Flattens are the first Furling sail battens that are as stiff as a non furling batten yet allow the sail to furl better than conventional, bendy furling battens. This revolutionary combination results in sail shapes that were previously not possible for furling sails.
They have been developed by Dan Primrose & Simon Fry and are currently available solely through Contender UK +44 1329 849 036 General@Contender.co.uk
In short, 2015 was a quiet year for us. And although that's not good, it was all "our own fault" as we just had too many other things we had to do, such as various World Championships, national and International events for Simon Fry, working with Acro Aircraft Seating and Land Rover BAR for Dan Primrose and a whole host of other projects for Oscar.
But now, in 2016, our first aim is to follow up on all the fantastic reviews and inquiries we have had about out Flattens specifically for the smaller sports boats, such as the J70, M20 & 24.
The FL015 was something that Simon and Dan started looking at sometime back so when we were given the opportunity to put a development set on the top UK J70 we were only too happy. That boat, with the Flattens in, came fourth in the World and won the UK championships. They have also been used by various sail makers around the globe, all of whom are very interested in "putting them on their shelves", with one major sail maker considering making them the standard item for their whole group. Very exciting times!
Now that the Flattens are becoming more and more public, Dan and Simon thought that they should show a few clips of the Flattens so that everyone can see the technology first hand.
This first clip shows a standard Flatten (FL050, for boats from approx. 30 to 55ft) rolls. The key point here is that as the leading edge splays open (as it does when it comes toward the headfoil) the Flatten naturally wants to roll up.
Once rolled, you can see that the Flatten is stable. This means that the furled sail is held tighter than it might be with no battens at all, and certainly tighter than it might be with a furling batten that wants to straighten out.
With the Flattens in their open state, they are stiff in both directions. The main difference to the Flattens and a traditional batten is that they if they bend more than a certain %, they simply fold up.
For this reason, the Flattens are only used in the flatter sections of the sails. In this clip you can see the bend characteristics of the FL030Flatten (for yachts of approx. 20 to 35ft).
And like any non-furling batten, if the Flattens are rolled the "wrong way" or if you "fold rather than roll" by hand, then the performance could reduce. In the next two clips they show what might happen if the Flatten is folded at the leading edge (rather than "splayed" as in the previous video) or, in the very unlikely situation, that the Flatten is rolled the "wrong way" the Flatten is obviously not perfect after, but can still be used in the sail if no others are available.
Simon, Dan and Oscar along with their distributer, Contender UK, are extremely proud to announce that their Flattens have been nominated for the highly prestigious DAME awards at the 2014 METS.
This is an annual award where the nominated products must meet the highest demands of the judges in all areas such design, functionality, ease of operation, innovation & originality and cost verses performance.
Hundreds of new products were submitted for this award and these have now been whittled down the last few, of which one will be selected as the winner of the 2014 DAME award on the first day of METS in Amsterdam on the 18th November 2014.
Dan, Simon and Oscar look forward to seeing you in Amsterdam on the Contender BV stand in Hall 01, stand 516
Its with great excitement that Primrose Fry Technologies can announce that Contender UK with be distributing the Flattens.
After years of developing the Flattens it was a natural step to work with a global company like Contender UK and Alastair Shires (MD of Contender UK) was just as keen to work with PFT to distribute the Flattens.
The Contender Group covers the majority of the areas of the world that will be using the Flattens.
Contender will be distributing the Flattens directly to the sailmakers and can be contacted on +44 (0)1329 849 036
