The fellow at UK sailmakers is suggesting vertical battens on a TapeDrive RF main. I already have their TapeDrive genoa, it came with the boat. I like the TapeDrive technology, but I'm not so sure about how much benefit battens have when they go vertical. I'm sure it will help the cupping at the leach, but that seems like a lot of hardware to provide some small assistance on a small problem. I think I'd feel different if it were RF boom and the battens could be horizontal.
Any conflicting opinions out there? Any advocates of battens in an RF main?
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Greg Jackson
SV Jacqui Marie
2004 C36, MKII
tall rig, wing keel,
I apologize for waking up a nearly 1 year old thread but am curious if anyone has vertical battens on their Catalina 36 MKII roller furling main.
We raced with a Beneteau 361 with a roller furler main and vertical battens and I was absolutely shocked at how well this boat pointed. Most roller furler main boats we had seen really didn't point all that well so my suspicion is that it was the vertical battens that made the difference.
2000 C36 MKII 1825
I still have not replaced my mainsail, but I've noticed that the stock Catalina RF mainsail now has vertical battens. If they do that on OEM sails then I suspect there is little danger of the setup being not workable. I think I'll get the battens, but I'm still not sure if I want to use Dacron or the cruising style laminates.
Greg
Greg Jackson
SV Jacqui Marie
2004 C36, MKII
tall rig, wing keel,
Greg,
Do you know if there is an aftermarket for a in mast furling system for battens?
Glenn Druhot
Carpe Diem
New Bern, NC
35* 6' 10" N / 77* 2' 30" W
2001 C36, Hull #1965
Std Rig; Wing Keel; M35B
[QUOTE=ProfDruhot;21231]Greg,
Do you know if there is an aftermarket for a in mast furling system for battens?[/QUOTE]
I don't know if I understand your question. If you're looking to add roller furling mainsail then there not a lot of options. I've seen mast mounted additions, the few I've seen have all be done on larger boats and they tend to look really clunky. Battens on a vertical mounted mainsail really don't add that much to the performance.
Forespar has a decent system for boom based mainsail roller furling. It allows full length battens. I'm not sure why boom based furling seems to have lost popularity over mast based, but they are getting less and less common. I have heard that it's a lot of weight to lift w/o a mainsail power winch. I can also tell you that a Forespar retrofit for mainsail furling will set you back about $22,000 to $25,000. A refit with a system that copies what Catalina did would probably be the same or even more.
If you're asking if there is a market for a system you want to unload, I think you might be find someone. There are always a few people who have RF mainsail and prefer a higher performance system, as well as people who have conventional rigging and would like to switch over to RF. I suspect that the latter outnumber the former but I know there are people in both camps.
Greg Jackson
SV Jacqui Marie
2004 C36, MKII
tall rig, wing keel,