thedoor said..
Maybe. Is nailing battens a thing?

Yes, when the dimensions do not give room for a ferrule, then the parts are sometimes simply slipped directly into each other and held in place by one or two nails. This really weakens the tube batten though and it is not a good solution...

Success?

SurferKris said..
It is a pity to cut the original tube batten, this can change the bending curve of the batten, but it might not be very critical as it is in a rather stiff portion of the batten.

What was the problem with removing the nails?
The ones I have seen did have a small head on them and you do need to drive it in the correct (reverse) direction in order to get them out.

partly I was worried that all the banging I did when I didn't realize there were nails in there impacted the structure of the 10mm section. And I was worried that the banging trying to remove the nail wasn't that healthy either. But mostly I was losing patience and for me this means using more force than is healthy for man made objects.

Also my sailing isn't at a level where I think I would notice any decline in bend curve

When all you have is a hammer saw, every problem looks like a batten that's too long. Or something like that. I think Albert Einstein said that once. I saw that on the internet somewhere.

Glad you have it sorted.

Sailworks sells the plastic ferrule that works perfect for that application!