Morning Light sailors- off they go, all alone

by Rich Roberts on 7 Feb 2007 The Morning Light team is about to take another leap forward: the nautical equivalent of handing the kids the keys to the car.

During their second monthly training session Feb. 8-20 starting Thursday in preparation for next summer's Transpacific Yacht Race, the 15 young men and women will sail their Transpac 52 on two 138-nautical mile overnight voyages around neighboring Molokai Island. Starting from their base of operations at the Waikiki Yacht Club, the young sailors will be under the supervision of sailing manager Robbie Haines and preeminent navigator Stan Honey for the first trip Feb. 13-14 but will be on their own for the second Feb. 19-20.

Between the treks, a shoreside highlight of this second of four training sessions will be the Opening Day ceremonies of the Waikiki Yacht Club Saturday, Feb. 17, where the Morning Light team will meet and socialize with their hosts led by WYC Commodore Mark Hazlett.

Stan Thornton, chairman of the Opening Day committee, said, 'Morning Light also will be participating in the Opening Day blessing of the fleet, the cruise to HNL Harbor and the regatta following. Our membership will not only be able to meet and get to know these fine young sailors but race against them as well.'

Although some of the sailors have done other overnight ocean races, for the rest these will be their first taste of a rotating watch system of sailing, eating and sleeping in a competitive mode.

Jesse Fielding, 20, of North Kingstown, R.I. said, 'I'm really excited. We need to find our limits. The next big step for sailing a Transpac is to go out and see if we can sail . . . at night . . . offshore . . . by ourselves.'

The twin goals of the Morning Light project are to prepare and send a youthful team from diverse backgrounds in a major ocean race and to produce a documentary film of the entire experience. The film is being produced by Roy E. Disney's Pacific High Productions in association with Disney Studios and is scheduled for theater release early next year.

The sailors' every physical, mental and emotional moves are being recorded along the way. Mark Monroe, the director/writer, works without a script and with no preconceived ending. His crew shadows the team on land and sea without interfering with their activities.

'These training sessions are also for the production crew to figure out logistically how to go about this,' Monroe said. 'We're in training, too.'

Haines, a 1984 Olympic gold medalist, scheduled the overnight sails, feeling it was time for the team to experience racing around the clock, as they will in the Transpac for eight or nine days. He believes they'll be ready after intense training under Honey, boat captain Dave Tank, first mate Jimmy Slaughter and himself.

'When we started this project we had no idea what kind of kids they'd be,' Haines said, 'but there's not a bad apple in the whole group. They have so much enthusiasm and they're so eager to learn that it's very satisfying for all of us.'

Positions are yet to be determined.

Fielding said, 'The position swapping we did in that first session gave us a chance to look at the whole boat. Some people are leaning one way because they have a prior set of skills, but in all my experience on the 52 I've been everywhere, and I'm not really sure where I'd like to be. It's such a great bunch of people I'd be happy just to do anything for 'em.'

There is no acting---at least none of which Monroe is aware.

'They can't help being aware of the cameras because we're around all the time,' he said, 'but there's not much posing. The most we've done is ask them to, say, go around the other side of the luggage carrier so there's better light, but we won't tell 'em what to do on the boat. Whatever they do, we just try to capture it.'

Monroe, 38, also worked on several of the 'Beyond the Glory' documentary television productions for Fox Sports.

'In some aspects this is similar because of the comments these kids have,' Monroe said. 'They are young athletes, and they firmly believe they're going to win this race.

'Everyone says---and it's a bit of a cliché---that it's a 'coming of age' story, and in essence that's what we're trying to do. To be on a sailboat and sail 24 hours a day across a massive ocean is going to change you, whether you're 15 or 50. To the extent that we know what’s going to happen at the end of this story, that's it. We'll talk to them afterwards and see if they look different and sound different. But right now they're extremely confident in their abilities on a boat.'

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

The Morning Light team

(Ages at time of race)

JEREMY WILMOT, 21, Sydney, Australia, sophomore, St. Mary's College of Maryland.
CHRIS BRANNING, 21, Sarasota, Fla., junior, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
GRAHAM BRANT-ZAWADZKI, 22, Newport Beach, Calif., senior, Stanford Univ.
CHRIS CLARK, 21, Old Greenwich, Conn., sailmaker, junior at Univ. of Mary Washington.
CHARLIE ENRIGHT, 22, Providence, R.I., racing coach, senior, Brown Univ.
JESSE FIELDING, 20, North Kingstown, R.I., boat worker, sailing teacher, student Univ. of Rhode Island.
ROBBIE KANE, 22, Fairfield, Conn., racing sailboat captain.
STEVE MANSON, 22, Baltimore, Md., sailing instructor.
CHRIS SCHUBERT, 22, Rye, N.Y., Midshipman First Class, U.S. Naval Academy.
KATE THEISEN, 20, Socorro, N.M., planetary scientist student, New Mexico Tech.
MARK TOWILL, 18, Kaneohe, Hawaii, senior, Punahou High School.
GENNY TULLOCH, 22, Houston, Texas, sailor.
PIET VAN OS, 23, La Jolla, Calif., senior, California Maritime Academy.
CHRIS WELCH, 19, Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., boat prep and deliveries, soph., Michigan State Univ.
KIT WILL, 22, Milton, Mass., senior, Connecticut College.