Hands-on rebuild renews mast, inner forestay and deck on 1973 Albin Ballad

Nicholas Koligiannis carried out a hands‑on rigging renewal on his 1973 Albin Ballad Moments of Clarity, lowering the mast, replacing running and standing rigging, and fitting an inner forestay that he anchored with a pad‑eye positioned just aft of the windlass, approximately 115 cm aft of the headstay. The mast was taken down to allow removal and inspection of chainplates and backing plates, and mast steps were added as part of the rework.

Koligiannis had already replaced all running and standing rigging earlier after buying the Ballad, and later decided to replace them again while removing and inspecting all deck fittings associated with the rigging. He wrote that this sequence — mast down, fittings out, inspection then reinstall — was the practical route he chose for a full renewal and for adding the new inner forestay fitting.

For the inner forestay attachment Koligiannis reported specific positioning and below‑deck reinforcement. “I’d already decided to install the pad‑eye just aft of the windlass, approximately 115 cm aft of the headstay (this also determined the position of the tang on the mast, so that the inner forestay would run parallel to the headstay),” he said. To counteract the lifting force he installed “another, exact same pad‑eye below decks, in effect sandwiching the deck between the two. This would accept one end of the supporting strut.”

Koligiannis described the supporting hardware in concrete terms. “Incidentally, the support strut is nothing more than a piece of 1×19 6 mm wire swaged to a fork terminal on one side, with a rigging screw and another fork terminal on the other.” He also retained original stainless‑steel hardware where practical: “I used one of the original stainless‑steel Hasselfors rigging screws that came with the boat (I’d already replaced those rigging screws with chromed‑bronze versions several years ago).”

A Balladklubben forum contributor offered an alternative below‑deck solution and a cautionary view. That contributor described a stainless‑steel plate that “runs from side to side but isn’t through‑bolted to the toe rail,” later welded two tangs to it and ran a rigging screw to a strong point inside the bow. They noted that “in order for the inner forestay to run parallel to the main forestay, the deck attachment for the former had to be about 35 cm aft of the latter,” and that they “made a wheel adjuster from a rigging screw.” The same contributor warned of tradeoffs: “The foredeck on the Ballad is short enough that an inner forestay doesn't really save you that much … you're drilling holes and in and seriously stressing the deck (even properly installed backing plates can fail), risking leaks and rig failure … running backstays, which are a pain to use, and if you 'forget' to move them on a jibe, etc, you break the mast.”

The project encounters an explicit regulatory tension in the supplied specification fragment from Sailmakers‑uk, which states in German “Doppelte Vorstagen sind nicht erlaubt.” and “Ein inneres Vorstag (Babystag) ist nicht erlaubt.” The supplied materials do not state whether that specification applies to Koligiannis’s Ballad or to the racing class under which such a rule might be enforced.

On sea use Koligiannis reported a favorable outcome: “The inner forestay has proven to be a great addition to Moments of Clarity, especially for long‑term cruising.” The Balladklubben contributor reported limited testing to force 6 and said “I’m pretty sure it’s strong enough, although I haven’t used it in real anger—just up to force 6.” GetExperience.com reporter James Miller also documented the project and the mast lowering and chainplate inspection steps, though the supplied fragment of that report is incomplete. The work gives a clear, hardware‑specific example for owners of 1973 Albin Ballads weighing the practical benefits of an inner forestay against class rules and the structural implications of deck drilling and backing‑plate design.