That time of year?
Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 2:29 pm
Not sure if anyone (else) needs a periodic reminder to go over their gear, but we do seem to be hitting the season where at least down here in victoria it's dead calm or storm force ... which IMHO makes it a good time for an equipment check. I spotted an issue with one of my mast bases:
and I wanted to ask what folks were doing for spare parts for battens? e.g.
That's out of a sailworks retro 10.5. An old beat up sail, but expensive to replace. On that particular repair I found I could cut off 4" of the tube and replace a chunk of 8.5mm rod with a chunk 4" longer (cut out of a batten from a discarded sail) ... but on examining the rest of the battens, it seems that ALL of the tube based battens are damaged (top batten and bottom two are solid), and in some cases there is a considerable length of damaged tube, so I guess I'll be wrapping them in fiberglass/epoxy. If this was a newer sail I'd happily pay the shipping from sailworks, but $50is basically 1/3 of what the sail cost, and it's in worse shape now than when I got it. So... What do you guys do for batten repairs? I'd think that with a stock of 8.5 or 9mm rod, a belt sander and a good respirator, one could basically make your own (just recycling the batten tensioner)...?
and I wanted to ask what folks were doing for spare parts for battens? e.g.
That's out of a sailworks retro 10.5. An old beat up sail, but expensive to replace. On that particular repair I found I could cut off 4" of the tube and replace a chunk of 8.5mm rod with a chunk 4" longer (cut out of a batten from a discarded sail) ... but on examining the rest of the battens, it seems that ALL of the tube based battens are damaged (top batten and bottom two are solid), and in some cases there is a considerable length of damaged tube, so I guess I'll be wrapping them in fiberglass/epoxy. If this was a newer sail I'd happily pay the shipping from sailworks, but $50is basically 1/3 of what the sail cost, and it's in worse shape now than when I got it. So... What do you guys do for batten repairs? I'd think that with a stock of 8.5 or 9mm rod, a belt sander and a good respirator, one could basically make your own (just recycling the batten tensioner)...?