in Mast furling --- full-batten

[Spritz]

Dear ALL, 
I have a Jeanneau Sun Odissey 42 DS with in mast furling main sail and I love that boat (I do not want to change it)!!!

to increase her sailing performances I am starting thinking to change the rigging with a full-batten main sail.

I guess there are two possibilities:

1) change the mast (I believe very expensive) 
2) use my must taking out the furling system and positioning on it the system for the full batten (Is it sufficiently solid??)


can you please tell me if someone did this change and  how he approached the problem? 


Thank you 

[Trevor]

Hello Spritz,

I have heard of rigs that have kept the furling main for cruising and installed a sail track next to the furling slot on the mast for a conventional main to be installed for racing. It sounds like a good compromise to me apart from having the weight of the furling sail in the mast when racing.

Regards,

Trevor

[Spritz]

Dear Trevor 
thank you for your kind replay!
races are out of my mind with my boat but, as you know, usually there are mini races between friends and so.... 

I would prefer not to have all the weight of the furling



thank you , if you have more precise info, please share.



Best Regards



 

[MalcolmP]

Hi Spritz

I don't know for sure which spar maker was used on your SO42DS but would be worth talking to the makers.

It could well be a Z Spar (Z Diffusion) - Worth talking to www.zsparsuk.com/  they are always really helpful

Malcolm

[ianpowolny]

I had a very interesting call with Z-Spars UK this week. The cost of a new in-mast furling mast that would take battens ball park £6000; then add rigging both running and standing. plus labour. Not sure there would be any change out of £10k. By the way all I called about was a sailmakers idea of adding short battens to a new main keeping the old mast. No go according to Z-Spars. Good people to speak to.

[sabmd42]

You might want to consider Air Battens. I had this same issue when I first bought my 1999 SO 45.2 3 years ago. I like to race and was disappointed with the performance of the sails. They were original (worn out) and the main had no battens due to the roller furling. I did lots of research and found that UK Sails can make a furling mainsail with Air Battens, that inflate when unfurled and deflate to allow easy furling. The boat sails much better since I got this sail. They work like real battens when inflated. The minor nuisance of pumping up the battens when you unfurl it is nothing compared to the increased performance and the ease of putting away an in mast furling mainsail.
Steve

[Madicken]

Hello Spritz!

I may not understand the problem. But I have 4 vertical battens which the longest is almost the entire height of the sail. I have the original mast. And I use the battens as reefs points. ie I can take four reefs in the mainsail.


I think my old mainsail was 35 square meters and my new are 42 square meters.

In my latest youtube video you can see the mainsail and i have taken in 2 reefs.


If you give me an email address so I can email you a pdf file in English showing how it looks on a Bavaria.


Regards

Olof

"Madicken of sweden"

[ianpowolny]

Have a conversation with Kemp Sails. They fit partial battened sails to in-mast system. I have a quote for my 45DS which seems competitive.

[Disralei]

Hi Spritz

I have a 42 DS 2008 with in mast furling, my main sail is of mylar taffeta and is fully battened (4) vertically, my head sail (No 1) is maylar taffeta also. Have only had her for 2 months so still coming too terms with the boat but so far she is no shabby dog on speed when 9 knots plus wind going anywhere close hauled to beam reaching. Have you considered re working your sail wardrobe...?

[Spritz]

Dear ALL, 
the two solution I thou:
1) change the mast (I believe very expensive)
2) use my must taking out the furling system and positioning on it the system for the full batten (Is it sufficiently solid??)

are too expensive, so I am thinking in changing my mast sail and keeping my new head sail (Kevlar membrane).
sincerely when the wind is good 11-13 knods the speed is great, two day ago with 13 knods I touched 8,6 knods of speed.......

Thank you