Batten Installation

[Paul]

If there's no such thing as a dumb question, why do I feel dumb asking this?I had my sail loft replace the standard batten slugs on my full-battened main with Harken Battcars to relieve the slug pinching that jams the sail when trying to raise or reef it when slightly off the wind. They really work, and are much cheaper than the track/slide systems. I should have installed them myself, it's really a simple thing.However, when I went to bend on the mainsail this spring, they only way I could get the battens inserted into the battcars was to disassemble them. The battens were just too long. So, it took me about 90 minutes just to get the mainsail on the boat.Should I have trimmed the battens so that they could be slipped into the ends of the battcars? Wouldn't they slip out? I can't believe that disassembling and reassembling the Battcars around the battens is something that I am supposed to do twice a year. Thanks,Paulsv Escape Artisth336

 

[B.Smith]

Battens

The battens should be enclosed inside the batten pocket.Once the batten is in place you should be able to pull the edge of the slot so that the pocket is completely closed.

 

[Tim Stodola at Doyle Sails]

Batten Pockets

Quite often Full batten mainsails are what we call Luff loaded. This means that the Battens are inserted at the luff and the leech end is sewn closed. When retro fitting to any batten end fitting, loading and unloading battens can be made easier by having your sailmaker convert you batten pockets to Leech loading instead. This will allow you to load the battens without disassembly of the batten fitting.