Battens necessary?

H

hodgeleea

New Member
I am fortunate to live on a small lake. The wind is generally light but strong enough to make potting around on my laser fun. The wind comes up quickly and dies just as fast. I realized that I would sail a lot more if it didn't take so long to rig the sail. I have an older hull, but upgraded rigging. I know it's not that big a deal, but it takes time to put the mast together, put the sail on the mast, etc. , so I don't bother unless I feel like the wind is going to be reliable for a while. I realized if I removed the battens I could just wrap the sail around the mast, leave it rigged on the dolly, and could be sailing almost instantly when the wind comes up. I'm not interested in getting the last bit of performance out of the boat, so this seems reasonable. I know it won't be great for the sail, but I can park it in the shade...and it's not so new anyway. What do you think? I'm going to try it anyway, so I'll let you know how it goes, but since most of you guys are much more experienced than me, I welcome your thoughts.
Thanks.
 
It'll sail, just a little ugly and not as efficient. In a breeze, it does tend to make the sail wear a little faster upwind since the leech is flopping around a lot more then with battens in it.

An alternative to wrapping the sail around the mast is to just leave the sail on the mast loosely flaked vertically (battens in or out), and throw on a deck cover with a 10' sail bag to cover the sail that sticks out (to protect the sail from UV damage). You should be able to rig and derig in under 5 minutes this way.
 
at regattas we take the mast down and remove the battens then wrap the sail around the mast and throw on a deck cover. and also the more you rig the boat the faster you get.
 
You could roll up the sail on the mast, take out the battens and put a full length cover on it. I saw them on the Larsen Canvas Site.. I think you are looking at total time about 30 seconds. Be sure the batten tips are firmly glued on to the battens.. Otherwise it will take much much longer...

Mike
 
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