Let it blow – Morning Light is ready

by Rich Roberts on 25 Feb 2007 The Morning Light team has scattered across the country and the world after the second of four monthly training sessions in Hawaii, but in a greater sense they're closer together than ever and getting to feel at home on their Transpac 52.

One of the 15 young members, Robbie Kane, 21, of Fairfield, Conn., said, 'I'm amazed how fast everyone is learning. During the first session we were still not used to the boat or a lot of breeze, but after this session and our first overnight [sail] I can see how confident our team is. It's going to get better and better, especially as we switch positions. That's been a really good idea.'

Other sessions are scheduled March 12-26 and April 12-26 to prepare them for the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu in July. The entire Morning Light project---crew selection, training and the race---will be the subject of a documentary film produced by Roy E. Disney and Leslie DeMeuse of Pacific High Productions in association with Disney Studios. It's scheduled for theater release early next year.

Highlight of the second session was the 138-nautical mile trip around nearby Molokai, mostly at night, with instructors on board. The plan was for the sailors to do a similar jaunt by themselves late in the session, but then the weather piped up.

'There was a forecast to about 40 knots and 20-foot seas,' Kane said. 'We would have done it if it was one of the later [monthly] sessions, but we couldn't afford to break anything in the middle of the training schedule.'

Even for the weekend Opening Day races run by the host Waikiki Yacht Club Saturday and Hawaii Yacht Club Sunday the wind outside Ala Wai Harbor was howling 35 to 40 knots with gusts to 50. The Hawaii YC race was scheduled to go upwind to Koko Head at the southeast corner of Oahu---the opposite direction they'll be sailing to finish the Transpac in July---but the fleet had difficulty even getting to Diamond Head.

Through it all, the intrepid Morning Light film crew continued shooting from a splashing and bashing chase boat. Like some of the team members, even those who had sailed offshore, they hadn't experienced conditions that severe.

Disney said, 'We’re in a fairly steep learning curve ourselves, about how best to capture these harrowing moments on film for an audience.'

Kane said, 'Kate [Theisen] did her first race ever on Saturday. Before this the fastest she'd ever gone was 10 knots, cruising with her parents.

'I've been in a few races that were pretty bad. The worst was the last Vineyard race from Stamford, Conn. to a buoy in Martha's Vineyard and back when we actually sailed through a hurricane. That was on Blue Yankee, a Reichel/Pugh 66. We had gusts of 60 the whole race and squalls. It was pretty hairy. We went about 30 knots in 20-foot waves.'

Kane will spend this training break racing---what else?---with teammate Jeremy Wilmot in the latter's homeland of Australia. Teammate Chris Branning is doing the current race from Marina del Rey, Calif. to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on David Janes's Scout Spirit, a Reichel/Pugh 77.

Branning said, joking, 'It's nice to be on a boat without all the cameras around.'

Kane has no doubts that the team will be prepared to handle whatever Transpac offers.

'We have perfect coaches, perfect sailing conditions and the perfect boat, so it's bound to happen,' he said.

No crew positions have been assigned, but Kane knows where he's most at home.

'It's still open, but I'm a bowman,' he said. 'That's all I've done since I was 12 years old. I'm most comfortable up on the pointy end where it's wet and wild.'

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


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.
JEREMY WILMOT, 21, Sydney, Australia, sophomore, St. Mary's College of Maryland.