DaySailer.org Forum

my recently acquired ds1 3464 came with an almost new main sail. it looks nice, except when i'm sailing. it has a distressing bend at the battens that allows the leech to fall away and produce an 's' shaped cross section. ugh! i've been messing with the battens, varying outhaul and downhaul tensions etc. sometimes it looks acceptable but its not a 'wing' to my eye. i'm very interested in sail shape...if anybody has any suggestions, i'd love to figger it out. in the meantime,
yesterday evening over a few beers i was discussing the problem with my sailing buddies. the result was me hoisting my hobie 14 main onto the ds mast. nice fit! the h14 is 118 sf, fully battened, with a very sweet wing shape. gotta try it! maybe tomorrow. pics to follow unless something breaks

I'm curious: Was the bend before the battens or are the battens merely too soft to hold their shape?

If the former or the battens are the ones that came with the sail, might you be able to tell us what "almost" new means - and perhaps the source of sails (there should be a sailmaker's mark).

the sail is hard and clean with no sign of wear, chafe, etc. it looked new when i got the boat. it was made by dream maker sailmakers of jacksonville fl (which is where the boat came from)
the battens were very stiff and heavy, and barely fit in the pockets. maybe they were too long. one was mismatched... i'll try to get some pics this afternoon : )

Well, I was hoping I would check back today and see a report on how your boat sailed with the Hobie 14 sail.

The heavy ill fitting battens make sense. I had a boat that had not quite the same problems, but definitely kinked somewhat at the batten pocket ends. I put in lighter weight tapered battens and it helped to shape the sails significantly. The top batten still was a little odd on the boat so I sanded that batten even thinner to get the right sail shape.

KC

i changed the battens to lighter, thinner, and slightly shorter ones. the resulting shape is a big improvement http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2246 ... t=outdoors
we spent yesterday afternoon discussing the state of the universe and did not try the h14 sail. maybe there will be a sailing opportunity this afternoon...