New Musclehead arrived----Batten question???

[Hardcrab]

My new sail arrived today.
Drooling all over it.
This weekend will never get here.

The 5 battens are confusing with their labels.
Well not all 5.

The round, dowel-like upper is obvious, as is the longest one marked "Lower Middle".

Even the one marked "Bottom", with both ends covered with the black plasic protective stuff makes sense to me.

But I have two identical ones, both marked "Upper Middle", with the black plastic only on one end.

And to top that, those two are the same lenght as the "Bottom" one.

Did the folks at KH pack the wrong battens perhaps?

Does it make sense that three battens are the same lenght?

I'd go outside and spread the sail on the grass, but the wind is blowing 25-30 to foil me completely.

Any help from other Musclehead owners to put my mind at ease?

Thanks.

ON EDIT: No wind today at home. Spread out the sail in the grass and yes, three battens are the same.
No problems. Come on Friday.

[NiceAft]

Hardcrab,

You will soon have to make a decision about what to do with the top batten. When you drop your sail at the end of the day, that batten will not let the sail go flat. If you have a sail cover, then you will have to decide whether to remove that dowel type batten or to not use the upper most sail slug (if you don't have sail slugs you won't have a choice). Without doing one or the other, you will not be able to use your sail cover.

My choice was to remove the top batten, and just re-insert it when ready to go sailing. Matt's decission was to remove the top slug. That way the head of the sail just flops down when fully lowered. The choice is yours.

Also, remember that you now have a lot more sail area, and it's way up high. You will find that you will reef in winds that you never would have before You will also move better in winds that had you pulling your hair out

Have Fun

Ray

[Terry]

Hardcrab,

You will soon have to make a decision about what to do with the top batten. When you drop your sail at the end of the day, that batten will not let the sail go flat. If you have a sail cover, then you will have to decide whether to remove that dowel type batten or to not use the upper most sail slug (if you don't have sail slugs you won't have a choice). Without doing one or the other, you will not be able to use your sail cover.

My choice was to remove the top batten, and just re-insert it when ready to go sailing. Matt's decission was to remove the top slug. That way the head of the sail just flops down when fully lowered. The choice is yours.

Also, remember that you now have a lot more sail area, and it's way up high. You will find that you will reef in winds that you never would have before You will also move better in winds that had you pulling your hair out

Have Fun
Ray

There is another option!
What I did was replace the top slug shackle with a small (tiny) screw in style shackle that I undo each time I drop the sail and cover it, then hook it back onto the slug when I next go out. An extra little hassle but it lets me use the sail the way it was intended to be used. You actually need a few of them because you never know when you will drop the little sucker down the daggerboard trunk while fumbling with it every time.
Also since the two center battens are the same it likely does not matter which one is in which position, they may be interchangeable, I just stuffed mine in and left them there, it is a lot of work getting them in and out. The Musclehead is a way cool sail to have.

[Wrudd3]

I bought a slug shackle that has the small screw, dropped it and lost it on the 2nd outting.
I bought another, this time the screw had a hole in it. I used a piece of nylon string about 6" long put it in the screw's hole and put a large knot in the end of the string.
The other end was feed through the hole twice for the schackel then secured the 'U' part of the schackel with the end of the nylon string.

The string is long enough that you can unscrew the schackel and let the two parts just hang off the sail at the end of the day.

No lost hardware!

[Matt19020]

More info here: http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... =9&t=13544

I leave the batton in and I just took the slug out and left it that way. As you haul the sail up the halyard holds it pretty tight against the mast. I have had full sail in 19 knts already and it runs nicely.





http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152 ... 79crop.jpg

[Highlander]

Thats a bummer looks like I missed out ! procastinated over it too long & their all gone !!

J

[TAM]

I tried using a small shackle between the headboard and slug. but eventually stopped using the top slug all togenher. I found I can also get better tension on the main halyard without it as the the halyard block being on the side of the mast doesn't pull straight up.


Terry

[bscott]

How does the top batten fly when you reef it?

Bob

[NiceAft]

The sail works fine when reefed with the top batten in, and with the top slug in, . I have reefed at both reefed points. I can't speak of how it works with other configurations, but I suspect that there is not any difference.

Ray

[mastreb]

San Diego harbor saw no significant impact. Likewise Oceanside Harbor.