Looking to buy a new main sail for my 10m mono yacht, considering going for a tri-radial in a sailcolth called Warp Drive by Challanger which is a Darcon that is designed for tri radial sails.
I have a quote from FES for a standard cross cut with partial battens $1,600 & Rolly Tasker for Tri Radial with 4 full battens $2,000
Does anybody have opinion on the benifits of tri radial over cross cut. My objective is to improve up wind perormance which is currently poor due to a 15 year old baggy cross cut main.
Fractional or Masthead rig ?
I have a masthead and I have just recently dug another 5 degrees upwind out of nowhere by accepting my main is deep and therefore producing too much drag as well as the draft being too far aft, I have therefore chosen to reef earlier than normal.
Reefing and pulling the boom to centreline gets rid of the weatherhelm and improves the pointing.
The problem for me was reaching the top mark and then shaking out the reef downwind then reefing again at the bottom mark - my crew were not so happy about so much work.
Made a massive difference though.
A new sail in either will improve your pointing as long its draft is not too deep.
Assumes masthead rig. In the masthead rig the speed upwind is not so much from the main so you lose less speed than you would expect. But gain a lot of height.
I'm not racing anyone currently with partial battens in a 10m boat or bigger.
Does beg the question why is no one else doing it ?
But perhaps its just my circle of boats ??
Would love to hear what the theoretical advantage is of partial battens ?
I would suggest scrolling down a few messages to the one about buying sails overseas. Galatea is a sailmaker in Geelong who runs Bull sails. Tony Bull writes for Australian Sailing Magazine and has an interesting Facebook and web page as well. Tony will have suggestions on cloth and cut to suit. He designs the sails and has them built in China.
Sunseeker :
The yacht is 1994 Robertson 950 which David Lyons designed fractional rig.
I agree with your comments about reefing early I find I get better speed with 1 reef in place in 15kts of wind
Full Battens:
Advantages
Less flapping, tends to wave in the breeze rather than flog, gives enhanced lifespan
Easy to stow on boom (needs lazyjacks)
Stable shape-locked in by full battens
Can utilise more roach on the back of sail, full battens can support more sail area. Limited by backstay though!
Disadvantages
Needs lazy jacks. it is a pain in the butt when battens fall past boom particularly on larger boats
Locked in shape can be a nuisance on boats with bendy rigs where sail shape needs to be more adaptable.
Heavier, battens, longer pockets and hardware can increase weight aloft.
Full battens tend to chafe on shrouds and lazy jacks, need regular maintenance.
Standard sail slides will often jam, some very good hardware available for FB mainsails. But often cost more than the sail.
Difficult to handle and store when the sail comes off the boat.
Increased cost 15-25% over partial battened sail
Having said all that, I would reccomend at least 1 full batten at the head of sail.
Galatea
But gentlemen do not sail to windward..??? 
If you want better upwind performance, then definetely get battens on the main.
Poods
I have 3 mainsails, all with full battens. Have lazyjacks with a stackpack. The only disadvantage really is once you have used this set up it would be hard to go without, especially singlehanded.
All that Galatea has said ...
You can always put chafe strips on batten pockets...
Of course a radial dacron sail will be better than a cross cut sail, offering better performance life span and similar age life if you use the correct fabrics for the application you require.
I would avoid the Challenge Warp drive for several reasons, mostly the fact that while it is strong in the warp... It has little fill yarns giving the fabric little stability in this direction and making the fabric very suspect to UV degradation (just what you need in the QLD climate)
But I am sure Taskers and FES know their products and would have explained this to you any way.
Drop me a line if you would like any further info....
