Fiberglass Battens - A New Fangled Idea

Okay! Okay!  I know I said I was an Old Fashion Kind Of Guy but...battens that only last a couple of sails!!!  I say, "Uncle!!!"Perhaps my choice of wood was bad.  Perhaps I should have given them a layer of fiberglass cloth.  Perhaps it just isn't worth the effort.

While sailing with Mrs. Mumphy and a couple of friends the wooden battens gave out.  All was going well until I went to douse the Mains'l.  Two of the battens became entangled in the Lazy Jacks and snapped in half.  I removed the two broken battens and went down to Mike's Marine Supply and spent a grand total of $15.95 and walked out with two battens cut to size and 4 new plastic ends.

Mike's Marine Supply has a very helpful crew on board, they'll ship anywhere, and they have pretty good prices.

All I had to do was round the corners, pop on the ends, drill a 1/4 inch hole in one end of each, place a small cord through the holes, and finally number each batten.

Take a look at the photos above and below.

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