Scott,

My experience with my barrel-cut sails is that they never take up more length on the battens than the designed length, B. My last sail for my Ingeborg has B=4.90m. When fitted to the battens, even with no slack, it only took up 4.87m. After a few test-sails, I eased the tension about 3cm to increase the measured camber from 7% (of the chord) to 8%. In other words, the sail now only takes up 4.84m or thereabouts along the battens.

As the photo below shows, Ingeborg’s batten panels certainly take up a double-compound or 3-dimensional shape, so frankly, I fail to understand how those panels can be called ‘2D’.

Arne

Anonymous wrote:

[...] LVL uses many thin laminations, and resorcinol glue, so should be very reliable.

Thanks for the response. This was my thought when I looked at the LVL in person at the lumberyard. If two layers strengthen natural wood weaknesses then very many layers must be even more consistently strong. I will be keeping LVL in the back on my mind when it comes time to make spars.

Looking back it might have been a good idea to design the rig around the 12 foot AL tube that is available. The next size up is 24 foot. I imagine for a 3700mm batten line on a sail plan I will really need about 14 feet (4267 mm) long battens.

But I already made those paper patterns at 3700mm.

Any advice for a first timer. Should I start over from scratch and make new patterns so I can use 12 foot stock AL tube? Should I add some wood to the 12 foot tubes like what was done on Footprints? LVL Spars?

I think I have finally come to a decision after looking at a lot of fabric. Weathermax 65 seems like to way to go. It is more expensive than Odyssey but it certainly appears to have more actual fabric content at the same weight. I attached 'Weathermax65_Odyssey_Blue.jpg' which tells the story pretty clearly.

I have been wondering if anyone has experience or opinions on using LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) beams in making battens. I am considering using this as stock for wood battens to reduce the labor and make it easy to cut straight battens. Since the beams are already square, long enough and thick enough it should be just a few long rip cuts against the fence of a table saw to make battens.

Anonymous wrote:

Now, are you going to reveal which cloths these are? I'm going to take a punt on the blue being Odyssey.

Thank you for taking the time to look. I was not trying to keep the fabrics a big secret. I named the files with something descriptive for each fabric. Now that I look at the posting I see that the file names are not really obvious unless you download the photos.

I have updated the photos with the some descriptive text in the image itself. I also replaced the one that you said was too bright with a clearer version. On top of that I got two more small samples in the mail today. I took more photos of those two. The whole mess is now in my member photo album. I will add descriptive links below.

Your kick (gamble?) was good. The blue stuff is Odyssey.

1.6_HyperD_PU4000

(ripstopbytheroll.com)

1.9_Ounce_IMPORTED_Polyurethane_Coated_Ripstop

(www.seattlefabrics.com)

2.2_Hex70_PU3000

(ripstopbytheroll.com)

Odyssey_01

Odyssey_02

POLYESTER_RIPSTOP_(DWR)-2.6_OZ 

(www.fabricwholesaledirect.com)

Red_210_Denier_Coated_Nylon

(www.onlinefabricstore.net)

Red_600_300_Denier_PVC_Coated

(www.onlinefabricstore.net)

Scott

Anonymous wrote:It's not a lack of coating that should cause you to avoid this cloth. Try holding it up to a strong light - can you see pinhole-size leakage of light through it? If not, it's tightly woven enough. If it can be used for kites and tents, as the supplier claims, then it's airtight enough for a lightweight sail. It's similar to the cloth I used for my windvane, which is still strong (but faded, as it's red) after two full seasons of exposure to UV. [ ... ]

David,

I have been trying to decide if I see pinhole-sized leakage of light through these fabrics or not. If anything the one that clearly shows points of light is the Odyssey sample. But I expect this might be because the Odyssey is more or less opaque in normal room light and all the other fabrics are at least somewhat translucent.

Capturing these differences in a photo is even more difficult but I gave it a try anyway. Its not cold enough for skiing and not warm enough for sailing so why not waste some time on this?

I used a portable shop lamp with a 60 Watt equivalent LED bulb for the photos. I also cut a hole in some cardboard and wrapped in it aluminium foil. With the bulb pointed straight up and the cardboard and fabric on top I took a few photos.

Do you see anything interesting in the pictures attached?

Scott.