Ways to help your battens last a long time :)



There's tons that could be discussed back and forth, with pros and cons, and
lots of details regarding this.



However, here's a few random thoughts, in addition to what's been said.



Avoid crashing into them.



When your sail is in the water, avoid muscling it into un-natural positions.
Positions that the sail designer didn't intend upon, compared to how it should
flex when in the wind.



Don't over-tension them.



And something I do, that I know most do not anymore. I think that my sails and
battens last longer because I de-tension the battens after sailing. The batten
and the sail can relax. I think that if you relieve that... then the sail and
batten material is not ALWAYS under pressure... and therefore those components
will last longer. Things are less likely to break... they don't wear out as
fast... the sails look better... and the re-sale is more.



If you do this, and they still break... than it must be a supplier material
problem, and that's a major hassle, cause they're expensive and your sail is
"not right" till ya get a new one.



Greg -



To: nw-windtalk@yahoogroups.com
From: alexzotov@...
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:29:38 -0700
Subject: why do battens break?








I got a couple of battens broken on a 5.0 sail (#2 and #4 from the top). No
biggie/ easy to replace with the superb Sailworks support, but I am just curious
why do they break? The sail isn't that old, and in particular it's interesting
that 2 of them broke at the same time. I wonder if this may have been because I
overtightened them - I vaguely remember giving them just a bit of twist a few
sessions back because of a few minor wrinkles I spotted on the sail.

It's interesting that the sail didn't feel good at all when I tried to sail it
with battens broken (and it generally feels really good); I guess the things do
have a reason to be there :-).

thanks

Alex

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