On the back of the four added (more or less) vertical narrow ribbons, I disovered that the way I’ve sewn them onto the ‘sail’ has made a small pocket. Why not try to insert sail battens in these pockets to enhance the kites flying characteristics, or at least give it a go and see what happens?!
But what exactly is a sail battens? Well, according to Wikipedia…
A sail batten is a flexible insert in a sail, parallel to the direction of wind flow, that helps shape its qualities as an airfoil.
So why not see if Wikipedia is right, will the battens help shaping the sail’s qualities as an airfoil!
Here are the details.
As you can see from fig 1, the front of the sail, the stitching on the upper part of the vertical ribbon allows for a ‘pocket’. The same goes for the lower part too, but I’ve not included that part in my drawing.
For the two middle ribbons the stitching allows for a ‘channel’ for the batten, supporting it and keeping it in place.
In fig 2, the back, you can see how I plan to insert the battons. Each batten will off course be capped with end caps to prevent, or at least minimize, sail wear.
This way I can experiment with four different batten settings:
- Without battens
- Battens in the inner pockets only
- Battens in the outer pockets only
- Battens in all pockets
Will it work? I don’t have the slightest idea, but that’s what experimenting is for, isn’t it? ????
The glass fibre rods are now cut an capped and ready to go. I just have to wait until the wind picks up.
Stay tuned!
