Random Racing Thoughts
History
I started racing Pandora's in 1977 when I bought Cocomo a new "700" sail number 725 (Does anyone know of its whereabouts now?) and raced it in the first "Welsh Open in 1979. Later, after an interval of several boat-less years, my son Stephen and I rejoined the Pandora-fold when we purchased a famous Abersoch "700" called Glydwiner (formerly Wendy Girl) which we promptly renamed Owat. This long length of time in racing has given us the opportunity to make every mistake in the book and even invent some new ones! So having learnt the hard/only way, Stephen and I modestly and tentatively offer for your consideration the following hints and methods we use to try and make our Pandora go faster.
Preparation
For years we have struggled to maintain a smooth as possible underwater profile on Owat, but with the build up of antifouling each year it was taking more and more time to prepare.
We therefore decided to scrape all the old antifouling off and start again and this has proved well worthwhile. Especially as we now use Teflon based antifouling that can be taken completely off each year with the application of cellulose (car-paint) thinners.
Finally, we burnish the antifouling in a fore and aft direction with fine-grain wet and dry sandpaper
Rudder
Serious repairs to the rudder are probably best left to your boatyard and should never be neglected.
On the 700, if you dismantle the rudder and separate it from the skeg you must refit it with new oversize bolts. If you don't, you stand a good chance of losing your rudder as we found out to our considerable cost!
If your Pandora is difficult to steer the leading edge of the rudder should be made more blunt and rounded.
For efficient separation of the water when leaving the rudder, its trailing edge should be squared off to a narrow flat.
Shroud Tension
It's probably true that most Pandora's sail with their rigs too slack and their performance can nearly always be improved by sensibly tightening the shrouds.
On land we try to make sure that the mast is set up straight and level after progressively tightening each side until the rig is firm and we then leave it at that, until our first (tune-up) sail.
On the water we then do our final tune. This is best done on a day when the wind strength is at the top end of the scale for the Genoa.
With the rig now fully powered up, we then go from tack to tack and look at the leeward shrouds. If they are very slack, we tighten them until they are only just starting to be tight.
This means that the rig is then only falling to leeward very slightly, their is no point in tightening the rig any further as all you will do is compress the mast.
Sails
| Sail | Maker | Description | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| No 1 Genoa | North Sails | Mylar | 144 % |
| No 2 Jib | Cranfield (Holt) | Dacron | 107 % |
| No 3 Jib ( The Blade ) |
JKA | Dacron | 73 % |
| Storm Jib | Holt | Original Sail | Unknown |
| Mainsail | North | Dacron 5oz Cross-Cut | N/A |
| Spinnaker (Large) |
North | Superlite 0.5oz Radial | Max. |
| Spinnaker (Medium) | JKA | Heavyweight Cloth | Unknown |
Pandora sailors are lucky in that at North Sales, the sales manager Neil Mackley is very familiar with their boats and in fact crewed for C.Tindall when he won the "1981 Welsh Open" in Church Mouse.
We always found Neil to be most helpful and knowledgeable and have been more than well pleased with the racing-performance of all the North Sails we have owned.
No 1 Genoa
This very fast Mylar sail fits like a glove and it has been raced hard since 1997, even though the sail has chaffed a little against the shrouds it should last us another two seasons, highly recommended!
Mainsail
This sail was designed with a "Foot Shelf" and after much thought we converted it to a loose-footed sail to take full advantage of its bottom-fullness. We find that after sailing, it is best to roll the mainsail round the boom and store in the cabin, as a result the sail has kept in remarkable good condition and shape and should last for many more years too come.
JKA Sailmakers
Jonathan Abrahams our local sailmaker at Pwllheli is of course also very familiar with Pandora's and the two sails he made for us work superbly! Both of these sails are a little unusual and merit an explanation.
No 3 Jib
The concept for this sail came after reading the great Dennis Connors book "Sail like a Champion" when he extolled the virtues of a high aspect jib of about 90%. After further suggestions from Jonathan, we finally ended up with a Battened! High Aspect jib which has since become known as "The Blade" Jonathan's final comment was "Its good to see that the Pandora's are at last modernising their sail-plan"
The sail really comes into its own in a blow and the poor old Storm-Jib has become redundant. The only snag with this high-aspect sail is that you will probably need to extend your jib fairlead-track forward, as the existing track is not usually sufficient.
Medium Spinnaker
This is roughly half the size of our big Spinnaker and it was originally purchased to cover the obvious situation when you want to fly a spinnaker downwind but the wind strength is such that the larger one would be too hazardous.
There is nothing more dangerous and a sure way to lose a race, than to fly a too large a spinnaker for the prevailing wind conditions. In our opinion having an adequate range of sails for all wind conditions in your locker is the finest safety feature you can buy for your boat. It is also a fact that we have won far more races by being under-canvassed as against the fleet than the other way round.
What we have found in using this sail that it also makes a fine reaching spinnaker, the lager sail is often just too powerful and you end up making far too much leeway.
If, as we do, you find that the smaller sail is used for nearly all reaching situations, you can then afford to have your larger spinnaker designed by your sailmaker as an out and out "Runner" This Runner sail should be faster downwind than any general dual-purpose spinnaker.
Spinnaker Handling
Nothing kills boat speed quicker in a Pandora than a heavy man trying to launch/retrieve the spinnaker from forward of the mast.
This fact, coupled with the necessity of often racing with just two people and an aversion to spinnaker packing, led us to launching/retrieving the spinnaker from the cabin under the main- boom. With this method of launching, it helps to have two spinnaker halyards (a good idea anyway) and long (2 x boat-length) spinnaker sheets.
Retrieving the halyard from "the wrong-side" after dropping the spinnaker can be best achieved by attaching it to both spinnaker sheets and pulling it around the shrouds/forestay and back to its proper side.
Handling the spinnaker sheet/guy under full load is made a lot easier if you have two extra winches solely for this purpose and of course not flying too large a spinnaker!
We have found that the best place for the spinnaker-boom is attached to the front of the mast in the normal way and kept flush to the mast with a simple shock-cord arrangement. The boom height when attached to the spinnaker is controlled by a downhaul and uphaul arrangement, led back to the cockpit for ease of control.
Local Conditions
It is very important when racing to use every advantage you can tide, wind-shifts, currents, sea breeze etc. all play a major part in how fast you can cover the course.
Our local knowledge is limited to Abersoch but thanks to the power of the web I can point you in the right direction if you happen to sail in the area of the UK leading race courses.
Jim Saltonstall of the R.Y.A. has done an excellent Venue Guide at the Mad for sailing site, which covers twenty major racing venues including Abersoch and Pwllheli.
The Guide covers all the previous points and even tells you which side of a beat you should be on for a given wind-direction!
Are Pandora's Competitive Today?
David Harding writing in December 2000 issue of the Practical Boat Owner in a used boat test article featuring a Mark 1 Pandora stated;
"In racing trim (new sails and upgraded deck hardware), I could imagine a fin-keeled Pandora giving many bigger and newer boats a serious fright"
This statement supports our experience at Abersoch, where in mixed class races against a very hot Squib fleet, Sportsboats and larger keelboats, a well-prepared and equipped Pandora in the right hands can still be amongst the winners even beating lower handicapped boats over the water!
We all of course, owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Pandora's designer E G Van de Stadt, whom was both artist and a boat-builder and never designed a slow boat in his life!
It is a magnificent tribute to his genius that 35 years after the first Pandora was built his boats are still racing and winning against all-comers!
In conclusion, we can do no better than quote Practical Boat Owner's David Harding again;
"It would be unfair to enthuse about her remarkable handling while ignoring her many other attributes. After all, we were sailing a real classic, a well built, good-looking little cruiser with a first -class pedigree that contrasts sharply with many unattractive, poorly-designed and cheaply built offerings from the 60s and 70s"
Amen to that!
Good Racing
© Michael Colclough & Stephen Colclough
