Naiad or Never sell a Pandora
My first Pandora was a bilge keel international it was ideal for a drying out mooring that was in 1975, when I moved to a deep water mooring at Buntisland Sailing Club I started to race a lot more than I had done at my previous club so I decided to buy a fin keel Pandora, this was to be my first encounter with NAIAD.
I soon found out that this was a fast little boat and in the second year that I had it I won the club championship and Forth inshore series, after a couple of years of continued success I changed to a Westerly Pembroke (fin keel centaur) this was to try to involve my wife and young family after a few cruises I found I was sitting in this boat going nowhere fast on my own that's when I made the decision to buy a Sonata, I have to say for sheer exciting class racing this was the best fun boat I have had but you had to have a good crew luckily I did.
After a couple of years I got the urge to change again and the guy who had NAIAD at the time fancied my boat so we did a part exchange so I had my old friend back again, during this spell we won quite a few races including the 1990 Forth rail bridge centennial regatta.
A few years on I changed to a Sadler 25 again a good sea boat and we won a few races but at the time there was a good class of Hunter 701's building up on the so I found an old 701 and spent all winter working on it, I had it for 3 years and in 1995 we won the Hunter 701 Scottish Championship,it was time to change again this time it was an Albin Cirrus again a great sea boat we had a lot of fun with her but as everywhere it is not easy to get a steady crew of four and with reluctance I sold her, it just so happened that I knew that NAIAD was up for sale so we were back together again for 3rd time in over 20 years.
I have to say it is not best boat that I have had over the years, but it is without doubt the best all round boat that I have had, easy single handed, safe for a young family( it's grandchildren now ) and if you are like me a great little boat to race, I have often said that if I had only wanted to win races I would never have sold NAIAD the first time.
No more changes, it is time for us to grow old together.
Good Pandora Sailing.
© Andy Linton
