Chrysler Sailors Forum

Ok folks, any ideas on what to make battens out of?... My Man-O-War came without the battens for the sail, so I'm gonna have to fabricate some.

Just wondering if anybody has any ideas. (They're gonna need to be about 1.5 inch wide, 3.5 feet long, and 3/16 inch thick.... approximately)

I thought of aluminum, but it'll bend and just stay bent. Wood would be easy and cheap, but would involve constant replacements as I feel it would be too easily broken. Laying them up in fiberglass just seems like a lot of work, though probably the "best" solution.

You should be able to purchase them fairly cheaply. But I have made them out of red oak, if you get some with some good straight grain I don't think you'll have to worry to much about breaking them. They will need to be a little thinner if they were originally of some composite material. I'd stay away from metal because it would damage the sail material through oxidation. Wood was what they used in the old days and oak is what I've seen as the preferred type to use.

oak, if , cedar, mapple... well, any wood that are used to make bow should be fine there! coat is with epoxy and should be trouble-free for some time.

but check the price for fiberglass one from sailmaker, might not be worth the time to make them

Hopper,

My battens are not original. The guy I bought the boat from inherited it and could not find the battens when he was getting it ready to sell. He made replacements out of fiberglass. I think he just had or purchased some ready made sheets and ripped them with a table saw.

The funny thing is that when I was replacing the gudgeon I had to put a deck plate in the back and found one of the old wood battens laying right in the back cavity. It was pretty soggy from the last time I was out. I found the other two when I was cleaning out all the old deteriorated flotation foam from the sides. Both probably would have worked, but were still pretty brittle from years of neglect.

If you want I could ask the guy where he got the material to make them.

Well, just found out my battens were made from some C-Scow battens the guy cut down to size.

I found some batten stock at Defender.com for a reasonable price per foot. It is 1-5/8" wide stock.