[Anonymous]

My first time with a fully battened main. In light winds bearing up too far to windward, the battens go into an S shape and I have to bear off a lot to get the main to reset. Is this a normal fully batterned fault or perhaps the battens are too long and need shortening?.

[Anonymous]

Kieth
This is perfectly normal.
Same thing happens on my 36 in light winds and can be overcome with a tug on the boom normally as learnt from my dinghy sailing days.
Alternatively you could slacken them off a bit so they are not under as much tension and that should stop them going into the s shape however I prefer to keep tension on mine as it improves the sail shape and airflow across the sail.
Regards
Rick

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rick. At least I’m not doing anything wrong. Prefer unbattened! I can get closer to the wind on previous boats with all the tweaks I’ve learnt. A lot obviously depends on other design factors, so perhaps fully battened doesn’t suit my 37 and the modern chunky designs.

[Anonymous]

An upgrade to stiffer (carbon, tubular) batons should also help prevent this and maintain the sailshape. This is something I’m considering down the road for our Bavaria 31…

-Riyad
s/v Battuta
Vancouver, Canada

[Author]

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