Battens

[Ninie]

I'm really getting addicted to Lasers....

While rigging my sail yesterday, I wondered what was the difference between wood battens and the newer "plastic" one. Which one is the best (I've got 3 plastic, 2 wooden) ?

Annie

 

[49208]

All wood were the batten of choice back prior to the mid 70's for most sails. As cost and other manufacturing factors caught up, fiberglass replaced all wood battens. Today you can find all glass and composite (glass/carbon/foam/kevlar/honeycomb and yes, wood)

Since the laser batten is not tapered (and before someone thinks that putting tapered battens in their sail will give them an advantage, the sail design takes into account the batten stiffness at the inboard end, so a tapered batten actually makes the sail look a little too round in the back, besides being illegal)

As long as the two battens are similar in stiffness, there isn't a best.