Sails

[sailorboy1]

I have a combo of full and partial battens with a full roach sail. The boat came that way so I didn't think any about it. The battens definitely seem to help with sail shape without me having always be adjusting it as much. I have a Dutchman system so the battens don't really cause any problem. My last boat had full battens with a Stakpak and that did take some timing to raise the sail to not get caught, but you just learn to do it.

[valhalla360]

As a newbie, you are probably best off going with what the designer specified.
- If it wasn't designed for it, a big full batten sail can hang up on the back stays. Possibly making tacking difficult and potentially damaging the sail.
- If you take a boat designed for a big full batten sail and put a batten-less sail on, you will likely imbalance the sail plan (and vice versa)

Generally a fully battened sail is going to be more expensive to implement but give better performance (prefered reefing system can add some complications to this).

One interesting option, I've seen is basically a roller furler mounted to the back of the mast. My understanding is it's limited to smaller cruising boats but it eliminates issue of jams trying to get the sail to roll up inside the mast. It does largely eliminate the potential for battens so you will be sacraficing performance but I've often though it would be nice since we often use the genny because it's so easy to deploy if the wind is favorable and then easy to roll up if the wind turns against us. Unless we are expecting favorable winds for most of the trip, we often don't bother getting the main out. (this assumes coastal cruising where we are getting from point A to point B preferably in a reasonable period of daylight)

[brookiesailor]

Valhalla,
I hadn't considered that. I saw a YouTube video of the boat with fully battened sails and that is what got me thinking. I have no idea what they did with the cut of the sail to get it to accommodate the triangle. It would be interesting to talk to them about their choice.


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