Sanderson joins
Honey on ML coaching staff
HONOLULU---If you could pick two people to show you how
to sail an ocean race, how about Mike Sanderson andStan
Honey?
Both will be with the Morning Light crew for its third of four
monthly training session starting this week and leading to
the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to
Honolulu in July.
New Zealand's Sanderson and California's Honey were the
skipper and navigator for ABN AMRO ONE's runaway
victory in the 2005- 06 Volvo Ocean Race. The feat earned
Sanderson the International Sailing Federation's honor of
World Sailor of the Year, while Honey's esteem in his
specialty reached new heights with bold moves that buried
the rest of the fleet.
Honey, long the navigator for Roy E. Disney's record-
setting Pyewacket campaigns, has been a regular member
of the group grooming the 15 young men and women, ages
18 to 23. Sanderson will spend a week with them during
this session, sometimes on board with them on their
Transpac 52 and other times observing from a chase boat
or lecturing on shore.
Sailing manager Robbie Haines said, "The sailors have
come to know Stan very well, but they may be in awe of
Mike for awhile. I'm sure he'll have their attention."
Sanderson is scheduled to be one of their fellow crew
members when Morning Light makes its longest sail yet:
an overnighter to Maui and back next week.
Otherwise, this session will be devoted to preparing their
minds and bodies for the 2,225-nautical mile Transpac.
After mornings at 24 Hour Fitness, they'll spend time at the
Marine Education and Training Center (METC) learning all
about marine hardware from Peter Harken and Bill Ottoman
of Harken Inc. and about Yanmar diesel engines from Ed
Auck of Boatswain’s Locker in Newport Beach, Calif.
Haines said, "These kids are going to be out on the ocean
by themselves and they need to be competent in fixing
mechanical problems that come up. Things do happen on
boats. If something breaks, they need to know how to fix it."
Roy Pat Disney, son of the project leader, oversees the
body part, exploiting his experience as a gym owner and
operator.
"Kids, as you might remember from being a kid, don’t
train," he said. "From my experience it can make a huge
difference in sailing. [In a long race] it's not the first day, it's
the sixth day that makes a difference. These are very
physical boats. For a lot of these kids it was culture shock."
One morning in the February session was spent working
out on Waikiki Beach. Janell Petalver of 24 Hour Fitness
said, "In the gym they're working on their strength. On the
beach they work on the reaction skills they're going to need
for changes in the wind or other conditions."
At first, Disney said, "They were very inflexible and
unaware physically of themselves. But all of these kids are
small-boat sailors, so we've been pleasantly surprised, and
the girls are pretty darn strong. There hasn't been a lot of
difference. We do a full body measurement the day they
come back. Last time some of them were either up or down
10 pounds in weight. So we've been measuring body fat
and flexibility and taking body measurements each time."
Disney's wife Sheri, a nutritionist, guides the diet program.
"We'll try to get them off all caffeine before the race,"
Disney said. "It really messes you up. You have to be able
to turn it on and turn it off every four hours, and if you can't
turn it off you're in a sleep deficit, and you never catch up."
As for freeze-dried food, the common fare for ocean racers
these days, Disney described it as "like eating
reconstituted cardboard. We'll give them some to see what
they like. The trick is in the spices."
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.
More information:
www.transpacificyc.org
MEDIA CONTACTS
Rich Roberts
(310) 835-2526
cell (310) 766-6547
Michiko Wada
(808) 554-3328
|
|
World sailor o fthe year
Mike Sanderson checks
in with Morning
Roy Pat Disney and
24 Hour's Janell Petalver (l)
drill Kate Theisen and
Chris Schubert in the gym
Morning Light/Phil Uhl
photo
Below, a change of pace
workout on Waikiki Beach
|
|
|
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.
|
TRANSPAC RACE STATUS
