Fully Battened Main - Durable?

[Acadia]

Hi,

looking for options to replace my 25 yr old mainsail. I would like a fully battened main. New ones are very $$ but I may have found a second hand one rated as Good + (whatever that means).

The only thing is that I don't want to get rid of an old sail and buy another old sail. However, since this sail is a fully battened one, should it still not have an efficient shape to it? At least more than my 25yr old blown out main.

How well to fully battened mains age?

Thanks

[witzgall]

I have read that a fully battened sail will suffer less wear at the leech, and hold shape longer, than a partially battened sail.

Chris

[senormechanico]

Condition of the sail is independent of whether or not it has full battens.

That said, I've had a couple of boats with full battens and I prefer them.

One big benefit is when you have to motor.

The sail just calmly sits there instead of flogging.

Steve B.

[Cheechako]

Full battens are nice for shape, and extended roach if you feel you need it. They do tend to take a beating at the forward end of the battens, are heavier to lift with the halyard, may require batcars to go up smoothly etc etc. It's funny, the trend maybe 10 years ago was for bluewater cruisers to get battenless, roachless mains to reduce wear etc... now it's going the other direction..... Frankly I thought my full batten main was a PITA, but it was real big and heavy, had ball bearing cars on the track on the mast (which made the stack-up when reefed high) etc...

[Kiteboarder]

We use a fully battened sail with grid (like windsurf sails) on the Columbia 30 Sport Yacht I crew on. The sails are now 2 years old. For top-level racing, they are not at optimum level. But, for everything else, they still have plenty of years ahead of them.

[Joli]

A main with short (IOR) style battens tends to break down at the inboard end of the batten. Full batten mains avoid this problem and tend to last longer. But as other have said the compression loads require better bearing surfaces for the cars, the stack height is much taller and the sail will be heavier.

Us? We use full batten mains and have no intention of going back to partial battens. Our stack height is ~ 12 foot of the deck but we are exploring the new Harken Batt Cars with a diverter track to get the stack height down to 9 foot or so.

[Cheechako]

Yea, for offshore work I find a simple sail that looks really good with a reef in it a very nice thing, that's just not going to happen with a huge stack up when reefed. Something about a balanced boat crashing along with shortened sail and 25 knots of wind that I always enjoyed....

[Acadia]

Thanks for all the comments! I'll post a few more details of this used sail.

Current Sail; Luff 48', foot 13' 7"
Used Sail; Luff 46' 4' Foot 13"

So it would be slightly smaller, not sure how much that would affect performance.

Used Sail:FULL BATTENED MAIN, 8.4 OZ DACRON BY MACK. 7/8" FLAT NYLON INTERNAL SLIDES WEBBED TO GROMMETS ON COVERED ROPE LUFF. ADJUSTABLE RUTGERSON FULL BATTENED END FITTINGS WITH 7/8" FLAT INTERNAL SLIDE CARS. CUNNINGHAM CRINGLE. 1" TACK SETBACK. 1" TACK SETUP. LEECH LINE. ROWS OF REEFS UP 5' 0" AND 11' 3". PEEL OFF NUMBERS. TAKES 4 FULL LENGTH BATTENS, INCLUDED. MODERATE/HEAVY SOIL. GOOD+ 48 lbs.

Moderate/Heavy sloil: not sure how hard that would be to take out, I will have to see it first

I would like to replace my current sail because it seems that the draft is quite aft and I can only do so much to try and bring it to the right spot (could be my technique but the sail is 1985 and I assume it's blown out)

As far as the stack height, I don't think it will be much higher than current because of the bat car/nylon slides combo. On the downside might prove a bit difficult to hoist.

I remember reading something a while ago that a full batten sail will hold it's shape for most of it's life. True?

I am looking for all the benefits of a full bat sail and this one will have it. What I am curious to know is if it will give me better performance than my current blown out sail.

Thanks again!!!, I've posted several times on this forum while I was selecting a new genoa and spinnaker and I'm glad I did because with your help, I am very satisfied with what I got

I attached a pic of the A-spinnaker that I built with a sailrite kit......

[Acadia]

Oh I should add that the price of the sail is 650. So far the cheapest I found was 2800 new without track hardware. (I only priced a few lofts, North wants 4000)

[Kiteboarder]

That's a very nice spinnaker Acadia.

[thinwater]

"As far as the stack height, I don't think it will be much higher than current because of the bat car/nylon slides combo. On the downside might prove a bit difficult to hoist.[/quote]

If it is too much to hoist, consider a 2:1 halyard. Easy to do, but will lower th head ~ 4-6".

[Cheechako]

sounds pretty good, but in my experience, "moderate/heavy soil" will mean a pretty ugly sail, could have large orange rust spots etc... any way to find out what it really looks like? If it's at Bacon's in Annapolis, you might get them to drag it out and walk you through a description over the phone... I have not had much success at trying to clean sails......

[Acadia]

Well I called them to pull the sail out and he seems to think that the sail is in good shape. The moderate/heavy soil was a 4" by 5' along the foot. He thinks that I would be able to wash it off. So I guess I will give it a shot, I can always return it. I just hope it still has life left in it and that the size won't be much of an issue.

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by Acadia

Well I called them to pull the sail out and he seems to think that the sail is in good shape. The moderate/heavy soil was a 4" by 5' along the foot. He thinks that I would be able to wash it off. So I guess I will give it a shot, I can always return it. I just hope it still has life left in it and that the size won't be much of an issue.

this sounds really dubious -
you call to have someone look at it;
rather, somebody thinks he recalls seeing it;
vague inspection and thinks it's in good shape;
he thinks it might be cleanable.

Call these clowns back and insist they inspect and give you a written report.
Might take them 15 minutes. If they refuse, why would you trust them to return your money, pay shipping, etc?

[Kiteboarder]

I'd say listen to S/V Illusion. It might save you lots of grief. There are too many shady sellers out there.

I recently went to see a boat and the guy claimed the sails were new. I figured they were not new, so after a few minutes of conversation over the phone I got him to say "They are like new, used, but only a couple of times" Still, he was full of crap. When I looked at the sails, they looked old and yellow! They were all piled into a sail bag, not even folded properly!

Save your time, it's worth money. I never believe in the whole "money back" junk. There's usually some kind of catch.