battens coming loose

Okay, here's a simple question for someone, and maybe you can save me days of experimenting: I have two sets of sails now for my TheMightyHobie18, and the newer sails always seem to have the batten tightening strings slip out of the tracks. Is it possible for batten caps to wear out? Is it possible that the strings have become too hard to catch? What kind of line do I buy for the sails?

My racing skills suck enough. Now I have to watch my batten strings all the time?

Thanks,

Wyatt

One trick I did with my H-18 batten strings was to put stop knots in them to keep them from pulling loose. Once I measured out the sail, I'd put a stop knot (on the loose side of the string, just outside the batten cap) where my usual setting was so I could easily get the same setting again after releasing the battens after each sail. For less tight battens, I found that I could still set to the knot, just tighten it up to the knot (there usually wasn't enough tension at that setting to pull them loose) - sometimes I'd add a second knot for the looser setting. Alternative to the stop knot for repeatable settings would be to mark the string, but again, the knots kept things from pulling through/loose.

Additional - I'm assuming you have the batten end caps with the v-jam to hold the strings, above advice is for that...

See the thread on this forum titled "How do you tie your battens?", http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...amp;Main=21444&Search=true#Post22866

Also, somebody posted a drawing showing a good way to tie in battens, but I can't find it. Anybody know where it is? Or maybe it was a link to someplace else.

This happens to new boats too. The main problem is the batten string flopping in the wind pulls itself out. Take the end of the string and loop it under the batten string where it is tight or tie around the batten or tape it down

Thank you, Mary, Carl, and Keith. I guess I'll try using the same string and tying them differently. I'm just puzzled why my older set of one-design sails never have a problem and the newer sails do. They came loose in two regattas already; I actually had to abort a race.

Wyatt

The "V" jam cleat on the batten end also ONLY cleats in one direction. You may have the lines run wrong. That is a very common mistake.

Try these files. The first is from our manuals on how to do it (pdf). It also shows how to tuck the end of the line under so it will not shake out of the v cleat. The second is just an image file that shows the proper threading.

Batten Tie pdf

Batten Tie image

Both files are on the Hobie Cat support pages at:

Hobie Support Pages

This is also a topic on the Hobie Forums in the FAQ section. Batten Tie topic on Hobie Cat Forums

Matt:

Thank you for the drawings, I never knew there was such a resource available. Now can you help me so my sailing skills don't suck anymore?

Wyatt

here's the drawings. I finally have resorted to tying them this way and leaving them set (not loosening them between outings). If Rick and Mary do it then why can't I? Heck, it sure makes setup a lot faster!

Does that elevate Rick and Mary to "God Status"; close to Mercury and Venus?

B

No, it lowers us to lazy status. Jake picked the worst possible people to emulate as far as taking care of a boat properly. But Rick is really flattered that you compared him to Venus.

Mary, I don't know about taking care of a boat, but if it weren't for Rick, I'd still be trying to roll tack my H-16 instead of sailing my Inter 20. Hope to see him up in our neighborhood soon so I can do the Seminar again.
Guess Rick taught me well, I leave my 20 rigged for sailing all the time.
Back to Battens, Is there a way to do make the Performance Cats batten tensioning easier? No end caps as you know, seems like by the time you get everything tensioned and ready to snug, the knot always loosens up a bit in the process of setting the batten tie. My buddy has screw-adjustable batten end caps on his Hobie 18, do they make something like this for the Performance Cats Battens?
Cary

Zuhl, there is a long thread about battens, called "How do you tie your battens? Here is the link to that thread: http://www.catsailor.com/forums/sho...amp;Main=21444&Search=true#Post22866

In that thread someone gave a link to the Australian High Performance Catamaran website, which has a diagram of a good way to tie in battens. Here is a link to that (the diagram is in the Owners Manual section):
http://www.ahpc.com.au/.

Hope this helps.

Cary,

See my post above - the attachment is the image Mary is referring to. My battens are tied this way and they've shown no signs of coming loose.