Larry, If my memory serves me - Hobie built about 90 trazillion boats with full battens and NO slugs! Frequently these sails had bolt rope with teflon (-like materiel) woven into the boltrope cover. very slippery. Talk to the folk at Ullman sails in Newport Beach, CA. Dave Ullman was a fan of full battens in the top position (don't know about the second) maximum depth headboard is advisable and compliments the full top batten (fathead) they may be able to shed some light on the questions you have. NFIW - but I have done lot of biz in the 'old' days - really good folk - Dave Ullman is a Legend and a gentleman. Can you tell they are my fave sailmakers. Great value + excellent quality, fast shapes. (Even cruisers really don't like to go slow - it is not safe - fast means mo time on the hook drinkin spirits at the destination.) McLube SailKote - teflon tape at boltrope - full support and smooth hoist and drop! Fathead mainsail, full top batten. maximum roach, (moves sail area aft w/o additional rake)and backstay batten (magic twanger) sounds kewl to me, I'm puttin it on my list of gotta haves. GO. <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> Check out free AOL at http://free.aol.com/thenewaol/index.adp. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, millions of free high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and much more.