The two youngest teams ever to sail Transpac

by Rich Roberts on 11 Jul 2007 While the vanguard starters in the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii groped their way through light winds on Day 2 Tuesday, those awaiting their turns in Rainbow Harbor were sizing up one another.

Roy E. Disney's powered-up Pyewacket and his Morning Light team's Transpac 52 are literally in the center of attention, moored pointy bow to winged stern alongside Pine Avenue Pier. They'll both start Sunday with the fastest-rated boats, three days after Divisions 4 and 5 and the Santa Cruz 50s and 52s.

The 15 Morning Light sailors were selected from 538 applicants with a deliberate accent on youth and diversity and the ultimate goal of creating a documentary film scheduled for theater release next year. They'll be introduced Wednesday night at a dinner in Club Transpac benefiting Partners of Parks and the Long Beach Yacht Club Sailing Foundation. Tickets may still be available at (562) 495-2472. Club Transpac is a tented compound adjacent to Gladstone's Restaurant in Rainbow Harbor in downtown Long Beach.

Although spanning the ages of 18 to 23, Morning Light won't be the youngest team ever to sail Transpac. After this race that distinction will probably belong to five young men from Hawaii and Southern California who will start the race Thursday on a smaller 1D35 once called Two Guys On the Edge when Dan Doyle and Bruce Burgess sailed it doublehanded in previous Transpacs. Now it's called On the Edge of Destiny.

The skipper will be Sean Doyle, 19, Dan's eldest son, with his other son Justin as navigator. Roscoe Fowler, 20, of Honolulu also will be on the crew, with Cameron Biehl, 19, of San Diego and Ted White, 23, of Santa Barbara, as watch captains. Average age: 19.8 years, about a year younger than Morning Light.

'All five of us applied for the Disney thing,' Sean Doyle said, 'but I was planning on doing the race before that, maybe chartering my dad's old boat from the guy who bought it.'

Instead, Dan Doyle turned the boat over to the kids to serve on the Hawaii volunteer committee. But the primary aim wasn't to out-youth Morning Light, Sean Doyle said.

'It was like, I'm not gonna go sail the race with a bunch of 30-year-olds when these are all my friends. I know a couple of the people on the [Morning Light] boat and Cameron knows a couple, too. We're not trying to beat them—or maybe we are,' he added with a smile and a shrug.

So how does a teenager feel leading such a young team on one of the world's great ocean races? Well, he and his brother did last year's Pacific Cup from San Francisco to Kaneohe on Oahu with their dad, and he says he isn't intimidated.

'Not at all. People think it’s a big deal, but I've been sailing in gnarly winds all my life. It's way more fun for me. I hope it blows 50 knots.'

Sean Doyle thinks their effort may set an inspiring example for other young sailors, as the Morning Light project already has.

Last month the Morning Light team spent time with 200 youth sailors from the Reno area and Northern California at a Sierra Nevada Community Sailing youth sailing program. Director Rog Jones wrote later:

'One of the kids who spent the day with the crew has been a bit of a problem. His really amazing epiphany occurred when he was on the way home with his parents. They told me he was unusually quiet and introspective until he said, 'Dad and Mom, I learned something today. I want to be like these guys. I know I've been a hard kid to raise and that I've caused you a lot of trouble. But I'm going to change. These guys really had to go through a lot to get where they are with sailing. I want to be like them and I'm going to shape up, starting right now. I want to apologize for all the misery I've caused and I promise from here on out, you'll see a different kid. I love you, Mom and Dad.' '

Jones said, 'Reportedly, he's never said anything like that before. I've been around him for the past 10 days, and it's true, he has actually changed. And changed for the best. Two of the Morning Light crew promised him they'd be there to answer his e-mails and to help him deal with some of the things that seem to eat him up. They told him to get in touch when he needs to talk to somebody. If you've saved even one kid, you've changed the world.'

Meanwhile, out to sea, the early starters were showing tactical separation in light winds of 8 to 10 knots, some diving south, led by Frank Easterbrook's Ariadne, a Ladd 73 that is the fastest rated boat in the group, and others bearing west with Steve Brown's Brown Sugar, an Express 37, leading Steen Moller and Robert MacDonald's doublehanded X-Dream and Alyson and Cecil Rossi's Ho'okolohe, a Farr 58, by only a mile.

Michael Lawler's Traveler, an Aloha B competitor, returned to port a few hours after Monday's start when crew member Scott Schubert suffered a badly lacerated finger. Schubert received eight stitches and rejoined the team, which restarted at 6:50 p.m., almost six hours after the official start.

More information: www.transpacificyc.org