LONG BEACH, Calif.---An intense regimen of sailing and bonding is in store for the 30 final aspirants for Roy E. Disney's Morning Light crew when they arrive Saturday from around North America. By next week's end 15 will be selected to train in Hawaii for the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race in 2007.

The tryouts are the first phase of a true film documentary by Disney's Pacific High Productions planned for theatrical release in 2008. The 30 young men and women were chosen from among 538 applicants. Eleven or 12 will race the Transpac 52 Morning Light from Los Angeles to Hawaii, without coaches or advisors on board. 

They will be the youngest crew ever to sail Transpac. Their current ages a year away from the race range from 17 to 22. In the 1969 Transpac Jon Andron's victorious Cal 40, Argonaut, averaged 22.57 years of age.

Kit Will, 21, of Milton, Mass., is a typical hopeful. He is a senior at Connecticut College and great grandson of Thomas McManus, who designed Gloucester fishing schooners in the early 20th century.

"I've essentially sailed my entire life, starting as an infant when I cruised the New England coast every summer with my parents on our 36-foot sloop," Will said. "Sailing is just something that’s in my blood. When I heard about the Morning Light project I knew I had to apply even though it would mean deferring college graduation. I’ve always dreamed about sailing around the world. Racing the Transpac on Morning Light would be a dream come true." 

The tryouts will be based in downtown Long Beach at Rainbow Harbor and at the adjacent Hyatt Hotel. Selections will be announced before the candidates depart on Sunday, August 13.

The 30 will rotate daily sailing on four Catalina 37s chartered from the Long Beach Sailing Foundation. A member of the selection committee will be on each boat. Executive producers Disney and Leslie DeMeuse and sailing team manager Robbie Haines will observe from a chase boat.

Selection committee members are Stan Honey of Palo Alto, who recently navigated ABN AMRO 1 to its Volvo Ocean Race victory; Carol Buchan, Seattle, a world and national champion in various classes; Scott Ikle, sailing coach at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, as well as the 2003 U.S. Olympic Committee Coach of the Year in sailing; and Andrew Campbell, San Diego, a four-time all-American and College Sailor of the Year at Georgetown University.

Also scheduled each morning is a three-hour "team building exercise" session with Bill Applebaum, actor, writer and filmographer who will measure the candidates' comfort levels with one another as well as with cameras and microphones in their daily lives.

The final selections will be determined by Disney, DeMeuse and Haines, based on input from the selection committee, Applebaum and a number of more subjective criteria such as character, deportment, relationships to other team members, team spirit and trainability.

"We are not looking for actors," Haines said. "We want them to remain natural and unaffected, and they must be team players. I can show people how to sail a boat properly, but we also need people that can get along with each other for eight or nine days in pretty close quarters." 

Mike Tollin of Tollin/Robbins Productions (TRP) is also an executive producer. Fred Golding will be the director. The film, to be shot in High Definition theatrical quality, will be distributed by the Walt Disney Co.


Finalists for the Selection Trials (in alphabetical order):


*Lindsey Austin, 21, Honolulu, Hawaii

More information: www.pacifichighproductions.com/

  

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