The Ballad Exchange

Nicholas,

That would be awesome! At this point I have managed to find one, but unfortunately it is an invested version. I would be happy to pay for the shipping of course.

Thanks again,

Frans van der Wel
Aemilia III - B978
http://www.aemilia.org

Hi everyone, During our Summercruise, one of Aemilia's bronze/chromed back fairleads broke into 3 pieces (due to very heavy wash, created by a small ferry in Oostende, Belgium). I am now searching for a replacement. Anybody knows if these items are still available? Your help is very much appreciated...

Are you sure it is due to trapped air? I had the same symptoms as described by you. However I found later out the problem was diesel bug blocking the fuel line in the fueltank. I solved it by removing the fuel tank from my boat and clean it by flushing with water. A lot of dirty/gelly stuff came out...

Hi Bob,

As promised enclosed the detail of the spinnaker blocks setup on Aemilia. As she is a 1976 Ballad, I think this was pretty much the standard on any Ballad in those years. Not very difficult to copy, however.

Best regards,
Frans - Aemilia III
http://www.aemilia.org

shapeimage_1-1.png Hello Bob, I made a very short update on my website including a short movie of our trip last week. Although we didn't see any snow, it was quite cold! Often we saw daytime temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius. Judging from the photo's you shared, the spinakers looks like the sta...

Hello Bob, I was out for a week of sailing, so therefore a late reply. Aemilia came with a fairly simple bracket which was mounted using the most aft two deck/hull bolts. I think this was a kind of standard feature back in 1976. However, next time I'll make a photo of it, since I reckon it's quite e...

Bob, when sailing singlehanded or with my wife and/or my kids, typically I hoist a spinnaker till 15-16 knots true wind. On the rare occasions when I race her with with a racing crew, I might consider spinnakering till a little over 20 knots. The typical rolling is something that is familiar to Albi...

Just to make an addition to my earlier post, I received a series of photo's of Aemilia III when we made a spinnaker gybe, minutes before we entered the harbour of Boulogne. I've posted the on my website. For a second-hand spinnaker you might want to check on the websites of the One Design classes li...

Hello Mark, We use the spinnaker onboard Aemilia quite regularly. However I made some adjustments to make it manageable when sailing with two people. The biggest struggle I had with spinnakers and the Ballad was the heavy 3,6 meter long pole, specially when gybing. So when many years ago a friend st...

Hello fellow Ballad sailors, I am about to install a Plastimo Navik Windvane on the transom of Aemilia. I know there are quite a few Ballad's out there who have done the same before. However when I read the installation instructions in the manual (see http://www.bluemoment.com/manuals/navik.pdf ) it...