Morning Light Team ready for final training

by Rich Roberts on 12 Apr 2007 The Morning Light team---15 young sailors living a common dream---return to Hawaii this week for their fourth and final monthly training session in preparation for the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu in July.

And, by the way, they're making a movie about it, but that's the last thing on the sailors' minds.

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,

However, Chris Schubert said, 'For us it's really about the Transpac. Our goal is to get to Hawaii first. It's not to make a great movie . . . [although] we hope that's a nice by-product.'

Back home in Rye, N.Y. on Long Island, Schubert's mother Rita agrees.

'Some of us say, 'Oh, how cool, they're making a documentary movie,' ' she said. 'That's never mentioned when Christopher comes home, the movie is so unimportant to him. For him it's the race, the race and the race.'

And for mom, it's still 'Christopher,' and in some ways still the little kid who didn't really enjoy sailing at first.

'We are avid racers, even when I was pregnant with Christopher,' she said. 'We raced until I was at nine months. He was born in July and our next race was in Atlantic City in August. He was 4 weeks old and we had a little hammock down below. As he got a little older he was always scared. As soon as he heard the starting [signal] he would go down below and hide and play by himself. After we crossed the finish line he would come up and be happy.'

That started changing when Schubert was 8 and got his first boat, an Optimist he called Minnow, and 'he learned to be in control,' mom said. 'He became very secure and won the biggest trophy in his first year and was hooked. Then he absolutely loved to sail.'

He hasn't looked back. The U.S. Naval Academy gave Schubert leave in his final year to do the Morning Light project. He'll turn 22 four days before the July 15 start. He is so into the project that he'll be in Honolulu a couple of days early to learn more about how the Transpac 52's auxiliary engine works.

Mom was stunned. 'I said, 'Engines? This is sailing.' But he feels he is learning so much. He keeps telling us about the absolutely wonderful [instructors] they've had.'

Schubert said, 'You can measure the progress at the end of each session from the last one. Each time seems quite a step up. We're starting to realize where people feel comfortable and who's strong in which positions. I'm a big guy, so there's no doubt I'm going to be one of the grinders. I love grinding with [teammate Chris] Welch. I would love to be a driver additionally, but it all depends on how many people we have that are good at that and how it fits together.'

Sailing manager Robbie Haines indicated this session will involve more sailing exercises emulating Transpac conditions.

'I suspect we’ll see some multi-day trips,' Schubert said, 'more like two or three days, and a lot more night sailing, I hope. That will be the most difficult time and what we'll spend a lot of time on.'

They'll also spend time on . . .

Pitching in for Hawaii

The Morning Light team, grateful for the overwhelming help and hospitality it has received while training in Hawaii, will give its time and talent to community activities during this session.

The University of Hawaii film school, called Academy of Creative Media (ACM), has organized a presentation by Roy E. Disney April 20, 5-7 p.m., at the University of Hawaii titled '2D or not 2D?' As part of the school's 'Master Class Series,' Disney will discuss animation before an audience of film students from various film schools on community college level as well as a high school groups. A high school A/V program called Waianae High School Seariders has won national acclaim for its work despite being located in the lowest socio-economic area of this island.

The next day, Saturday, April 21, the young sailors will lead the Morning Light Ala Wai Clean Up with the Sierra Club, 24 Hour Fitness, Waikiki Yacht Club and West Marine to spruce up the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, not only for the Ala Wai community but to improve the quality of water for everyone. Team sponsors, boaters in the Ala Wai basin and the general public have been invited to take part.

The Goetz connection

Long before the dawn of the Morning Light project, Goetz Custom Boats in Bristol, R.I. produced a Transpac 52 for Philippe Kahn called Pegasus. That boat was the fastest of three TP52s in the 2005 Transpac and missed winning race overall honors by only 40 minutes on corrected handicap time against Rosebud, an older TP52.

Kahn later sold the boat to Disney, who renamed it Morning Light, and Disney put out the call for young applicants to race it this year. Charlie Enright was one of those 538 applicants and is now a member of the 15-person team training in Hawaii.

The connection? Enright's father Tom is Eric Goetz's dentist. Enright, 22, is a senior and sailing coach at Brown University, where Goetz is an alumnus. Goetz wrote Enright a letter of recommendation for Brown, and Enright now sails on one of Goetz's boats.

Bristol, self-described as a quintessential New England waterfront town, is a tight community of 21,600 with deep roots in sailing. Enright's grandfather Clint built boats at Pearson Yachts. As a kid, Enright was a sailing prodigy.

'He got kicked out of our [J/105] class,' his father said. 'It's supposed to be for easygoing old-timers, and he was driving our boat and winning all the races.'

And now, like Schubert, Enright couldn't care less about the movie implications of the project.

'It's just the racing,' his dad said. 'He just wants to win the race.'

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

The Morning Light team (Ages at time of race):
CHRIS BRANNING, 21, Sarasota, Fla., 2/C Midshipman, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
GRAHAM BRANT-ZAWADZKI, 22, Newport Beach, Calif., graduate, Stanford Univ.
CHRIS CLARK, 21, Old Greenwich, Conn., sailmaker.
CHARLIE ENRIGHT, 22, Bristol, R.I., Brown Univ., sailing coach.
JESSE FIELDING, 20, North Kingstown, R.I., student Univ. of Rhode Island.
ROBBIE KANE, 22, Fairfield, Conn., Univ, of Rhode Island, racing sailboat captain.
STEVE MANSON, 22, Baltimore, Md., asst. fleet manager Downtown Sailing Center, sailing instructor.
CHRIS SCHUBERT, 22, Rye, N.Y., 1/C Midshipman, U.S. Naval Academy.
KATE THEISEN, 20, Socorro, N.M., junior New Mexico Tech, astrophysics.
MARK TOWILL, 18, Kahalu'u, Hawaii, senior Punahou School, sailing instructor.
GENNY TULLOCH, 22, Houston, Texas, sailor, graduate Harvard Univ., Quantum female college sailor of the year.
PIET VAN OS, 23, La Jolla, Calif., senior California Maritime Academy, sailing coach, boat captain.
CHRIS WELCH, 19, Grosse Pointe, Mich., sophomore Michigan State Univ.
KIT WILL, 22, Milton, Mass., senior Connecticut College.
JEREMY WILMOT, 21, Sydney, Australia, St. Mary's College of Maryland international student.