Where to buy cheap battens?? Homemade??

Status
Not open for further replies.
damoses1

damoses1

.
Mar 25, 2010
64
Cal 29 Lake Saint Clair - SCS
I just bought an O'day 22 and I need to buy battens for my sail, but they seem to be pricey at my local West Marine.

When I took my sails in for light repairs last week, the expert there said he used to cut a yardstick and use that (for a temporary quick fix). He did mention never to use wood battens, as they expand and absorb water- leading to moldy sails. He said to use either fiberglass or plastic.

My question is, has anyone made homemade battens? If so, what did you make them of?

Or, if anyone has an idea of where to buy them cheap, I'd appreciate it.

Thank You!
 
Eric M

Eric M

.
Sep 30, 2008
159
Island Packet 35 Jacksonville
Call around to the local sail lofts - I would think you can find one who could help you out in hopes of making you a future customer when it comes time for a new sail. New sails are expensive, and sailing very far without a batten, or worse with a broken batten can quickly destroy your sail so realize that a small (in comparison) investment now will save you money in the long run.
 
C Jones

C Jones

.
Aug 5, 2009
333
Hunter h23 Dallas Tx.
Home Depot has 1" and 1-1/2" wide plastic strips used to trim out paneling. I think they are 8' long and easy to cut. I just cut them to length and sand the ends. I use these on My mutt main sail. I have used cut yard sticks but I remove them when I lower the sail and never had a problem with them. Both are cheap and easy.
 
Joe

Joe

.
Jun 1, 2004
8,169
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
John 23883 (sounds like a bible verse, heh, heh).... Thanks for the excellent link. Glad to see a non Home Depot solution offered. Helps keep the forum seaworthy, ya know.

Anyway, battens are an integral part of a sail and decisions to placement, style, shape and flex are seriously design considerations. Besides risking sail damage by using the inappropriate batten, the performance factor is severly affected. The following article explains this and more:

http://www.sailingproshop.com/ullman_sails_mainsail_battens.aspx

Here's some DIY resources:

http://www.western-marine.com/page38.htm

http://search.sailrite.com/category/sail-rigging-hardware-harken-battens-slugs-slides-shackles

That said, John's resource seems the most reasonable.

Damoses1, if you're determined to make your own batten... check the yellow pages for plastic supply stores. If you're just looking for a short, flat leech batten you should be able to find a piece of plexiglass that you can cut and sand to suit your need.
 
sailingdog

sailingdog

.
Oct 22, 2008
3,502
- Telstar 28 Buzzards Bay
I wouldn't use plexiglass for a batten, since acrylic can snap if flexed too hard. Polycarbonate or ABS would make far better battens.
 
G

Gudenuph

.
Aug 4, 2009
204
Oday 25 Olympia
We sailed for years with varnished maple battens without problems. I've also seen PVC pipe, 1/2 inch, as full battens with the leach end doubled and taped together which seemed to work well enough in non-racing conditions.
 
RECESS

RECESS

.
Dec 20, 2003
1,505
Pearson 323 . St. Mary's Georgia
I have a friend at the club that was thinking about doing DIY battens for his hobie. At the prices John linked, I doubt you could do it DIY for less!

Nice link, I bookmarked it.
 
Joe

Joe

.
Jun 1, 2004
8,169
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
sailingdog said:
I wouldn't use plexiglass for a batten, since acrylic can snap if flexed too hard. Polycarbonate or ABS would make far better battens.
Click to expand
That makes sense for full size battens. I was thinking of my old Laser's short leech battens. They looked like plexiglass but were probably something else. In any event they didn't bend much like a full size batten would, so they were pretty cheap to replace.

On the other hand, my Nacra 5.2 has numerous full length battens. They are foam with fiberglass cover and tapered towards the luff, allowing tension adjustment to affect draft position and depth. Oh... and they ain't cheap.
 
B

Benny

.
Sep 27, 2008
1,149
Hunter 320 Tampa, FL
Are battens absolutely necessary? It seems like the words "always", "absolutely" and "must" don't go well together with "sailing". Most boats from the 70s to mid 80s were headsail driven and usually carried small mains. These mains had very little to moderate roach and the use of battens was more a choice than a necessity. Nowadays with boats being predominantly mainsail driven the mainsails sport large roach and these do benefit from the support offered by battens. Damoses1, my point is that your boat probably does not benefit much from the use of battens and that it would be best to sail without them than utilizing an ill conceived batten than in shape, weight and rigidity may do more harm than good. I have sailed boats without battens and my experience has been that when sailing closed hauled any roach fluttering is hardly noticeable and perhaps just barely noticeable when sailing off the wind. It is true that unchecked roach fluttering can harm a sail and for that purpose battens were introduced. High performance sails now use battens to affect sail shape and allow changes but that is another topic.
 
C

Capt Mike

.
Oct 31, 2008
30
Hunter 386 Point Breeze,NY
I lost about three of my battens a couple of years ago, I discovered the elastic bungies which hold the battons in the sail pockets were all streched out. Went to a local sailmaker to see about repairs, he sold me an 8 foot section of batton material and the plastic end cups to go on the battons. told me to cut the batton material to proper length with a hacksaw, seal the in the sail pocket with a piece of sail tape, worked great and still holding!! Cost me about 8 bucks for material..
 
R

Ray Bowles

.
Oct 6, 2008
857
Hunter, Island Packet, Catalina, San Juan 26,38,22,23 Kettle Falls, Washington
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I would think after all these years and all the high tech research that has been done that if battens weren't needed then there wouldn't be batten pockets.
Battens define the shape of the leach and center of the sail. The larger the sail the more they are needed.
Old and worn sails on many smaller boats probably benefit the most as without this modicum of shape the sail is simply increased drag.
Home made, fabricated, cheap or stolen they will improve the sail performance. Are you good enough to realize this improvement?
Ray
 
Joe

Joe

.
Jun 1, 2004
8,169
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
RECESS said:
I have a friend at the club that was thinking about doing DIY battens for his hobie. At the prices John linked, I doubt you could do it DIY for less!

Nice link, I bookmarked it.
Click to expand
Totally agree on the link. The Hobie Cat battens are class regulated very strictly. A complete set of 8 hobie 16 class legal battens will run around $225, and the extrusion used to make them is proprietary. Metal and very rugged. If he could find a source for the extrusion it wouldn't be hard to fabricate his own.
 
Last edited:
jeromeddd

jeromeddd

.
Dec 10, 2009
12
Samson C-farer 39 D'Escousse, NS
well.. I went to west marine and they quoated me $439.00 for a set of full battens for my cal-28.. and I had to cut them myself... I bought a new set, all ready cut and sanded fiberglass ones at Bacon sails for $74.00 , they also said that, they have many used ones in stock for half price... happy sailing.. Jerome
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top Bottom