Full battens come in really handy if your sailing in relatively light air,
as they help hold the sail
shape better. I believe that they were designed more for sailing off the
wind to gain that extra
little bit of sail area for the wind to push on. Going upwind, they will
increase healing as they
present more sail area to the wind higher up. Full Batten sails typically
have larger roaches.
This is something else to consider. I have full battens on my C&C 30, the
main's pretty blown
out, but I still get good speed out of it. The only pain is that the roach
catches the backstay
just a bit on tacks (causing chafe) and in light air you can end up with an
inverted main because
the battens didn't flip. This can be reduced by having less batten tension,
but I don't think you
can ever eliminate it. A quick flip of the main will ensure everything pops
into place.

I don't really notice any difference in reefing full batten main vs a
"partial" batten main. I've got
two reef points and have used both of them.

If I was planning to buy a new main, I'd probably go with a loose footed
full batten main because
the winds go light in the summer (typically) and I need every inch of cloth
I can get. My new main
would be about 1/2 inch less on the roach so it wouldn't tear itself apart
on the backstay, but
that's about it.

Don Casey wrote a few words about this in "This Old Boat", and I'm sure you
could find a few
sailmakers comments around. Have you tried discussing with the sailmaker on
what he would
recommend and WHY.

Just did a goole search on full batten main and some guy had posted to a
news group indicating
that it's too hard to tell what the sail is doing in light airs. I don't
see this as a big problem, so
long as you have a few well placed telltales.

Well, that's my 2 cents worth and probably a bit more.

--
Cheers,
Jeffrey Nelson
Muir Caileag
C&C 30
"Guillermo" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I'm about to buy a brand new main sail for my C&C 27. I'm debating between
full batten or not (Dacron). I use the boat primarily for cruising. Are
full batten sails easy to reef? Would a full batten sail give me extra
speed? I don't race this boat but I race others, so I like to have my
sails
tune-up for maximum speed always.

I'm looking at UK sails since that is what I have in the boat and it
worked
very well for many years, but I'm open to other suggestions as well.

Any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Guillermo