Mast refit and upgrade

Nicholas Koligiannis explains how he improved the mast on his Albin Ballad

- NICHOLAS KOLIGIANNIS

When I bought my 1973 Albin Ballad Moments of Clarity many years ago, the first job I did was to replace all of the standing and running rigging. A few years back, I thought the time had come to replace them once again, as well as to remove and inspect all deck fittings associated with the rigging. So, with the mast down, and secured on five oil drums, I removed all of the chainplates and backing plates, the galvanised beams and the deck eye bolts.

It's a testament to the original quality of the metal components that they required no attention, other than removing the old caulking material and cleaning.

There were just a couple of spots of surface rust on the galvanised beams, which I tackled by sanding and then applying two coats of an epoxy primer and two coats of one-component paint for use on metals.

With the mast lowered, I also took the opportunity to install an inner forestay fitting, backing plates for checkstays, as well as mast steps. Although the Ballad isn’t designed as a cutter, I thought it would be a great idea to be able to hoist a staysail when the weather got rough, rather than rely on furling the genoa.

Even with foam luffs, furling genoas don’t work very well when more than three rolls are taken in. For this reason, a few years ago I’d installed a Solent stay which had served me well. However, I figured that a proper inner forestay, complete with checkstays, would be a good addition to my solo sailing adventures.

I chose Seldén’s ‘O’ fitting, as it’s not only easy to install but cleverly simple and robust. All that’s required is to create a couple of oval openings on the mast using a combination of drill bits, a metal file and Dremel sanding discs, applying Duralac anti-corrosion paste on the back of the fitting and the surface on which it will be mounted, then riveting the fitting in place.