I noticed my 5m Mach2 had a very loose batten and the cord over the end of the tensioner wings had come off.
I fixed it, but it had been a long time since I'd had to do it, and I stuffed around a lot before I finished.
The 5m works now but the batten has wrinkles.
The tensioner no longer works so I can't tighten or loosen the batten.
I'm wondering if I've stuffed the batten end trying to fix it..what am I likely to find if I take it apart?
I'm wondering whether to be bothered or whether to just live with a wrinkly batten..🤔

elmo said..
pull the batten, check that the thinner bits aren't being pushed in to the thicker tubes.

OK. I'll give it a go. It's pushed a fair way in and might be hard to grab.
Can you tell if you don't pull it out much? Will I have to take the loop off?

decrepit said..
the batten could be broken, it would be unusual to just loose that much tension

Mmm maybe...the loops had come off when I first noticed it was loose?
Other than the wrinkles it looks OK?


It's the boom batten / cam.That photo was taken once I'd fixed the loop over the end. I didn't take a photo after sailing when I noticed the wrinkles.
I'll have to have a closer look at it when I get a chance.
Is it easy to tell if the batten is broken without taking it all apart?

Best to pull the battern out and have a look slacken off the screw use a small screw driver to unhook the cord, pull the tensioner off and pull batton out with long nose pliers or from pushing opposite end where camm slides on.
I find the the bottom batten breaks or pushes in quiet offen as you bump the ground transporting to and from water.
If broken you can Resleeve using araldite and a small piece of smaller diameter carbon inserted in each end of broken section. You can buy new battens but sometimes hard to get and not cheap. Maybe $50 metre from windsurf shop.

dkeating said..
Best to pull the battern out and have a look slacken off the screw use a small screw driver to unhook the cord, pull the tensioner off and pull batton out with long nose pliers or from pushing opposite end where camm slides on.
I find the the bottom batten breaks or pushes in quiet offen as you bump the ground transporting to and from water.
If broken you can Resleeve using araldite and a small piece of smaller diameter carbon inserted in each end of broken section. You can buy new battens but sometimes hard to get and not cheap. Maybe $50 metre from windsurf shop.

Thanks. I think it's going to be a pain to get out once the time comes. It's in quite deep and you can't loosen it..
I'll give it a go and probably order another batten once I'm off the water.
Trying to get as much sailing as possible in the next week and a half..😜

Sue, Ar you familiar with the technique of threading a cord through a sleeve with a safety pin?
It's a slow process with a batten but with any luck you don't need to go too far.

John340 said..

sboardcrazy said..

John340 said..
I recently had a similar problem. The loop came off and had wrinkles in the sail and still had the wrinkles when the loop re-established. I removed the batten and established I had a broken batten tip. I replaced the broken section, reinstalled and now working perfectly.

I suspect the loop came off in the first place because I had broken the tip, releasing the tension in the batten.

That could be it. I was thinking I could have damaged the tip getting everything together but it may have already been broken.
How did you fix the broken end?
I thought I'd need a new batten.
Really busy this week ɓut I may have a chance to check it out tomorrow.
I might leave fixing it for a while.
I'm having an operation next week and will be off the water for 3 months.
I'll use it as is this week and fix it properly post operation, once I'm good enough to look at it.

Battens are made from interchangeable components - tip, middle and end. Ask your fellow sailors if they have any spare battens and find one with a longer tip section and trim to replace your broken section.

The only tricky but is removing the broken tip. If the break is complete, you might have to remove some stitching at the end of the batten pocket in the luff to remove the broken section.

I have an old 7.5m Turbo that I kept for battens..I wonder if I can adapt that..do they all have the same bend characteristics ? If I make each section the same length as the 5m Mach batten?

Just use a slightly smaller tube and wrap a few rubber bands around the end, push it into the broken tube and will pull out.

If you try to pull the broken batten out without covering the end, the broken fibres can stick into the pocket.

decrepit said..

sboardcrazy said..

decrepit said..
Sue, Ar you familiar with the technique of threading a cord through a sleeve with a safety pin?
It's a slow process with a batten but with any luck you don't need to go too far.

So you'd have to attach a cord to the batten somehow?

No, the technique is to grip the batten well before the break by squeezing the tube, then crunch up the tube in front of the batten. Grip the front of the batten with the other hand. Let go of the back hand and pull the tube straight. this will move the batten up the tube by the amount you managed to scrunch.

When you say scrunch the tube you mean the batten pocket?