It’s time to replace my sail I have some notes from a workshop put on by “old” Ed from
Doyle Sails he suggested that the batten lengths should be 5" 7" 7" 5" .. He also suggested that the line at the foot of the sail be spectrum yarn. Has anyone done this with a new sail?
On My 26 the battens are about 5 7 7 5. They work well with this big roach but it has to be set like Botts said, lots of halyard tension, topping lift completely off, choker so the sail is not touching the boom. If you draw a straight line from the clew to the head it passes over the center of the 4 battens.
I personally would prefer full battens if I had a new sail made. Sail doesn’t flog as badly when raising or lowering, it drops neatly into the cradle, I don’t believe full battens would help the sail shape but you could put a bigger roach up high in the sail. See the Wyliecat web page for some nice pictures of full batten wishbone rigs. No offence to Botts but sail design may have improved in the last few years.
In the past, posts to this list about sail shape and battens have always produced a wide range of strong opinions, so I am now going to duck and cover.
Tom
26C #28 North Star
Penetanguishene
Hi Tom,
I have a N22OB now but had a 30 from roughly 2008 to 2011 that came with full battens. They did seem to minimize flogging (in retrospect compared to my NS22). And sail did drop like a rock (and no Strong Track); never occurred to me to attribute that to the full battens. I also noticed that I could approximate “heaving to” by getting boat on a course so sail was out about 30 deg or so, luffing a bit but still pulling boat forward (a couple of knots), and setting brake on wheel. It was very stable like this. And it was pretty quiet - not something that put you on edge. And this was high winds, one reef. Great for taking care of a little emergency.
Down side was when you wanted to take sail off boat with boat in the water. No way to avoid the longer ones going way into water as you pulled them out - but I never lost one. Knuckles almost white hanging on though 
Figure bottom one essentially as long as foot.
I’m planning to get a new sail too and had not given a thought to full battens until just saw your email. Making me think. My current sail flogs quite a bit when raising sail and reefing. And it does not drop all the way down when halyard released - have to go forward and pull it down. And slides are very slick and free so it’s not that. Hoisting isn’t least bit hard - mainly time consuming.
Keep me informed.
Brooks Bridges
NS22OB “An B’ad”
Cambridge, MD