Paul, that's one of my personal photo albums. To look at any of my other albums, or to look at the photo albums of any other member, just click on their name where it's an underlined link (in a forum or in the members directory). Here's mine:

David Tyler

Scroll down to the bottom to see my albums.

Jeffrey, have a look at this photo album. Photo 5 gives proportions for a pocket for a 32mm dia batten, which you could scale to another size.

Time to start cutting out some fabric!!!

A couple of questions about batten pockets before I get going.

I'm going to be using the D-shaped pockets. I would assume that I will need to add a bit of extra material into the sail to accommodate the thickness of the batten. My thought is to add material 1/2 of the circumference of the batten, or 1/4 of the circumference to the batten edge of each panel

Then make the pocket "strip of material" the with of the other 1/2 of the batten circumference "+hem and a little bit of slop"

Is that the way to do it? I'm having a hard time finding information on this. 

David, we made the pair of sails for Footprints and Tystie from Hayward's Sunwing polyester cloth, which sadly is no longer available. It had UV protection - few regular sailcloths have this, and are not a low cost option if they do. I wouldn't use regular polyester sailcloth (Dacron and Terylene being brand names for the polyester fibre from which sailcloth is woven, not the cloth itself) for a cruising junk sail, unless UV protection was built into it. I would want a softer cloth that is happy to be left uncovered when not actually sailing.

Jeffrey, Weathermax 80 is a good cloth, but is a bit tricky to sew. Topgun 9 would be a good choice. In your position, I'd be looking at  this and this . I've always had good results making sails from second grade cloth, as the flaws are generally cosmetic, not structural.

The bolk heads and mast step are all cut out and will be glued in as soon as wether permits.

Change of topic here

Sail material...

Again; I have a sail plan for 305 ft^2  I plan on extensive cruising and ill be in NZ for extend time.

My experience with cloth materials comes from a background in ultralight backpacking. DCF and sill nylon fall apart after 6 months outside. The only piece of gear that I have had hold up for any amount of time is my pack made from High Density Polyethylene –HDPE) reinforced nylon.  it was a black bag witch I'm sure helped stop UV dammige. The inside of the fabric was coated with silicone witch broke down but the  rest of the material held up very well to wear and tear. It is also cheap. 10$ a yard

I was reading about this wether max 80 and it sounds like a good fit for me. Looks like I can get it about 15$ a yard. Not cheap but not too bad. 

Sunbrella- too expensive

Top gun-too heavy

Top notch 9 ??? 

I'm thinking I'll just end up with Dacron. Unless y'all think that there is a material that would last longer that is equal or less in price.