Hi Breezers.

I have a 7.3m NP spirit which looked and felt a bit funny when rigged.

pulled the cam battens and the ends have broken off.

Can I still get replacement battens for these older sails? any idea on cost (ie is it worth doing).

I have been searching for battens lengths and specs but cant find any info.

Thanks in advance :)

BSN101 said..
Picture and length?

longest 2.03m as is broken, not including tension screw, smaller is 1.93m as is.

the batten is hollow tube about 2/3 then solid glass rectangular last 1/3

Don't even try to replace with original .
Repair the old ones .
Pull out the adjusting plug and screw , get on the end of it with pliers and twist , it could be a bit tight but it's just pressed in .
Lay the batten on a bench ( or floor ) , with the broken bit and mark the total length .
Your going to need parts . NP battens for a long time come in two diameters, the smaller fitting perfectly inside the larger . And superglue.
Spare short NP battens are everywhere , your mates or shop , should get it for free , just need six inches of small and a foot of larger diameter per fix. Check that the smaller fits inside the the old batten and the new larger batten part .
Cut back the tip of the broken part of the batten so it is clean , it can splinter back a bit . One cm should do the trick . Smooth off with sandpaper.
With fine hacksaw cut 20 cm off the back of the broken batten .
Sand the edges of the six inch small batten piece .
Sand I the inside of the cut batten and the foot long piece of larger diameter .
Make sure the smaller tube slides nicely inside the larger .
Really quickly , ( and I mean really quickly ) , superglue half the length of the smaller diameter into the batten , breath !
Again really quickly glue the foot long piece over the sticking out smaller diameter.
Lay your new fixed longer batten over your measured lines . Chop the excess round end to length . Tap in adjuster plug and screw ,
Should be perfect length and better than new .
Ive done this many , many , times .

Imax1 said..
Don't even try to replace with original .
Repair the old ones .
Pull out the adjusting plug and screw , get on the end of it with pliers and twist , it could be a bit tight but it's just pressed in .
Lay the batten on a bench ( or floor ) , with the broken bit and mark the total length .
Your going to need parts . NP battens for a long time come in two diameters, the smaller fitting perfectly inside the larger . And superglue.
Spare short NP battens are everywhere , your mates or shop , should get it for free , just need six inches of small and a foot of larger diameter per fix. Check that the smaller fits inside the the old batten and the new larger batten part .
Cut back the tip of the broken part of the batten so it is clean , it can splinter back a bit . One cm should do the trick . Smooth off with sandpaper.
With fine hacksaw cut 20 cm off the back of the broken batten .
Sand the edges of the six inch small batten piece .
Sand I the inside of the cut batten and the foot long piece of larger diameter .
Make sure the smaller tube slides nicely inside the larger .
Really quickly , ( and I mean really quickly ) , superglue half the length of the smaller diameter into the batten , breath !
Again really quickly glue the foot long piece over the sticking out smaller diameter.
Lay your new fixed longer batten over your measured lines . Chop the excess round end to length . Tap in adjuster plug and screw ,
Should be perfect length and better than new .
Ive done this many , many , times .

Imax where the rectangular solid glass batton connects to the tube part, can i just pull solid rectangular one out, cut a new one and insert it? the tube batten is ok. thanks

When all done, use some "heatshrink" (say a few $$ from Ebay) to cover the full length. It makes subsequent breakages *much* easier to remove from the batten pocket.