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How to make sail battens and save $$$?

You need wood as core material. I took pine, but any other soft wood would be fine as well.

I usually took 20mm x 2 or 3mm stripes and plane them with the right taper. You need a smaller thickness than foam battens, since the wood contributes to the stiffness. The thickness is the way to get the right stiffness.

Encapsulate them with epoxid before apply the glass fibre.

once the epoxy on the wood is dry, apply unidirectional glass tape. One layer is enough. 1m is about 20 cents. One piece of would (2m) is about 1€. Hence don't hesitate to make some prototypes to find the right thickness to get your desired bending curve. For long battens I start with 4mm and plane down to about 2mm at the tip. 4mm is already quite stiff.
Round the edges to protect your sail and make some spare battens as well (Never broke one while sailing, but once my crew felt in the sail after pitchpoling and one batten was broken).

Klaus,

when you say "plane down" the wood, do you remove wood from the thick side or the narrow top?
Removing from the top would be much easer of course

When you apply epoxy before glassing. Do you let the epoxy dry, clean and sand, or do you put on the glass before the first epoxy layer have hardened?

Have you noticed any lasting twist/corkscrewing of the battens if you leave them in a rolled sail?

What is the weight like compared to foam/glass battens?

How lang have you sailed with wood/glass battens (durability)?

Wood is not a uniform material so this will never lend itself to mass production with consistent results. However I would like to try this myself! I think it might work out very well!

One small thing. If you tie your battens in the batten pocket it might be good to drill the hole oversize, fill with thickened epoxy and re-drill once hardened. Otherwise you might get cracking and water/moisture seeping in there.


Thanks for sharing!

I never thought of using wood... Even though I have stood holding those nice thin strips thinking "gee, this is really nice material"...
darn good excuse for buying an electric plane.
Thanks a lot for this tip.

I'm not sure you'll get the control and accuracy you'll need. Try a block plane to rough out the desired shape- within 1mm for instance, then sand paper.

Once you're comfortable with the material, I'm quessing a jig and belt sander will be the way to go.

Ash battens are standard equipment on Isotope mainsails. Some sailors like to varnish them, but many simply leave them untreated. Several uf us have taken to making our own - all you need is a tablesaw, a drill, and a 2x10 piece of clear (knot free) ash. The battens are much stronger if quartersawn rather than plainsawn.

What do you do about tapering, and how do you do it?

Most don't bother to taper their battens. We do vary the width and thickness of the individual battens (stiffer on the bottom of the sail than near the top). Surprisingly, the sails seem to take their cut shape even without tapered battens. Those who choose to do so typically reduce the width of the batten rather than the thickness. It's much easier to get a consistent taper that way.

For years Supercats have used something like fishing rod blanks. They are nicely tapered, can be had in carbon or regular glass, and come in thousands of different dimensions and stiffnesses. Bill Roberts once told me, "The advantages of these battens are that for the required stiffness they are the lightest weight and due to a special taper, they naturally bend in a desirable airfoil shape in concert with the shape built into the sail."

The problem is coming up with exactly what you want/need the first time since you cannot adjust them. They also break into sharp daggers if you fall into your mainsail.

Don't ask me how I know...

I know that in the early days of the 18sq some of the guys used Shakespeare antenna cover for battens. I don't know who the supplier was though.

From the wide side. So it will always be 20mm wide but taper from 3 to 2mm for example. Thats essential, if you do it the other way, the batten will tend to break.


I let "dry" (wait a couple of hours), but do not sand. The idea is that the wood soaks the epoxy. If you do not do this first, you may have some dry glass, because the wood is like a sponge and takes the epoxy from the glass fibre. Also the wood is protected from moisture.


No. If yes, you wood takes moisture, hence it wasn't fully encapsulated in resin.


Three years on my Dart 18 (then I sold the boat) and now two years on the T. I sailed the Dart every week-end in the spring and summer for a couple of hours. The T is sailed less.
We sail in strong winds as well (25kts).


I used a small brush to get epoxy in the hole. Less professional, but did the job. Or a notch on the end instead of a whole.

Cheers,

Klaus

Thanks Klaus, good information! I am going to try this when the time comes.

I am not convinced that only moisture can make wood bend and change shape over time, but it is of little concern in this application. When doing hull panels and other stuff, it is of great concern. Pre-coating is a very good trick!

Thanks klaus and the rest!
That hull looks beautiful Rolf! Don't forget to celebrate!

Dennis

On my first Prindle, I took a set of fiberglass battens, that had no taper.

I then eyeballed it and used a belt sander to taper them.

Not exact, but it worked really well on my first Prindle 18 classic, with a dacron sail.

Cheap too.