Morning Light sailors hard at work in Hawaii

by Rich Roberts on 10 Jan 2007 For the Morning Light team, training to do the Transpacific Yacht Race has not been a typical Hawaiian holiday.

'After working out in the gym and then grinding on the boat for two hours I was pretty tired,' Graham Brant-Zawadzki, 22, of Newport Beach, Calif. said. 'But it was great. The boat is fantastic. It's faster than anything I've ever sailed.'

The 13 men and two women who in July plan to become the youngest crew ever to sail Transpac are near the end of the first of four monthly training sessions.

So far most of the time has been devoted to working out in the 24 Hour Fitness gym---one of the sponsors---and learning safety at sea procedures from Chuck Hawley of West Marine, and they now know all about inflating and launching life rafts and dealing with medical emergencies in the middle of the Pacific.

They also have heard from Stan Honey on navigation and Ralf Steitz, the offshore sailing coach at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York. Those exercises will be included in the film documentary at the root of the project produced by Roy Disney's Pacific High Productions in association with Disney Studios.

A press conference with Disney and the team is scheduled Wednesday, 10 a.m. HST at the Hawaii Prince Hotel---also a sponsor---in the Hale-Kila Room on the third floor. Parking is free for media; validation stamp for non-media.

The safety and physical sessions have been important, but the sailing is more fun. Brant-Zawadzki said, 'I don't want to spend any more time in a life raft again.'

Hawley said, 'At their age you know they'd rather be on the water sailing, but their retention of what I've told them has been good. They'll know how to take care of themselves.'

They have sailed their Transpac 52, Morning Light, out of the host Waikiki Yacht Club on only the last two days and will sail it only two more days before this session winds up Friday. The highlight for Charlie Enright, 22, of Providence, R.I. was one day when he was driving and a whale came alongside.

'We were 20 to 30 feet away,' Enright said. 'I think we both compensated in the same direction and then realized that wasn't gonna work out. It swam away eventually.'

The most interesting safety drill was with a Coast Guard helicopter.

'You hope that's the last time it happens to you,' Enright said. 'We were on the TP 52 and inflated the life raft. Then we kind of abandoned ship and swam to the raft. We got [away] from the boat and the helicopter came over and dropped in a rescue swimmer. He swam over to us and we had a conversation on what it's about, how it would all go down if it were the real thing. If we were at sea there'd be a C-130 flying over to drop us more of these. It was very cool, but I hope it’s the last time we do it.'

Positions on the boat are not yet determined.

'We’re rotating positions,' Enright said. 'We have two more days on the water, and each day has gotten better. It's good to share information with your teammates so each day is more efficient than the one before.'

Does everyone want to drive? he was asked.

'Not everybody. We're deciding now whether we're going to keep doing this rotation straight through or to expedite things by keeping people in the general regions where they're comfortable.'

'We have two more days on the water, and each day has gotten better. We’re rotating positions. It's good to share information with your teammates so each day is more efficient than the one before.'

Brant-Zawadzki---'B-Z' to his teammates---lauded sailing director Robbie Haines and the boat's managers, Jimmy Slaughter and Dave Tank, for breaking them in to the boat's special technical features, which are far advanced from the average sailboat.

He also said he learned how to handle a safety flare: 'Don't hold it into the wind.'

More information: www.pacifichighproductions.com/ and www.transpacificyc.org