Submitted on March 10, 2006 by Bill Drewes

Question: I am retrofitting an older boat and currently considering the purchase of a used mast, boom, and mainsail package. The spar is a 15-year old MetalMast section with a built-in mast-furling system and a newer North mainsail. The mainsail has a type of semi-flexible horizontal-batten that allows it to furl inside the main.

One question - Does North still recommend this type of batten system as the best mainsail design, with understanding that the mast-furling system has obvious limitations, or is a vertical batten mainsail design now preferred?

Second question - Can these type of spars, i.e. mast-furler sections, later be retrofit with a more conventional track, full batten main, and Dutchman reef system?

Thank you! - Bill Drewes

Answer: Hi Drew,

You are probably looking at batten made with two lengths of spring steel inside of a webbing tube. The webbing tube would be enclosed in a conventional dacron batten pocket. These battens work well until they kink. That typically happens when the sail is used partially furled, and one of the battens is half in the mast and half out of the mast. Or when someone steps on the batten or folds the sail wrong. We do not use these battens much anymore because they caused the sail owner too much maintenance time. You could have the sail retrofit with vertical battens.

I am not familiar with the metal mast in mast furling spar. However, you can put a conventional sail in most in mast furling spars using a headsail luff rope. It is an okay, but not perfect solution for a race or daysailing mainsail. It is not compatible with slides or the Dutchman system.

Best Regards,
Dan Neri

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