L. to R. Co owners George Hooper and Micheal Taylor with crew member James Ryan aboard Johnny Be Goode enroute to ApolloBay

As is always the case if you miss the weather window –the finish line stretches ahead for a longgggggggger period of time.  This was the case for the crew of Johnny Be Goode, a Farr 1020, who were taking part in their first ocean race. Co-owners George Hooper and James Taylor thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  George said “it may be a short race for some of the more experienced crews - but for us this was a long race”. They thought they raced well and were very pleased with the performance of their boat and crew but found it hard to maintain concentration as the hours rolled by.  George said that what he learnt from this experience is the need to concentrate from start to finish to maintain your position in the race.” James and George had previous offshore cruising experience as well as bay racing around the cans.  However they also had three novice crew members so the Apollo Bay race was their first long ocean race challenge.

Crew member Michael Coelman, enjoys his first ocean race aboard Johnny Be Goode in the Apollo Bay race

George said they had a great start in a fresh breeze. They were very pleased with their efforts in the first part of the race when they tacked in front of Matrix around 1300hrs. In the middle of the race they thought they were still doing OK on handicap.  But then the breeze faded and they found it harder to make way in the sloppy sea.  As time stretched on, the crew experienced fatigue in the last part of the race.  The dark night added to their sense of tiredness and they found it hard to maintain a high level of concentration right up to the finish line. George says next time he will swap the helmsman more frequently to keep them rested - but in the end they got there and had a great time.

The ORCV racing calendar has a well designed range of short, medium and long distance ocean races that competitors can enter to progressively build up their experience. The Latitude and Apollo Bay races are ideal first-up events for boats and crews that are new to ocean racing.  It's great to hear the lessons learnt by Johnny be Goode crew in this year's Apollo Bay race. We hope to see them back out in the ocean again soon.