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In 1982 when we decided to make the EC12 our club boat in Gig Harbor MYC, I didn't know much about it. Bob Sterne told me that the key to sailing an EC12 is "momentum conservation." While that's true of most sailing yachts, its certainly true of the EC12. But in addition to keeping the boat speed to a maximum on all points of sail, I've learned the importance sailing the shortest distance. Rounding each buoy tightly, avoiding unnecessary tacks, avoiding skirmishes with other boats, and sailing buoy-to-buoy on the free legs are all ways to get around the course quicker. None will give you a huge advantage, but taken together they'll help you sail a lot more effectively.

When going to weather the EC12 doesn't like to be steered a lot. I like to have the helm set with a bit of weather helm so the boat will constantly seek the wind. I try to get it to go about 5 boat lengths before it luffs to weather. Use of the rudder needs to be gentle, yet precise. Anything over about 4 degrees is drag, so you need to have the boat well-balanced and use a light touch on the rudder. Use your jib trim to keep the boat well balanced. Tacking is an area that you can often put some distance on the competition. Remember to tack gently in light airs, accelerating your rudder throw once the boat is head to wind. Once the tack is complete let your sails out about 1/2 inch on the sheet to accelerate, then after about 4-5 seconds begin to gradually sheet it back in to the nominal sailing position.

When reaching, the EC12 doesn't like to be oversteered either. Again, balance is very important to keep from using too much rudder. Most model boats have a small geometric distortion between the jib and main as the boat goes from close hauled to a reach. Usually you'll have to let the jib out a bit on a close reach, but bring it in a bit on a broad reach. This can be easily accomplished with the jib trim. Some skippers pre-program their radios to accomplish this procedure. I like to do it by hand so that I can overcompensate if necessary to minimize the rudder throw.

When running, it is once again important to avoid oversteering. It's important to get the boat wing and wing once you are sailing lower than a broad reach. This will help balance the boat. But don't go too far--the EC12 doesn't like being sailed by the lee. You'll find the boat doing a death roll once past dead downwind. Unlike AC boats, the EC12 doesn't seem to do better when tacked downwind. Apparently the amount of wind lost and rudder drag during the jibe negates any gain realized by tacking downwind. All other things being equal, the best route to a leeward mark with an EC12 is the rhumb line.

Some of you who've been sailing awhile are thinking, "Geez, this is pretty basic stuff. What I want to know is Kelly's secret!" Sorry, it's not more exciting than that. It's just a combination of all the little things that will give you an advantage.

All these things are so simple, yet few people actually do them. Just ask the Model Doctor, Larry Robinson. Larry is a keen observer and carefully watches every model yacht race he can. He feels that the majority of races are lost because someone fails to adhere to some basic principle of sailboat racing. For example, you frequently see skippers sailing a poorly balanced boat just because, "the wind changed" and they just didn't want to go to the trouble of re-balancing it properly. Or maybe the boat was never properly
balanced to begin with.

Larry is adamant about making sure that you have a simple, reliable way to balance your boat quickly when conditions change. The best way that I know of is in Larry Robinson and Bob Wells' book Optimizing the EC12. You could probably design a simpler method, but it would require a lot of testing to make sure you know exactly how many holes to move the jib, mast and shrouds for a given wind velocity change.

I have the advantage of sailing often with our club psychiatrist, Mikey Pearson. He's an excellent sailor as well as a terrific resource on the psychology of sailing. Mikey points out that over time a fleet will have a certain "pecking order." Skippers come to believe in that order, and have a lot of trouble moving up more than 1-2 places. It seems like whenever you seem to be leading the fleet, something goes wrong. Olympic sailors describe the phenomenon as "doing better than your mental image of your position in the fleet." So you start screwing up. Because EC12s are so nearly equal, you get the opportunity to observe
this if you watch closely. You've seen it--the guy who usually finishes around 9^th place gets a great start and leads the fleet towards the first mark. Then he makes a bad tack. Then gets in a luffing match. Then hits the mark.

My personal example of doing better than my mental image was back in the late 80's when I used to race EC12s with Bob Sterne. Here I am without a great deal of experience sailing against a designer, sailmaker and accomplished racer. Bob beat me more often than not until the 1989 Nationals. Before those Nationals I had to convince myself that I not only could beat Bob with an EC12, but that I deserved to. I remember talking with Mikey during the event to confirm that approach. The record shows that it worked, but I can tell you that it was a struggle. It adds tension to an already tense situation when you are trying to overcome a mental image of your deserved place.

Like any other acquired skill, you need to spend a lot of time at it so it becomes second nature. We call it "stick time" in my neighborhood. Too many skippers think boat speed comes from the boat. Remember that the EC12 is a restricted design class, so there isn't all that much difference between boats. So spend at least as much time sailing your EC12 as you do working on it. Good luck, and let's go sailing!

Last time this page was updated: Wednesday, July 02, 2003