Wooden sail battens for a Vagabond

[rusty]

Does anyone know where I can get some wooden sail battens made please. They are longer than a Mirror's.
All the sailmaker websites only seem to do fibreglass ones.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[SoggyBadger]

Ebay? Or make some yourself? The best ones were made of Hickory (where best = abysmal in post 1960s terms. Alternatively you could get some wide plastic ones made up to length. Kevin Butler will do that for you.

[coriolis]

I used to use 1.5 mm ply and double it up at the outboard end so that the inboard end is more flexible.Available from model aircraft shops.

[Ed]

run some glass or carbon tape inside the two bits of ply and it will toughen it up nicely.

eib

[Rupert]

They wouldn't be like the oldfashioned battens though, would they?

They were made of hickory, as SB says. I suppose you could get some made up by a person with a planer-thicknesser if you could find decent wood.

[Ed]

No agreed....

but as soggybadger says:

The best ones were made of Hickory (where best = abysmal in post 1960s terms

I think a batten made from a sandwhich of ply/epoxy/kevlar, would still look like wood and perform better....and wouldn't be hard to make.

Incidentally, I am sure that I have seen some proper wood ones for sale relatively recently....in the last 2 or 3 years, so there may still be a few around.

cheers

eib

[kfz]

They wouldn't be like the oldfashioned battens though, would they?

They were made of hickory, as SB says. I suppose you could get some made up by a person with a planer-thicknesser if you could find decent wood.

Hickory, Ash arnt they?

I know I just got a an offcut of ash from local timber yard free and put it through the table saw. 10mins work.

I put a coat of varnish on them I think.

[roger]

I was lucky when looking for wooden battens for Shoestrings fully battened main. I think it was Brooksey sent me a set of old solo ones which only needed slight adjustment to fit.