I would like to open a discussion on battens.(lets get some techincal stuff going)
Such as
Batten tension in lightheavy wind Drive point back from mast for all battens. Tapered verses straight. I have found lots of imformation regarding sail boats but as yet have found nothing for land yachts. Cheers aus230
Ive been having a problem with that myself. when glass battens first appeared they were flat with a ridge on each side. very easy to shapeand tension. now all the shops want to seel you are pretapered stuff that is almost square or round.its woeful to shapeand twists with use. Ive asked a couple of suppliers aboyt the old cruciform stuff . theyall say its not made anymore, but when I emailed the manufacturer they said yes they do,they just dont put it in the catalogues. we have just started building a jig for making tapered and pretensioned battens but its a slow job having the time
I found some imformation on shaping class 5 land yacht battems
Planing class 5 Battens:
Although the object of your aerofoil is a maximum camber at around 40%, because of the mast and mast pocket the battens need to be shaped slightly differently. I recommend that the shortest top batten should have it's maximum camber at 22% back and the longest at 35% with the rest arranged logically in between. Some people prefer 25% for all battens and the fact that both methods give good results shows that what is most important is that you have a uniform shape over the whole length of the sail. Mixing stiff and soft battens with the max. camber at vary -ing amounts is the worst of all worlds. There need be no magic skill to planing class 5 battens so long as you are methodical and prepared to take quite a long time about it.
to whom do you atribute this knowledge. It sounds pretty close, but when people start putting profound and precise numbers to these thinks I want to know whim to thank (or blame)
I found some old rond battens in an old windsurfer sail at the tip. I cut the to lenght and shoved this into an old sail. I will let you know how good they are when I get sailing next.
