Hi Bill, My two cents worth to your questions:
If the batten pockets will "easily" accept 1 1/4" battens, that is what I'd use. You don't want battens that you have to force into the pocket: the day comes when you want to remove them, and how do you then do that? Crawl into the pocket and push from the inside end?? Thinner battens for light air are nice in theory, and are probably used by racers - broken batten are just a racing expense and if they let you win.....? But from a practical point of view, do you really and truly want to drop the main and change out your battens because the wind has gone from 12 knots to 13.5 knots? ...........and what happens if you get a sudden squall? .....are you going to change battens again? If I'm racing and that may offer me 0.001 knot more speed than my competitor, it's worth a try, but not for a cruising sailor. Tapered or non-tapered? Tapered is what you want. Why? Because with the thin end forward, the sail will have a much better curve and the leach will be supported more. With constant thickness battens you may get a hard break between sail area and batten area (at the front edge of the batten). The tapered batten give a nice transition from sailcloth shape to leach support. I use one set of tapered battens. They go in: stay in: and I have no worries if I'm hit by gusts, or any other event that can happen when sailing. Connie _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
