With the non-overlapping jibs normally used on RC boats, why shouldn’t we use full (or IOR type) battens on the jib?
Any reason against?
Marino
The more I practice, the luckier I get.
It’s been tried by many; it doesn’t work. The full lenght battens won’t pop over.
Another technical hangup is the batten needs a pocket on the leading edge to hold it in position to allow it to “pop” over. On a big boat, these are usually some sort of plastic (or metal on really big ones).
Then the batten must be in some sort of fabric sail pocket or sleeve to allow the sail fabric to move around it to facilitate the “pop”
There needs to be some form of tie at the leech edge to allow setting batten tension for the amount of wind expected. Loose tension for high or low winds so sail stays flat, and higher tension for mid-strength winds to keep the camber in the sail.
Finally for a main sail - one could use the trailing edge of the mast to press battens against - but round masts or masts without a sail slot/track and those masts that don’t rotate negate any performance improvements or effects. Big boat battens are also tapered in thickness to acquire the proper camber at the proper location - something difficult to do with thin styrene.
I think the problems far exceed the gains - however some are using them. In R/C multihulls it is usually on the 2 Meter size boats. Anything smaller just seems to be a pain.
As always - if you experiment, be sure to post the outcomes.
Both the Santa Barbara and the Soling M by Vortex used a batten in their jib. It was not uncommon for the trailing edge of the batten to hang up on the mast in light air… very light air… but both boats were intended for ocean useage where wind and wave were plentiful, and in those conditions it worked as desired.