Batten Broke

While doing some last minute fairing my batten broke. I posted on the Glen-L forum for some help on what I can do to not break it next time and got a few good ideas. First I'm going to trim of the edge of the frame where the batten sits and bends on which should relieve some pressure. I'm also going to wrap a towel around the end of both battens with a hot towel to loosen up the wood. One reason for the break was that the stress point was at a knot in the wood. There are also times when a good looking piece of wood will break from a crack unseen to the eye. I'm going to reattach another batten which shouldn't take long, and then add the plywood this week. Here's a picture of the broken one and the one on the side still intact.

Broken Batten

 Broken Batten and Intact Batten