Thank you, David. That was exactly the sort of experienced advice I was hoping for! Your comments make sense. Incidentally I have a CF mast because of its lightness - not as young as I was, and I take the mast down every time I stow, to put everything under a cover. But both spars are timber, and their relative weight is needed.

Background - my 12 ft dinghy 'Cavatina" is junk-rigged with a cambered-panel sail (about 70sq ft) from Chris Scanes. The hull (Swallowboats Trouper 12) is stable and seaworthy, and the combination has been a huge success - her manifest sailing abilities frequently evoke admiring comments. I sail in the Studland Bay/Poole area.

The battens are 3/4 in aluminium tube, and have been OK. The sail bundle is already quite light, and I don't think the battens bend much, if at all. Nevertheless, on the basis of tweaking to improve, I have been toying with the idea of trying carbon fibre battens. It's just about do-able financially because there are only five, each about 6 1/2 ft long. They would be much lighter and probably stiffer than the present ones.

Hence my question. I can't think of any particular reason why the weight of battens makes a difference. Possibly better sail-filling in light airs? Any ideas and comments ? By-the-by, I use batten downhauls and don't rely on the weight of the sail bundle (already pretty light) when reefing.