion

[ccriders]

Is it possible, even desireable to convert a mainsail to "fully battened"? If so, how would you do it? Since there are no sailmakers in this town I would have to do it myself. How hard would it be for someone with basic sewing skills? For example, I made my own settee cusions, and have made men's pants and jackets.
John

[SailinJay]

While I believe it would be technically possible, I am not sure that you want to do this. I may be wrong, but I think that fully-battened sails are designed to account for the pockets and the battens. To add these items to a "plain" sail may alter the performance of the sail. I leave it to the experts here to weigh in on this point.

Assuming that it would not alter the sail's performance, the sewing required would be extensive. My main sail has four battens and the pocket extends from the luff to the leech for each batten. The material is much different from the types of materials you mentioned in your post. Also, I don't think you'd have much margin for mistakes.