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Tech student
makes the crew for adventure film
George Zamora New Mexico Tech
A New Mexico Tech undergraduate has been selected as one of 15 crewmembers who
will make up a world-
class yacht- racing team for Roy E. Disney's upcoming "Morning Light" film project.
Kate Theisen, a junior majoring in astrophysics at the land-locked university, proved her sailing
expertise and
high- seas mettle when she competed last week in selection trials in Long Beach, Calif., for a coveted
position
as a crew member of the Morning Light, a racing yacht Disney purchased to compete in next year's 44th
staging of the Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Hawaii.
"Morning Light," also the working title of the anticipated feature-length documentary film,
will chronicle the
recruitment, training and performance of the youngest 15-member crew ever to sail the Transpacific Yacht
Race.
At race time, the average age of the 15 selected will be slightly more than 21 years, a full year under
the
record.
High-definition cameras will continue to record their yacht-racing experiences, as they did this past
week, for
the documentary's scheduled release in 2008.
None of the crewmembers selected to star in the film are actors.
There is also no script for the real-life adventure; nor is there a preconceived outcome of what many
sailing
enthusiasts, including Disney, consider to be the world's most dynamic grand-prix- class sailing event.
"If we do our job right, I don't care as much whether they win or lose as how they come together
as a group
and wind up as a team in the end," Disney said. "However, how they do is how they do ... but,
we're giving
them the equipment to win."
Prior to attending Tech, Theisen's sailboat-racing roots harked back to living with her parents on a
boat in
various East Coast ports.
Theisen said she also was inspired at an early age by another sailboat-racing movie, and she hopes "Morning
Light" will do the same for others.
"I saw the movie 'Wind' ages ago, and I've always wanted to race," she said. "In the
meanwhile, I've done small
boat racing, and I grew up on a sailboat."
The undergraduate also is one of only two young women chosen for the history-making crew of the Morning
Light — a group picked from 30 finalists invited to try out during last week's selections trials.
The finalists were
selected out of 538 applicants from throughout the world.
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