I had been tying my battens as per the diagram someone posted above for a couple of races. It's not doing it - perhaps I needed some kind of waxed string; but it's tough to get them as tight as I want and they continue to work loose over a matter of minutes sailing. I never could convince myself to leave them tied during storage either (and even though they were loose, they were a pain to disengage). I ended up taking two different sized v-jam caps (I have five different sizes of battens), wrapping the ends of the battens with saran wrap, filling the caps with epoxy, and taping them in place. They fit very well now. I also tied two knots in the adjustment string so I am sure they stay in place (and it gives me two settings).