Dan,
We may have debated batten tensioners before...but there seems to be
plenty of extra bandwidth on rec.dot these days, so why not again
8^)
I can see you like to super-fine tune your rigs. That's cool,
especially if you are the kind of guy who can afford to buy all new
quivers every couple of years;
sails and masts all matching and all from the same maker.
I've got sails and masts from a lot of companies. And a lot of
years.
There are often times when I might use a mast on a different sail.
It all works amazingly well together, except for the products that
have special gimmiks
like head-plugs or laser interferometrically calibrated piezo actuated
batten tensioning facilitation. LICPABTEF in the NASA lexicon
8^)
1: Ease of rigging:
The old Norths and Ezzys work so great: pop the tension straps loose
on the cambered battons, rig the sail and pop the cambers on easily,
then just grab the straps and pull the battens snug. All done.
On the screw adjusted models, you are forced to leave the battens
fully tensioned (or waste time to unscrew the little *&^*%). With
the battens fully tensioned, you can only get the cambers on by
pulling a ton of outhaul and even then it can be tough. Then you
have to go release the outhaul and complete the downhaul. Then re-
adjust the outhaul again.
2: Batten interchangeability and repair: Let's say you break a batten
while rigging or in the surf. With the strap design, you pop open the
strap, pull the batten, you can put a wide range of tem****ary
battens back in there because the strap will adjust for at least four
or five inches. The strap will also couple to different batten ends
without problem. Compare this to the screw adjusted models.
First...it is a royal pain to even get the broken batten out.
Second....a tem****ary batten must be the exact length and end design
to fit up into the screw device. (Your solution: always throw away
sails every year so they don't have a chance to wear out...)
3: Options for repair on the water and self-rescue: Battens and
cambers that fail when you are out on the water can make the sail very
hard to handle...sometimes non-functional. The strap design allows
a sailor to effect a repair while treading water easily. Try this
with a screw tensioned design!
4: Longevity. I've never had a strap break or fail. On the other
hand, the screw tensioners on my sails often jam because of corrosion
or sand. Fine threaded metal screws and salt water are a very bad
mix. Once they jam,
you start reaming-out the hex socket with your tool...soon the socket
is rounded and the screw can only be removed with an easy-out. This
often damages the plastic housing of the tensioning gizmo. Time for a
major repair or new sail.
6: Some models use a little plastic knob instead of a hex wrench. I
think a*****ech did it this way. The treads get oxidised and jam up,
then you twist-off the little plastic knob. Then you get another
sail.
5: No Standards. Which way do you turn them to tighten? One
manufacturer goes clockwise to tighten the batten, another goes
counterclockwise. Who can remember from sail to sail? I'm screwing
in and out trying to see whether I'm tightening or loosening and
finally just say, "Screw it".
6: Tendancy to overtighten: The strap method gives you an immediate
tactile feed-back on how tight you've got the batten. The screw
method gives no feed back and there is a tendancy to over-tension.
7: Longevity of the sail: The batten pockets on screw tensioned
sails are typically left fully tensioned for the life of the sail.
The pockets begin to stretch and stitching can come loose over time.
Strap models are easily and quickly de-tensioned for storage.
Those are some reasons I hate 'em.
Regards,
BF
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