For several years now, I've been using a set of red (Med Std.) RATBattens that came with my second boat. These are tapered foam-core fiberglass battens. I've been happy with them (not too stiff, not too flexible) up until yesterday when I snapped three in a bad gybe.

Can anybody suggest an equivalent replacement? A couple other sailors in the fleet have tried fiberglass battens, but theirs turned out to be too stiff.

Thanks,
Eric

Maybe this helps? The company that sells the type of battens that u broke.
http://www.rbsbattens.com/
http://www.fiberfoam.net/

Try Jay Glaser, he should be able to help match your old battens.

http://www.glasersails.com/catsails.htm

They stock fiberfoam battens.

If your battens are less than 14-15 years old, they are probably fiberfoam. Sometime around 1997, Fiberfoam became the only company that I could find that made foamcore battens. I remember very well having to pay shipping for a 11 foot long package from Austria.T

You could also consider tubular battens like the ones on the ARC boats.

Aquarius Sails carries them.

Has anyone tried to use tappered fishing rods for battens?

I'm sure Jake has resin infused a few sets of battens...

That is pretty much what the RC battens are. I have a set.

Right, but since they are made in small quantity and specifically for this purpose, I am assuming that they are expensive - even before adding the international freight.

Tom Haberman did not reply to my request for a quote, so I tried to find an alternative and discovered that tubular telescopic fishing rod blanks are readily available here and relatively inexpensive. I prepared a few battens that worked well in light wind, but still have to be tried in heavier conditions. My main concern is their durability, especially if someone falls on the mainsail in a capsize, so I filled them with polyurethane foam, hoping that this will reduce their fragility.

They could also be reinforced with a carbon or glass sleeve, that can accomodate variable diameters, in which case they would work as lost male plugs, but I had to try the simplest solution first.

the foam tapering battens on my nacra had busted at the thin flexy end and had been poorly repaired by the previous owner by drilling and through bolting very stiff windsurfer battens onto the ends

over a winter i took off the bolted additions, replaced them with some thin cedar strips and glassed on a 3 increasingly long layers of cloth on each side

the ends are a probably a bit stiffer now than when they left the factory and they are a tiny bit heavier but i don't race my 28year old boat 1 design and the cost was pretty much only labour as i had the materials

If you have to fix a broken tappered batten tip again, try a small glass or carbon fishing rod that fits the diameter and flexibility requirements. It is not difficult to find, they have lots of models.

My experimental battens have a solid tip. The telescopic tappered fishing rod blank I found already had a solid glass tip, but half of the tip was too flexible, so I cut it out. That left me with two hollow sections, that are easier to fill than a longer one, and a solid tip that is more resistant to breakage.

Badly repaired broken battens being mentioned remind me of an Oxford race Alec and I did. I got tossed off the boat and there was a resultant capsize. Turned out a batten broke, and at Oxford we realized we didn't have a spare for the race back the next day. We didn't have any resin or cloth to repair it. So we figured we'd splint it with some stick and tape. Where to find stick... Went to the general store, bought frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick, ate them, used the Popsicle sticks to splint the batten. Worked so well we forgot about it. Sailed the rest of the season that way. Wasn't until we were going through the gear for the following season that we rediscovered our little repair...