by Wayne Avery
On the 26th of April 4 enthusiastic sailors travelled south to Pegasus Christchurch to compete in the EC12 South island champs. The EC 12 class was very popular here in Nelson many years ago with the world champs being sailed here in Mariri. Based on the Americas cup yachts of that era, a long keel with the rudder behind.
Prior to leaving we were given a crash course on tuning by Andy Luxford, Jerome Marris (both previous champs) and Brian Bennett.
We arrived early afternoon at the venue and immediately rigged our boats to get a feel of the conditions.
This type of boat was new to us even though John Levy and myself had sailed on big boats of this vintage before.
The sail was relatively short as dark clouds from the south closed in on us. With the boats packed away the heavens opened up with a deluge of golf ball size hail .
The day of the event drew 15 boats, three from Kapiti, four from Nelson, and the balance from Christchurch.
Sailing got underway on time in light fickle winds. (unlike IOM s these boats sail in next to breeze).
Unfortunately John had rudder problems that we could not fix, I was going well until the 8th race when a drained battery which meant a rescue was required. With a new battery installed i was late starting and could only finish 12th Darryl and Roy were off the pace understandably having old sails. Saturday night our motel room resembled a boat yard with a multitude of repairs being carried out.
Sunday brought lighter weather but despite a gallant effort to fix Johns boat it succumbed to rudder problems. My boat had rudder but no winch. Close inspection showed the Red ANT Winch was red hot! (cooked). Roy’s boat was sailing into the sunset (rudder fell out) which only left Darryl flying the Nelson flag finishing every race.
In the final summing up we all felt this was the best competition we had attended. Skippers acted with dignity with minimal verbiage and close racing. Well known IOM sailors, Chris Koskela, Bruce Edgar, and Darryl Pender took out the podium, the margins within the top ten were very close.
Nelson’s EC 12 fleet will be boosted in number with the addition of Darryl Lamb purchase of No 94, and Brian’s purchase of Bruce Edgar’s 143
Jeremy Marris has indicated he is keen and has a boat in build and Neville Taylor is threatening to bring his boat to the party.
There is keen interest within our growing fleet to bid for the 2025 Nationals at Best Island. If you are interested in finding a boat (of which there are a few for sale) let John L, Wayne, or Brian know and we will happy help you out. They are very affordable and extremely robust craft, as well as being elegant and a pleasure to sail.
Nelson Radio Sailing Club 