tapering full battens

[deniseO30]

The temp main sail I have for my boat is full battened. The sail really doesn't get the right shape. Since the battens are fg how could/should I taper them? The new battens I have for it are 1.25" fg, pretty strong and hefty I'd say. I know they need to be more flexibile at the mast. Someday I'll get a new sails or my boat.

[Jeff_H]

Without seeing the battens and the sail its hard to say, but when I have had to hand tapered a batten that was too stiff, I either planned with a sharp flat angle plane or sanded the forward end of the batten with a belt sander until the forward third was carefully thinned to a taper. Then I coated it with epoxy to seal the exposed fiberglass.

When I had a batten that was too flexible, I epoxied a tow of carbon fiber onto the aft end of the batten to stiffen it.

Jeff

[deniseO30]

thanks Jeff,, the idea is to get a foil shape which is fat at the mast, right? these battens are solid FG about a 1/4" thick in the center with edges about an 1/8" "me thinks me shoulda asked for advice before gettin dem!"

[CrazyRu]

You can also drill holes in the batten. By drilling the holes, you remove material from the batten and make it softer. So, if you need the area of batten to be most soft - than drill more holes in the area...

[Jeff_H]

You want a tighter radius curve at the luff of the sail than at the trailing edge. The trailing edge should be almost straight for as much as a third of the sail.

Those sound like your basic, generic, blue, diamond-section, battens. Planing or sanding the point that is at the center of the batten so the ridge tapers to nothing and the batten is flat at the forward end is surprisingly easy to do and then brush on a little epoxy and you are all done.

I've done that quite a few times. Its not bad at all.

Jeff

[pegasus1457]

Originally Posted by deniseO30

The temp main sail I have for my boat is full battened. The sail really doesn't get the right shape. Since the battens are fg how could/should I taper them? The new battens I have for it are 1.25" fg, pretty strong and hefty I'd say. I know they need to be more flexibile at the mast. Someday I'll get a new sails or my boat.

I had a similar problem with the battens on my main. On the advice of my sailmaker, I used a jigsaw to remove about half of the height of the batten, starting about 6 in from the mast end, for a distance of about one foot.
The one foot was determined by taking more and more off until I was happy with the reduction in stiffness. Then I used a belt sander to smooth the sawn edges. The sail shape is much improved.

I noticed that one poster suggested coating the sawn edges with epoxy.
What is the need for that?

[nickmerc]

Coating the exposed edges with epoxy keeps the glass fibers under control to protect your hands and the batten pocket.
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Vaporizer-Info

[pdqaltair]

I wrote up a piece on adding TOWs on my blog (Sail Delmarva: Search results for batten.

The main thing is to determine how stiff they are now as a starting point (the standard method is described in the post) and then deciding if you need a straighter leach or more curve in the luff. We can't guess without pictures.

But either job is strait forward and simpler than a recut. Good luck!

[deniseO30]

Bump!

I have the battens in my van. I'm going to taper them this week. wish me luck. it sounds pretty easy to do.