Morning Light action picks up as Disney takes dip

by Rich Roberts on 10 Aug 2006 Roy E. Disney joined the action in tryouts for his documentary film project Wednesday and got more than his feet wet.

After riding along for a few keenly competitive races on one of the four Catalina 37s the 30 finalist are sailing this week, Disney was attempting to transfer from the sailboat to his powered chase boat in lumpy seas and 18 knots of breeze when the boats suddenly separated---and in he went.

'I think it's a first,' said the man who has been a racing and cruising sailor most of his life. 'I was surprised how warm the water was.'

John Romanko, 19, of Vancouver, B.C., one of the candidates for the team that will sail the Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii next summer, saw Disney in the
water and immediately leaped in to assist him. But Disney, 76, was in the water for no more than a minute and required no medical assistance later except for a cut on the palm of his right hand where he had grabbed a lifeline.

Coincidentally, with cameras recording their every move, the young sailors had been practicing man-overboard rescue drills all week, including a surprise session a day earlier when the selection committee representative on each boat suddenly jumped overboard to see how the candidates would respond. They did well, but Wednesday's event caught one and all by surprise---and will likely to wind up on the cutting room floor.

The finalists sail once more Thursday and learn Friday who made the cut.

Jesse Fielding, 19, of North Kingstown, R.I., spoke for the group in a daily diary report to the Sailing World magazine Web site (www.sailingworld.com/index.jsp) when he wrote: 'You can't tell what the pros on the boats are thinking. They have great poker faces. I still have to pinch myself to realize that Andrew Campbell is hanging on to the back of Team Blue's Catalina 37. I almost get used to seeing Roy Disney at breakfast, but then I pinch myself and realize where I am and what I am doing.

'This experience is unreal on every front. Everyone is working hard and really maximizing the potential that this experience and platform has to offer. It is so unique and so dynamic that you cannot possibly look beyond the next hour. We are all Disney's dip ended well, with assist having a blast out there on the water and on land.' from John Romanko.

The Disney incident occurred at about 2:40 p.m. as the little fleet was on open ocean a mile and a half outside the Long Beach breakwater and preparing to go inside the breakwater to finish its drills for the day. He had been riding alongside Scott Ikle, one of the selection committee members.

'A wave came along and the boats separated,' Disney said. 'Scott got hold of my lifejacket but all that did was to pull it up over my face. I had to pull it down so I could see.'

When Ikle saw that he might be pulling the jacket right off Disney, he said, 'I thought it was better to let him go rather than leave him in the water without a lifejacket.'

Romanko said, 'I was up front working on the jib and saw Roy in the water off to the side. I'm a lifeguard at home, so it was just sort of instinct that I jumped off [the boat] to see if he needed a hand . . . make sure he was all right. .'

They met later on the dock, and Romanko said afterward, 'He may look older, but he's just one of the guys.'

Gladstone's Restaurant at Rainbow Harbor is a supporting host of the Morning Light tryouts.

Finalists for the selection trials (in alphabetical order):

*Lindsey Austin, 21, Honolulu, Hawaii

Trevor Bozina, 22, San Francisco, Calif

Chris Branning, 21, Sarasota, Fla.

Graham Brant-Zawadzki, 21, Newport Beach, Calif.

*Anna Brun, 20, San Diego, Calif.

Chris Clark, 20, Old Greenwich, Conn.

Charlie Enright, 21, Providence, R.I.

Jesse Fielding, 19, North Kingstown, R.I.

Raiden Hasegawa, 18, Evanston, Ill.

Robbie Kane, 21, Fairfield, Conn.

Felipe Lopez, 18, Friday Harbor, Wash.

Steve Manson, 21, Baltimore, Md.

Robert (Max) Moosmann, 19, Newport Beach, Calif.

Colin Ranney, 21, Newport, R.I.

John Romanko, 19, Vancouver, B.C.

Chris Schubert, 21, Rye, N.Y.

Riley Schutt, 21, Trumansburg, N.Y.

Omari Scott, 22, Antigua, West Indies

Parker Shinn, 19, San Diego, Calif.

Andrés Soriano, 20, New York, N.Y.

*Jennifer Stone, 20, Haverhill, Mass.

*Kate Theisen, 19, Socorro, N.M.

Mark Towill, 17, Kaneohe, Hawaii

*Genny Tulloch, 21, Houston, Texas

Piet van Os, 22, La Jolla, Calif.

Chris Vetter, 18, St. Petersburg, Fla.

Chris Welch, 18, Grosse Pointe Park, Mich.

Marcellus Wesley, 22, Washington D.C.

Kit Will, 21, Milton, Mass.

Jeremy Wilmot, 20, Sydney, Australia.

*---Female.


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