Hi Rolf,

From a structural point of view, you could make battens from any (usual) material and the stiffness is equilized by the thickness of the battens. I started with pure epoxy/wood battens, which was as soft as the original battens, but they tend to break, so I put the glass on. Then they were significantly stiffer (because I was too lazy to plane the wood - they were already painted with epoxy), but to my surprise, it worked fine. Keep in mind, that this was for a Dart 18 which has a very weak downhaul (2:1 or 3:1), and the possibilities to flaten the sail are limited. Unfortunately I have not measured performance before and after the usage of the new battens, so I must rely on personal judgement: My personal impression was, that it is faster in all conditions apart from light wind / downwind. The balance of the boat and sheating forces are improved significantly. Other people told me, they are impressed how high I can point into the wind without dagger boards.
To check the stiffness of the battens, I put a lot of tell tales all over my sail. So I can tell you that I don't have too less camber. Actually the true camber includes the mast, and the Dart has a wing mast (sorry no F16 invention <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />). My conclusion is that the original battens/sail had to much camber and stiff battens repair that problem.
Second application was on the classic Tornado of my friend. Again there is the problem with the downhaul (6:1 or 4:1, if I remember correctly, with too much friction anyway). It looks flat with the new battens, but we had also changed the prebend in the mast. We sailed only two times (and not bad) in this configuration, so it is too early to make a conclusion here.
After two years, all battens on the Dart are still fine apart of one which broke after my crew jumped into it.
That's my batten story.

However, I have seen sails with soft battens which are as flat as I only can dream of it. I have not fully understood the relation between downhaul, battens and camber, but I guess, the stiffer the battens the less downhaul is required.
Coming back to my first message, you can make wood/glass battens as soft as foam battens. 'Wood/glass battens are too stiff' is a myth, which might be good for your budget.

Cheers,

Klaus