Roy Disney
A passionate sailor, renowned filmmaker and friend of Mickey Mouse, what better mentor and spokesperson than Roy Disney to spread the word about our fantastic sport? His vehicle? A full-length unscripted documentary that follows the selection and training of 15 young sailors (ages 18-23) on the 2007 Transpacific Yacht Race. Disney pointed them toward Hawaii in a fast, well-equipped TP52 named Morning Light and filmed what happened.
The sailing icon and long-time Harken friend spoke with us about his movie and his boats.
About Pyewacket
Roy Disney: Well it’s the first time this Pyewacket {IV} has done this race. We’ve made some really enormous modifications, almost to the point where I kiddingly one day said, “Is it O.K. to still call it Pyewacket?” We’ve spliced on a new bow that’s eight feet longer and replaced the forward rudder with daggerboards and we’ve got a ten-foot-taller mast, and a new fin, new bulb, new rudder and a whole lot of changes in the interior as well. The boat is going to be a bunch faster than it was two years ago and we’re very excited about its potential for breaking the record.**
Future Plans
I have in construction a 60’ Reichel/Pugh cruising boat. It is kind of a smaller, 60-foot Pyewacket, only without the canting keel or anything—just a conventional fin keel. But with furniture! We’re going to do a little cruising. I’m hoping to decimate the cruising class with this boat in the Newport/Ensenada Race.
** Roy Disney had donated Pyewacket IV to the Orange Coast College School of Sailing and Seamanship after the 2005 race, but leased it back for the 2007 Transpac, powering up the boat with a number of modifications. Disney opted not to sail and turned the helm over to co-skippers Roy Pat Disney and Gregg Hedrick. Pyewacket won its third Barn Door Trophy, but light air prevented a record.
Ottemann Observations
Bill Ottemann: Senior Winch Engineer/special Projects Development
Peter Harken and I held a winch seminar for the Morning Light crew. Peter spoke a little bit about the company, how we got started and where we are today. Then I started taking winches apart. We broke up into groups of four and took apart the small winches. Then we graduated into big winches. I was slowly tearing mine down when I looked up and hell, they had them all apart. Believe it or not, they put them back together too—with very little trouble! It really surprised me because most people don’t pick it up that quick. These kids were really sharp.
Roy Disney had a house on Diamond Head Drive in Hawaii for the kids to stay in. The first thing the movie crew did was to blow holes in all the walls to run cables through and hang lights up. We really didn’t notice them too much. They did a good job that way. During training, they had cameras mounted all over the boat and filmed the kids from the air. It’ll be shot from every angle. The kids accepted it well.
One night I ran into a kid from Baltimore sitting on the hammock playing his guitar. He said, ‘Boy, this is a long way from Baltimore where I come from.’
The kids really enjoyed Peter. He got them laughing by telling them Harken had sent ‘the old guys’ to do the seminar because all the young guys were doing productive stuff and couldn’t be spared. The kids were so appreciative of everything being done for them and knew what an opportunity this was.
The Movie
Roy Disney:
Well it needs to be a good movie first, that’s our primary aim, because if it is a lousy movie about sailing, it’s just another problem for sailing. Leslie DeMeuse (co-producer) and I both agreed it wasn’t going to be about the boats, but the people who sail the boats. It is about these kids coming together and finding ways to work together and become a team. That [story] could be set against a lot of different backgrounds, we just happen to be doing it on a sailboat.
The audience is anyone that will pay to come see it, but the primary one is ourselves. You have to make a movie that you would want to go, see, and like, and enjoy.
Watching the Transpac, the general audience sees a little tiny boat disappear over the horizon and six days later show up somewhere else. A lot of them still say things to me like, “What do you do at night? Where do you anchor?”
(I think, “In three miles of water, yeah right!”)
“No, you keep racing at night.”
“Really? How do you do that?”
So you know, those kinds of questions need to be answered for an awful lot of people. You’ve got to speak to that audience. If we can put the audience on board with these kids and see how the crew talk about what they’re going to do before they do it, I think it will help bridge that gap a little.
The Actors
These kids could give less of a damn whether we make the movie or not. They want to go win this race, and the camera and I are a little bit of a bother to them. Those of us who have been helping to train them, in particular, Robbie Haines (Sailing Team Manager), Stan Honey (Coach-Navigation), Chuck Hawley (Coach-Safety), and people like that are just like gods to them. So they are the real father figures, I think I’m more like a Grandpa.
The Adventure
The Morning Light Project really is a nice combination of a lot of things and a little bit about a positive look at the world and humanity and life and youth. The possibilities that are inherent in all of us when we are born and being brought up. In seven years maybe we’ll want to make another movie and find out what’s happened to all these kids, because it’s going to change each of their lives absolutely. Leslie DeMeuse went to Hawaii on her dad’s boat when she was 15, and I skippered our boat over there rather, well, much younger than I am now, and it changed each of our lives. I’ve seen it already start to happen to all of them, without even having made the trip.
The Outcome
Well you know I will make one prediction, and that is they will finish the race. How they do is not as important as the fact that they get there. When it gets personal you get a little faster anyway. To see that from aboard the boat and watch them become a functioning unit could get really interesting and it could be a really good movie. But the more important part is that they come together and become what I keep calling, “more than the sum of the parts.” I’m almost scared if they win it will all look phony. I’m sure we could get around that somehow, but, oh my God, how lucky could you get?**
**In true Disney fashion, Morning Light finished the 2,225-mile race right on cue, under spinnaker against a brilliant orange sunrise. Led by Jeremy Wilmot of Honolulu, the Morning Light Team placed 2nd in Division 2.
The Producers
Roy E. Disney
The son of Roy O. Disney co-founder of the Disney Company, Disney co-produced Morning Light with long-time partner and award-winning film maker Leslie DeMeuse. Disney has competed in the Transpac since 1975 (aboard the yawl, Shamrock), setting elapsed-time records in 1977 and 1999. He is best known for his four Pyewackets, named after the witch’s (played by Kim Novak) cat in the movie Bell Book and Candle. Passionate about the sport, Disney says the Transpac is by far his favorite race.
Leslie DeMeuse
Leslie DeMeuse has produced numerous sailing documentaries for television and collaborated with Roy Disney to film Transpac: A Century Across the Pacific. As co-producer with Disney of the Morning Light Project, Demeuse followed the young team (along with the camera crew) for a year as they prepared for the biggest event of their lives.
The Supporting Cast
Stan Honey—Coach & Navigation Instructor
Master Navigator Stan Honey has helped set records on numerous Transpac races and navigated ABN AMRO ONE to a win in the 2005/06 Volvo Ocean Race. Among his inventions: development of the FoxTrax system for tracking and highlighting the puck in NHL hockey games; the 1st and Ten system that creates the electronic first down line in NFL and NCAA football games.
Robbie Haines—Sailing Team Manager
Haines has managed Roy Disney’s sailing projects for 15 years, competing in 12 Transpacs as well as numerous offshore races. In his sailing career, he has won seven world championships in five classes and gold medaled in the Soling at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Chuck Hawley—Coach & Safety
Hawley is vice president of Product Development for West Marine, the largest number of boat supply and accessory stores in the United States. He has sailed aboard vessels from ultralight sleds, to singlehanders, to the maxi catamaran PlayStation. Hawley is an expert on crew overboard recovery, life raft design, and storm tactics.
Mike Sanderson—Coach
Recipient of the ISAF Rolex World Sailor award, Mike Sanderson is one of the most recognized names in sailing. Accomplishments include three America’s Cup campaigns and leading ABN AMRO ONE to a win in the 2005/06 Volvo Ocean Race. Currently, Sanderson is Team Director for TEAMORIGIN, Great Britain’s challenge for the 33rd America’s Cup.
The Props
Morning Light
Disney purchased the Transpac 52 Pegasus from software developer Philippe Kahn. After the Transpac, this fast Harken-equipped boat was sold to Australian Syd Fischer who will race it in the 2007/08 Sydney-Hobart.
Cheyenne
The production team filmed Morning Light’s journey from aboard the 38 m (125 ft) catamaran Cheyenne, formally Steve Fossett’s PlayStation.
For more information about the boat, the movie and the crew, go to www.morninglightproject.com. Look for the movie in theaters this spring.
