Headsails with vertical battens - on boat storage ?

[smacklin]

Question about headsails with vertical battens. A.k.a. like a J105 Ullman Fiber-path blade.

They are great in that they can be roller furled when in use.

What do people do for storage onboard when using a different sail. You cannot flake and store in a long sausage bag like typical racing headsails are handled. Do people pull the battens each time, or is there some other folding/rolling trick so the battens can be left installed ?

thanks, Steve

 

[woodster]

Question about headsails with vertical battens. A.k.a. like a J105 Ullman Fiber-path blade.

They are great in that they can be roller furled when in use.

What do people do for storage onboard when using a different sail. You cannot flake and store in a long sausage bag like typical racing headsails are handled. Do people pull the battens each time, or is there some other folding/rolling trick so the battens can be left installed ?

thanks, Steve

when you take a tent down do you leave the poles in the tent .. no .....its best to take the battens out and store them separately then flake the sail for storage the last thing you need is a sail with muscle memory or permanent creases ......in the navy it used to be common practice to roll all your clothing for storage i don't know if they still do that or not ....you are not talking about maybe 5 mins more work to remove the battens....

 

[Jackdaw]

You CAN flake then, but of course the size the of the flake has to match the length of the batten. We have to do this on our First 36.7 as like the 105 our blade has vertical battens. What we did was flake it on the dock, sizing the flakes so the battens would start and end at a flake. This is a bit trick as you can guess because you also have to do this with luff side arranged so it will pull up the pre-feeder!

Once done mark the flake edges with tape or a sharpie so you can do it in anger on the bow.

The finished flaked sail is never as small as it would be with horizontal battens. And you also often have to help the sail feed near the first batten as it tends to bind.

 

[shemandr]

On the J105 we sail on they are removed. And yes it is a royal PITA to do. Well putting them in is worse. But we're getting better at it.

 

[Jackdaw]

OK maybe two things.

If you are done with the sail for the day, yes remove them.

If you are planning to fly it again that same day/race, flake it loosely as I described above.

Finally, Save your pesos so your next blade can have these:

http://www.rbsbattens.com/battens/rbs-roller-battens/

 

[smacklin]

Thanks folks -- The wide fold and loose roll leach-to-Luff (ignore the sausage bag) just might work. The sharpie trick is clever too.

The roller-battens look really cool. Alas, that will need to wait for the next blade.