MacGregorSailors.com

Hi folks,
I would appreciate it if somebody might be able to tell me where to purchase sail battens for my original Doyle mainsail. I have a 2001 26X and lost a batten. I am in Newfoundland and would prefer to purchase in eastern Canada but I am open for suggestions.
Much thanks
Rick

I rip mine out of oak on a table saw, then sand edges. Strong and work fine. I keep a few extra on-board and cut them to length if I need one and sand the cut to make it smooth.

Ebay or your local WM

Snow Goose wrote:Hi folks,
I would appreciate it if somebody might be able to tell me where to purchase sail battens for my original Doyle mainsail. I have a 2001 26X and lost a batten. I am in Newfoundland and would prefer to purchase in eastern Canada but I am open for suggestions.
Much thanks
Rick

I bought a set from Blue Water Yachts a few years ago. http://www.bwyachts.com/

I have the original Doyle sails, but the PO didn't use them much and they are still in reasonable shape. Two of the batten pockets, though, are kinda loose and don't hold the battens well. So I sail without them.

Starscream wrote:Two of the batten pockets, though, are kinda loose and don't hold the battens well. So I sail without them.

The PO of my boat sewed them shut. I did lose one, though, when the stitching came loose. So I bought a set of tapered battens from BWY. Too much flop in the roach without them. And I resewed them shut.

Yup, definitely a floppy roach, especially in light winds. But, the beauty of MacGregor sailing is that I don't care, and I don't have to care. I'm not a good enough sailor for that kind of thing to make any difference to me. Sure I'd like it to be fixed, and someday I will fix it, but my time is better spent on the water.

Heading out to Westport Marina NY this weekend. We reserved at a campsite for Saturday and at the marina for Sunday and Monday. Planning for some swimming, and a sail across the lake to the Maritime Museum in Vergennes. No time to fix the batten pockets.

opie wrote:I rip mine out of oak on a table saw, then sand edges. Strong and work fine. I keep a few extra on-board and cut them to length if I need one and sand the cut to make it smooth.

I lost one on the original sails as well and thought about doing exactly this.

Some time back I lost one of the original (Doyle Main) battens while the Main was flapping around. So I bought a set of the blue battens from BYW.
Two weeks back the lowest one flew out and now I have only 3 blue battens.
So now I'm going to mix one old and 3 new battens but I'm wondering which pocket would be best to fit the old batten into?

All the best.
Neo

Our 2000 X still has the factory mainsail.

Five years ago I took our sail into North Sails here in Vancouver to have them clean and do some re-stitching. They called me a few days later about the battens and asked, and I quote; "who in the hull put these battens in this sail?" According to them the battens were too thick, too heavy, and too short. For the record, the battens were; white, about an inch high, with red ends. I still have them on board as a spare set, but also carry a spare main that has it's own set of battens.

Anyway, they installed much thinner more flexible tapered battens with custom lengths, I have the ends of the pockets cross-sewed in such a way that they will come out (for flaking the sail for bag storage) but have not had one pop out while sailing yet, and I do a fair bit of motor sailing.

The Sail shape on the roach is much smoother now, especially where the roach and the sail transitions is now almost seamless, no sharp angle to create turbulence right at the leech where the windward air molecules are struggling to reattach them selves to the Leeward side molecules. So now a much smoother profile from luff to leech.

Ps,
Since changing the battens Windchime has won the MacGregor Yacht Club Regatta twice. Any connection? can't say - but it must be the sails and battens - not the skipper

I'm with @WindChime. I bought out M26S without any battens. The sail was a mess - never could it it to trim right, and the leech was always flapping this way or that. I ended up buying some 1 1/2" batten material from defender for the bottom two batten pockets. For the upper two I went with a Hobie type tapered stock. The bottom two were less than $20 total. The top ones? Close to $100. I could have made them from wood and did some creative sanding. Instead I went with fiberglass already crafted for the task.

The main sails like it should now. You need to measure what you need, do some searching, get them, cut them, install them.

Thanks for that Md

Starscream wrote:... So I sail without them.

Nice to know that I'm not the only one!

I think it's been 5 or 6 years now that I tell myself to replace the missing battens, but I keep forgetting. At least I have a white hull!

I can't believe we have people here who sail without battens.

What's a batten, by the way?

Can someone near their mainsail post up the size of the standard Mac battens here for reference?

Catigale wrote:Can someone near their mainsail post up the size of the standard Mac battens here for reference?

My spares are 5/8" wide by 30" (3 each) and 24" (1 each) long.

I lost one, bought tapered battens (which are in the antique original main sail now), and keep these for backup. They're sewn into the pockets now, and were before, so I don't know how that one got away.

Hey Rick,
The PO took the battens out of our sail too and we were pricing them out through WM, BWY, etc. Went to our local sailmaker to have him look over the jib (gotta have a new one made) and he made us 4 battens for $12 total, right there on the spot. Easy peasy. Maybe just Check out a sailmaker in your area.