Main Sail

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MED

.
Jul 9, 2007
11
Beneteau Oceanis 40 Southport Qld Australia
Has anybody fitted a mainsail with full length battens.

If so, in your opinion how does the main with battens stack up against the main without battens and:
1. What is the cloth weight of the battened main.
2. What is the cross sectional shape and and dimension of the battens.
3. What is the sail area of the battened main.
4. How much roach (if any)

Thanks for that
Michael
Rendezvous
Australia
 
Jun 7, 2004
99
Catalina 309 Ottawa
I haven't tried a mainsail with full battens but I did try one with partial battens. The sail with partial battens (supplied by Catalina) didn't work. It continually got stuck either when furling in or furling out. In short it was unusable. I feel that a fully battened mainsail would need to be constructed of lighter material than the standard sail in order for it to work on the furling mechanism. I returned to my current stock main sail and I'm quite pleased with it. Since I have a 150% genoa, I don't believe that I would have seen any significant advantage with the partially battened mainsail. Catalina took exchanged my partially battened mainsail for the standard sail.

You could find more success with a 3rd party after-market mainsail, but I would insist on some type of performance clause before purchase.

Gary
 
Apr 6, 2009
18
2 309 Frog Motar Creek
I have used a partial battened main (4) for 3 years now, and have never had the jamming issues Gary mentioned . As he mentions though I had mine made by a local sailmaker. The sailmaker did spend a lot of time mesuring the mast and told me he had the batten pockets redone twice before he deliverd it to me. He also did not feel that a full vertical batten would fit within the mast. The only issue I seem to have is that the roach flogs at about 15 knts, and in disscussion with the maker we are going to try a longer batten to get more support, the flogging can be controlled via the leach line but you have to be carful not to hook the upper batten. One thing I have found to be important is to ensure that the boom is flat when deploying the main to get the propper set. I noticed the most imporvement in lighter winds, which I attribute more to a better foil shape than sail area. I also do need to reef a bit earlier. Also if you have a custom sail made when they come to mesure make sure that your boom is where you want it to be in relation to the bimini bow, or you may not get it to trim well, when close hauled.
 

MED

.
Jul 9, 2007
11
Beneteau Oceanis 40 Southport Qld Australia
Gents thanks for the feed back. Much appreciated. JKITTA would you know the sail area and sail cloth weight of your battened main?
 
Apr 6, 2009
18
2 309 Frog Motar Creek
Could not find the electronic copy but I had a paper quote. Unfortunatly it did not specify the cloth weight but I feel it is same as standard factory sail.

The sail I purchased was "Standard Mainsail Cruising Fabric" Dacron Cross Cut
27.8 SqMtrs

I also had a quote from the same maker for a more performance oriented material called Vectran, which looked alot like 3DL to me. Claim was it would hold shape better.

John
 
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