hey guys, just wondering if you could give me a hand with my little problem!! i snapped my top batten in a bad catapult the other day!!! it hurt alot..... any how. came out the water pulled one half of the batten out... and the other half stayed put and wont budge!!! is there any tips of getting the old batten out so i can insert the new one??

cheers!! chris

Elmo's advice worked best for me, I did the dowel trick
Here it is again,


Two different methods for two different types of batten

Flat style
Get yourself something with a sharp point (like a school compass)

Try to push the sail back toward s the mast sleeve as much as possible without crinkling the sail.
Near the end of the broken batten tap the point into through the batten sleeve into the back of the batten (do not push it all the way through).
With the pin in place, go to the mast sleeve and pull the sail the from the mast sleeve. When first doing this it will be very tight as the batten is wedged in the bottom of the batten sleeve.
Repeat this process till batten comes out


Round Batten (Hollow)
Get yourself a bit of dowel around the same size.

If batten is slightly larger file a bit of a taper on front and then wrap with soft adhesive tape.
If the batten is smaller then just file a 4-1 taper on the end
Insert the Dowel into the batten pocket hold down the trapped batten then tap the dowel into the broken end of the batten, check the fit by rotating the dowel, if it moves the baten then its in far enough
With a gentle force try to extract the batten, remembering that it will be a bit tight to start with.


Hope this helps

FormulaNova said...

One thing I tried when removing a flat batten was to tape some plastic packing tape at the end of another flat batten so half of it sticks past the end of the batten and wrapped a few turns of tape around.

I then folded the tape over, and pushed this past the piece of batten still in the sail. When I pulled it out, the tape hooked the remaining piece and it slid out relatively easily.

It sounds complicated, but it's just like fishing.

So far I've read it twice and still can't visualize it. Could you please post a photo if you have one?

Hona Pete man you are in for some trouble for sure.

Get the broken piece that you were able to pull from the sail.
Find a long small diameter metal rod that the batton will fit into tightly... I have used a small metal curtain rod... for this he works very well.

Slide the rod into the batton pocket and push until the broken part of the batton gets wedged inside... once jammed in, slowly pull the rod and the batton out of the sail.

This is best way to remove without causing damage to sail

You can also use an old camber or something that is hard plastic with a slightly rounded edge to use to "push" the broken bit of batten back down the pocket.
Just make sure its not sharp enough to cut/tear batten pocket.
This has worked for me a couple of times.
Hope it helps

Not as elegant as the previous suggestions but very quick. Make a small cut into the batten pocket where it snapped and just pull it through your new hole. Not elegant but doable is less than 60 seconds. You won't worry about the tiny hole once out sailing again.