Sanderson joins Morning Light Team

by Rich Roberts on 14 Mar 2007
If you could pick two people to show you how to sail an ocean race, how about Mike Sanderson and Stan Honey?

Both will be with the Morning Light crew for its third of four monthly training session starting this week and leading to the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu in July.

New Zealand's Sanderson and California's Honey were the skipper and navigator for ABN AMRO ONE's runaway victory in the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race. The feat earned Sanderson the International Sailing Federation's honor of World Sailor of the Year, while Honey's esteem in his specialty reached new heights with bold moves that buried the rest of the fleet.

Honey, long the navigator for Roy E. Disney's record-setting Pyewacket campaigns, has been a regular member of the group grooming the 15 young men and women, ages 18 to 23. Sanderson will spend a week with them during this session, sometimes on board with them on their Transpac 52 and other times observing from a chase boat or lecturing on shore.

Sailing manager Robbie Haines said, 'The sailors have come to know Stan very well, but they may be in awe of Mike for awhile. I'm sure he'll have their attention.'

Sanderson is scheduled to be one of their fellow crew members when Morning Light makes its longest sail yet: an overnighter to Maui and back next week.

Otherwise, this session will be devoted to preparing their minds and bodies for the 2,225-nautical mile Transpac. After mornings at 24 Hour Fitness, they'll spend time at the Marine Education and Training Center (METC) learning all about marine hardware from Peter Harken and Bill Ottoman of Harken Inc. and about Yanmar diesel engines from Ed Auck of Boatswain’s Locker in Newport Beach, Calif.

Haines said, 'These kids are going to be out on the ocean by themselves and they need to be competent in fixing mechanical problems that come up. Things do happen on boats. If something breaks, they need to know how to fix it.'

Roy Pat Disney, son of the project leader, oversees the body part, exploiting his experience as a gym owner and operator.

'Kids, as you might remember from being a kid, don’t train,' he said. 'From my experience it can make a huge difference in sailing. [In a long race] it's not the first day, it's the sixth day that makes a difference. These are very physical boats. For a lot of these kids it was culture shock.'

One morning in the February session was spent working out on Waikiki Beach. Janell Petalver of 24 Hour Fitness said, 'In the gym they're working on their strength. On the beach they work on the reaction skills they're going to need for changes in the wind or other conditions.'

At first, Disney said, 'They were very inflexible and unaware physically of themselves. But all of these kids are small-boat sailors, so we've been pleasantly surprised, and the girls are pretty darn strong. There hasn't been a lot of difference. We do a full body measurement the day they come back. Last time some of them were either up or down 10 pounds in weight. So we've been measuring body fat and flexibility and taking body measurements each time.'

Disney's wife Sheri, a nutritionist, guides the diet program.

'We'll try to get them off all caffeine before the race,' Disney said. 'It really messes you up. You have to be able to turn it on and turn it off every four hours, and if you can't turn it off you're in a sleep deficit, and you never catch up.'

As for freeze-dried food, the common fare for ocean racers these days, Disney described it as 'like eating reconstituted cardboard. We'll give them some to see what they like. The trick is in the spices.'

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.

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