Hey guys,
Got a new project for the brain trust, 9m Neil Pride RS6 with no battens and no cams. I Know I will need to bust out the sewing machine as the luff sleeve has deteriorated with some patches.
But can this be converted into a huge no cam sail? And is it possible to make battens by wrapping some smaller ones in carbon to make one big batten?
Will post better photos soon.
Cheers Harry
I haven't played around with an RS6 but the previous sails used carbon tube for the battens and often plugged into a bit of plastic that converted into a rectangular section of carbon batten and an adjuster at the other end.
If you went to a sail repairer or a windsurf shop you might be able to scrounge enough from a few NP V8s or similar. Yes, I think you could join some of the tube sections together to get a longer batten with a bit of a carbon wrap, but see what you can find first.
That era race sail has a huge luff pocket doesn't it? I don't know if you could get the shape without the cams, but give it a try. I think on the Ezzys where you can choose to remove the cams that there is a pocket where the end of the batten goes when you are not using the cams, so you might need to try something similar.
You are turning it into a RAF, when the battens fall way short of the mast. I think it will be hard to extend batten pockets(have to remove entire luff tube) and even harder to get them the right length.
Then make battens....easy but lots of materials and heavy if joining them
Its going to cost more in battens and epoxy and sailcloth / thread than a 10 yo cambered sail in goodnick ($50) and the unpicking alone would be a mission.
I reckon you will be a sailmaker at the end of it though 
Sorry for the late reply guys exam blocks a bummer 
So from what i can tell battens and batten material is rare and expensive so i have two options:
Butcher two five metre sails (one shown next to RS6 in pic) and join the smaller battens to make larger ones or;
Use some of the bamboo branches from my neighbour which suprisengly are the right width, light and seem to have enough flex.
Personally would rather not demolish the small sails as they are perfectly usable just old so maybe experimenting with bamboo battens would be a laugh at least and incredible windsurfing sail design breakthrough at best ?
Cheers Harry
Walk away , it's not viable .
You have a great board .
A couple hundred dollars and you can buy a good sail for your board .
Modifying that sail is not easy and probably won't work.
The bamboo would probably work fine on the back half of the batten ,......... but still no.
