I have been trying my MauiSails MS-2 free-race sail on the Fanatic Ultra CAT longboard in order to see whether the sail is still okay, since the monofilm has been repaired with monofilm tape. Last winter the creases became cracks/holes in the cold - probably because the sail became wet and frozen ...
In any case, the batten on the top camber looked suspect and i did not want to ruin the sail completely. I went over my notes from the last post on the subject and was able to extract the camber and the batten with no issues: http://joewindsurfer.blogspot.ca/2012/05/having-my-batten-repaired.html
I looked up how much it had cost me to repair last time - only $25, but the auventfou shop is a little out of the way - only 40 minute drive and not four(4) hours like some windsurf buddies "down under" in Australia ... Still, the question remained, was the sail worth the effort since there were already repairs , foggy monofilm, etc i.e. how much life is still in this sail ??
As usual, i look upon this as an adventure... What have i got that might work. Look, there are old Gaastra battens in the back of the garage - from thrown out sails. Based on how things came apart, it looks like it might do...
So, here is what i did do :-)
The original batten was taped in order to have an idea of length required...
The Gaastra batten tip was sanded in order to be close to size of original batten...
The Gaastra batten was cut and sanded. The plastic came off and batten seemed to fit like a glove. I applied marine epoxy to the round end of the batten, slid it in the sleeve and added electrical tape to keep the plastic on and things together...
Now I cannot wait until it all dries and i try it out ...
Started sliding the batten in with no issues:
Once the mast is inserted, the batten does seem to be bent quite a bit:
Once rigged the sail looked pretty good:
After some sailing I tightened the battens and everything just seemed fine !!!
The question remains - how am i busting these battens??
Some articles suggest during the de-rigging of the sail...
I will pay close attention to the rigging , de-rigging and how sail works under different setups ...
I really DID pay attention during the take down and saw potential where batten could have issues ...
Will be triple careful with this type of sail from now on !!!!
Wish they were less sensitive $%^&*()_+
Well, now i am just pissed...
The batten is broken already - after just two(2) uses.
It was NOT during rigging nor de-rigging.
It had to be during the session today - when i aggressively flip the sail from one side to another.
It means i will NOT be purchasing MS-2 sails again - unfortunately.
I have broken a batten on the race sail once too %^&*()_
Do i go to RAF sails with NO monofilm ???
Took the batten out - so as NOT to damage the sail - broken at same place + piece left inside at end :-(
This sail will be used as is - okay in 20 kph winds on the longboard...
Since I like to leave NO job incomplete ... I punched a small hole in the end of the batten sleeve - at the camber end - and pushed the batten tip back using a nail and a hole punch.
Once it was past the tight end, the batten tip was pushed with my finger nail until the batten joint. At that point it looked like a difficult place to get past. Cut the batten sleeve on one side and extracted the tip with needle nose pliers.
If a Gaastra batten is used again, it needs to have the tip glued or epoxied to the batten itself.
I will continue to sail with the batten and camber out until i have fixed the batten.Then i will try to sail with the camber OFF. Once i am confident that the batten will NOT break, only then will i attempt it with the camber again !!!!
And so... in order to continue with the experiment ... I cut the broken batten portion and drilled a hole to be able to put another old Gaastra batten in at the tip. Unfortunately this was difficult to align perfectly, butt does not really matter for what i am doing. The replacement batten was NOT epoxied since more replacements may be required :-)
I sailed it with more outhaul and without the camber on the top one. I now call this sail the MS-1 rather than the MS-2 :-) The sail felt and looked better than without the batten. I did not feel like it sailed worse than or with less power than with the camber. The idea of sailing with one camber does feel like an odd concept though - in theory, not practice. As i have discussed in the comments with Yan the Sailboarder, i feel like my issue of breaking battens is rigging this sail with not enough outhaul. I do not believe it is a downhaul issue... I will continue to test without the camber until satisfied and only then try with the camber again. I may purchase a MauiSails batten to see if there is a difference in profile... Time and experiments will tell. My latest joke --- Time is of the essence = Time smells :-) In this case , time does not matter. Is that why i love windsurfing so much ?? :-)
Time smells, butt timing is everything :-)
And of course, I broke the other batten on the remaining camber. I took off that camber too and now call the sail the MS-0. I loosened the outhaul slightly to get the same haul/power...
In any case, the batten on the top camber looked suspect and i did not want to ruin the sail completely. I went over my notes from the last post on the subject and was able to extract the camber and the batten with no issues: http://joewindsurfer.blogspot.ca/2012/05/having-my-batten-repaired.html
I looked up how much it had cost me to repair last time - only $25, but the auventfou shop is a little out of the way - only 40 minute drive and not four(4) hours like some windsurf buddies "down under" in Australia ... Still, the question remained, was the sail worth the effort since there were already repairs , foggy monofilm, etc i.e. how much life is still in this sail ??
As usual, i look upon this as an adventure... What have i got that might work. Look, there are old Gaastra battens in the back of the garage - from thrown out sails. Based on how things came apart, it looks like it might do...
So, here is what i did do :-)
The original batten was taped in order to have an idea of length required...
The Gaastra batten tip was sanded in order to be close to size of original batten...
The Gaastra batten was cut and sanded. The plastic came off and batten seemed to fit like a glove. I applied marine epoxy to the round end of the batten, slid it in the sleeve and added electrical tape to keep the plastic on and things together...
Now I cannot wait until it all dries and i try it out ...
Started sliding the batten in with no issues:
Once the mast is inserted, the batten does seem to be bent quite a bit:
Once rigged the sail looked pretty good:
After some sailing I tightened the battens and everything just seemed fine !!!
The question remains - how am i busting these battens??
Some articles suggest during the de-rigging of the sail...
I will pay close attention to the rigging , de-rigging and how sail works under different setups ...
I really DID pay attention during the take down and saw potential where batten could have issues ...
Will be triple careful with this type of sail from now on !!!!
Wish they were less sensitive $%^&*()_+
Well, now i am just pissed...
The batten is broken already - after just two(2) uses.
It was NOT during rigging nor de-rigging.
It had to be during the session today - when i aggressively flip the sail from one side to another.
It means i will NOT be purchasing MS-2 sails again - unfortunately.
I have broken a batten on the race sail once too %^&*()_
Do i go to RAF sails with NO monofilm ???
Took the batten out - so as NOT to damage the sail - broken at same place + piece left inside at end :-(
This sail will be used as is - okay in 20 kph winds on the longboard...
Since I like to leave NO job incomplete ... I punched a small hole in the end of the batten sleeve - at the camber end - and pushed the batten tip back using a nail and a hole punch.
Once it was past the tight end, the batten tip was pushed with my finger nail until the batten joint. At that point it looked like a difficult place to get past. Cut the batten sleeve on one side and extracted the tip with needle nose pliers.
If a Gaastra batten is used again, it needs to have the tip glued or epoxied to the batten itself.
I will continue to sail with the batten and camber out until i have fixed the batten.Then i will try to sail with the camber OFF. Once i am confident that the batten will NOT break, only then will i attempt it with the camber again !!!!
And so... in order to continue with the experiment ... I cut the broken batten portion and drilled a hole to be able to put another old Gaastra batten in at the tip. Unfortunately this was difficult to align perfectly, butt does not really matter for what i am doing. The replacement batten was NOT epoxied since more replacements may be required :-)
I sailed it with more outhaul and without the camber on the top one. I now call this sail the MS-1 rather than the MS-2 :-) The sail felt and looked better than without the batten. I did not feel like it sailed worse than or with less power than with the camber. The idea of sailing with one camber does feel like an odd concept though - in theory, not practice. As i have discussed in the comments with Yan the Sailboarder, i feel like my issue of breaking battens is rigging this sail with not enough outhaul. I do not believe it is a downhaul issue... I will continue to test without the camber until satisfied and only then try with the camber again. I may purchase a MauiSails batten to see if there is a difference in profile... Time and experiments will tell. My latest joke --- Time is of the essence = Time smells :-) In this case , time does not matter. Is that why i love windsurfing so much ?? :-)
Time smells, butt timing is everything :-)
And of course, I broke the other batten on the remaining camber. I took off that camber too and now call the sail the MS-0. I loosened the outhaul slightly to get the same haul/power...
Could be that the batten is not the right one? They can have profiles in order to bend more in certain areas. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteOf course you are correct Sailboarder...
DeleteMany factors are possible.
I am happy to have started these experiments with an old sail where it does not matter any way.
It has given me an opportunity to experiment and try to understand sails in a way i may never have before ...
I believe that for me and that sail the issue is NOT during the rigging and de-rigging...
I believe for me and that sail it is more about aggressive flipping of cambers from one side to the other...
So, in the repair case - the batten may not have been the `correct`one...
For me , it also implies that I am not outhauling my free-race sails enough. I like low end power in these sails, but not at the detriment of the broken battens...
With the camber removed, i have already started to add more outhaul in order for it to flip over better without cam and not to put pressure on the material.
I feel like i have found another way for me to have fun with windsurfing - doing experiments with equipment :-)
How were the International KONA races last week ???
SORRY i could not make it down there :-(