Sailor and inventor Robert Henderson got tired of the terrible performance from his negative-roached batten-less in-mast furling main and then did something about it. The only thing he liked about the furling main was the safety it offered by being able to reef and furl away the main without leaving the cockpit.
     After developing an inflatable batten and a system to inflate and deflate the batten, Henderson worked with UK-Halsey Miami’s Mark Wood to incorporate his system to a sail. As a result he developed and patented the AirBatten system, which has traditional leech battens that can be individually inflated after the sail rolls out of the mast and deflated in order to roll the sail back into the mast.

     Click Here to see a short video about AirBattens

      By being able to inflate and deflate the battens individually, the sail can be reefed by deflating some of the battens and keeping others stiff. The AirBattens are stiff enough to support a mainsail with enough roach to overlap the backstay, while keeping the leech of the sail straight. Roach and a flat leech give a main sail great power when going to windward and increased sail area for sailing downwind. In fact, Henderson has won some singlehanded races with his boat after replacing his shapeless underpowered sail with a full-sized main equipped with AirBattens.
      The system can work with a mainsail made out of any material and construction layout. In 2008, AirBattens won an innovative achievement award at the Miami boat show. For more information, contact Mark at our Miami, Florida loft: miami@ukhalsey.com or 305-858-3000