Not sure if anyone (else) needs a periodic reminder to go over their gear, but we do seem to be hitting the season where at least down here in victoria it's dead calm or storm force ... which IMHO makes it a good time for an equipment check. I spotted an issue with one of my mast bases:



and I wanted to ask what folks were doing for spare parts for battens? e.g.



That's out of a sailworks retro 10.5. An old beat up sail, but expensive to replace. On that particular repair I found I could cut off 4" of the tube and replace a chunk of 8.5mm rod with a chunk 4" longer (cut out of a batten from a discarded sail) ... but on examining the rest of the battens, it seems that ALL of the tube based battens are damaged (top batten and bottom two are solid), and in some cases there is a considerable length of damaged tube, so I guess I'll be wrapping them in fiberglass/epoxy. If this was a newer sail I'd happily pay the shipping from sailworks, but $50is basically 1/3 of what the sail cost, and it's in worse shape now than when I got it. So... What do you guys do for batten repairs? I'd think that with a stock of 8.5 or 9mm rod, a belt sander and a good respirator, one could basically make your own (just recycling the batten tensioner)...?

best bet would be to find someone with a similar size trashed sail that you might be able to pull battens out of. paul Betz at leech n mcbride might have something you can use http://www.leitchandmcbride.com/

tbrown wrote: If this was a newer sail I'd happily pay the shipping from sailworks, but $50is basically 1/3 of what the sail cost, and it's in worse shape now than when I got it. So... What do you guys do for batten repairs? I'd think that with a stock of 8.5 or 9mm rod, a belt sander and a good respirator, one could basically make your own (just recycling the batten tensioner)...?

considering the replacement of such a sized sail is over a grand and time/materials/effort to repair/make battens, $50 not working for you is one tough budget... if not battens, yes maybe a decent universal to potentially save your life might be a good plan

Nice slam. If that's what this forum is about, I'm clearly in the wrong place. My apologies for wasting folks time. -Tom

tbrown wrote:Nice slam. If that's what this forum is about, I'm clearly in the wrong place. My apologies for wasting folks time. -Tom

wha? am i missing something? ok lost you forever i guess... or maybe other issues in play....Most of us that sail in winter check all gear and replace u joints and lines....in fact I did just that with my outhaul rope at CB the other windy day... Only to have the new rope fail twice immediately after that..weird...and obviously this doesn't always solve the problem....anywho sorry to have offended, I seem to have that god given gift...yes it is a good reminder to those who may have forgotten