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Young sailors brave the open ocean in ‘Morning…

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Young sailors brave the open ocean in ‘morning light’.

THE CREW: These 15 young sailors set sail in the Transpacific Yacht Race in the Disney Motion Pictures' documentary "Morning Light."

AND THEY'RE OFF: Yachts departs Los Angeles at the beginning of the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race in a scene from "Morning Light."

OCEANIC CHALLENGE: A crew of 15 sailors spend 11 days racing across the Pacific in the documentary "Morning Light."

CREATOR: Roy E. Disney conceived the idea of a film about a crew of sailors with little racing experience testing themselves in the Transpacific Yacht Race.

"MORNING LIGHT": In Walt Disney Pictures' documentary, 15 young men and women embark on the adventure of a lifetime-racing a 52-foot sloop in the Transpac, the most revered open-ocean sailing competition.

"MORNING LIGHT": The film documents the adventures of a young crew of sailors as they compete in the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race.

THE CRAFT: The 52-foot sloop Morning Light is shown in 2006 at the Balboa Yacht Club in Newport Beach.

It was day three into the 2,500-mile race when the crew aboard the Morning Light caught a glimpse of another boat coming toward their vessel.

They were en route from Los Angeles to Hawaii – with nothing else in sight but the big, blue ocean – when the boat Samba Pa Ti came so close to their vessel at one point, they could have handed them a cup of coffee.

“We essentially had a drag race with them,” said Piet van Os, a sailor from La Jolla.

There was one big difference between the two competing boats, which sailed within eye sight for four days straight. One was filled with professional sailors. The other – aboard the 52-foot boat “Morning Light” – was crewed by about a dozen 20something sailors with little, if any, racing experience.

The dramatic moment in last year’s Transpacific Yacht Race was caught on film for a documentary called “Morning Light,” which premiered on the big screen this week in Hollywood and will be shown during a fundraiser at the Lido Theatre in Newport Beach on Oct. 15.

The development of the film started more than a year earlier, with a casting call to young sailing enthusiasts who wanted the chance to race across the ocean against some of the best sailors in the world.

The documentary was the brainchild Roy E. Disney, an avid sailor and former vice chairman of Walt Disney Co., who combined his loves of boating, youth sailing, and filmmaking for the project.

Disney – known in the boating world for decades of entering the Newport-to-Ensenada race and breaking records during the Transpac – started his career in the family biz in the film editing department. It was then Disney, nephew of Walt Disney, would listen to stories from a co-worker who would tell tall tales of the rough seas during the famed Transpac race.

In 1975, Disney struggled through his first Transpac race. Since then, he’s competed in 16 of the races, which are held every other year. He went into retirement before the last race in 2007 to focus on his vision for the “Morning Light” film.

Van Os remembers being off the coast of Chile on a sailing adventure when a friend sent him the casting call. He talked the boat captain into letting him use the Internet and sent in an application.

He had no interest in acting, or being famous. It was about the sailing. His grandfather had won the Transpac in 1961, and he grew up standing next to the trophy, dreaming of the day he’d be able to cross the ocean.

About 540 other sailors were selected, and eventually, that number was whittled down to 30 who competed in trials in Long Beach. Eventually, 15 were picked to train for six months in Hawaii before the race.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it,” said Van Os.

The film captures the entire process – from trials to finish – of the sailors picked from around the world. Being in front of the watchful eye of the camera 24 hours a day wasn’t easy, van Os said. He was camera shy for the first few days, but quickly got used to it, he said.

“It’s really weird to have a camera in your face the whole time,” he sad. “But you know what, they’re going to catch you at your worst times. You haven’t showered for 10 days. There’s no reason to hide from them.”

While the film follows the sailors while they take the 11-day journey across the ocean, the movie is more than just for boating enthusiasts.

“We didn’t try to make a movie just for sailing,” said Disney, via cell phone from Miami. “We wanted to make a movie for the rest of the world who don’t know much about it. You really go across the ocean with these kids, which most people don’t get to do.”

Disney is well known for his philanthropy for youth sailing programs, and his participation in the Transpac over the years has made the event what it is today, said Ric Sanders, boardmember of the Transpacific Yacht Club.

Disney said he wouldn’t describe the film as a “reality movie,” since that notion evokes the idea that someone gets voted off the boat.

“It really is a true story of these kids, who came together as strangers and wound up as a really cohesive team sailing a 52-foot, high-powered race boat across the ocean.”

The average age of the crew was 21, “which is sort of right at the place where they are being a kid one day, and an adult the next,” Disney said. “I think it gave them a kind of poise and self-assurance that they had accomplished something really meaningful, and they got to work together as a team.”

The bonding among the crew is what makes the movie what it is, von Os said. It wasn’t always pretty – they ate freeze-dried food for days, lacked showers, fought fatigue, and slept in very, very tight quarters.

“It’s about the team coming together. We could have done the same premise on any sport,” he said. “And the training was unreal, it was a fast track to ocean sailing.”

For Disney, he got the chance to get a glimpse into what the young sailors will be bringing to the sailing world.

“You profit by every experience you have in your life,” he said. “Just getting to know these kids and falling hopelessly in love with the next generation, it gives you faith in the possibilities of people.”

Contact the writer: [email protected] or 714-445-6678

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Morning Light

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Watch Morning Light with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Breathtaking scenery aside, Morning Light is geared more for the sailing enthusiasts than for the average viewers.

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Morning Light (film)

Morning Light (film) A true-story documentary about a group of 11 (selected from an initial 15) intrepid and daring young men and women, on the cusp of adulthood, who embark on the TRANSPAC, the most revered of open-ocean sailing competitions, in a high-performance 52-foot sloop, the Morning Light. The crew matches wits and skill in a dramatic 2, 300-mile showdown against top professionals. From their earliest training sessions in Hawaii conducted by world-class teachers through their test of endurance on the high seas, they form an unbreakable bond in the process of becoming a singular team that is greater than the sum of its parts. Released on October 17, 2008. Directed by Mark Monroe. Roy E. Disney and Leslie DeMeuse were executive producers. 98 min.

Morning Light team hits a home run

Published on January 30th, 2014 by Editor -->

Morning Light was a 2008 film, which chronicled a real-life crew training and competing in the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race aboard a TP52 aptly named, Morning Light. The project began with a nationwide recruiting campaign, which resulted in the selection of 15 young sailors between 18 and 23 years. They would be the focus.

“We’re not making a film about sailboat racing and we’re not making a film about a boat,” explained Executive producer Roy E. Disney. “It’s a story about a group of young adults sailing across an ocean, the obstacles they encounter and the bonds they form. It’s a story about becoming more than the sum of the parts.”

Seven years later, Morning Light crewmates Charlie Enright and Mark Towill will now be leading Team Alvimedica to compete in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race. Here are comments from the film team…

Leslie DeMeuse, Executive Producer “We really wanted these kids to have the opportunity to move on to bigger and better things. The kids clearly had aspirations, and they were all very talented. Based on their applications, we knew they would carry on and apply this experience to future endeavors. That was our hope, as so many young people don’t get the opportunity to compete in a race like Transpac. I am really happy to see how they all have carried on; this news about Charlie and Mark is extremely rewarding.”

Robbie Haines, Sailing Team Manager “When the idea of the documentary was launched, Roy and Leslie empowered those of us involved to do what was needed so the kids would be fully prepared to sail across the Pacific Ocean. We brought in this dream team of coaches, and the kids were so receptive to the training. We had 15 kids, and now nearly all of them have gone on to bigger and better things in our sport. Certainly to have two of them go from the Morning Light experience to now running a Volvo Ocean Race program, well, it’s a home run. I am so proud of them. They have all made those of us involved in the Morning Light project very proud.”

Stan Honey, Head Sailing Coach It was clear then that a lot of them had their heart set on a career in sailing. I had just gotten done with the Volvo Ocean Race, so they were all eager to hear about it. Plus we had a number of coaches beside myself who had done the race, guys like Mike Sanderson, Mike Howard, and Jerry Kirby, so there were a lot of discussions about the race and about the skills needed. I am sure that Roy (Disney) would be exceedingly pleased by this news, but not at all surprised. He and Leslie really enjoyed the project. It was not hard to get swept up in the enthusiasm, and the kids were equally excited to have this rare opportunity to get to know a legend like Roy.

Note : Roy Edward Disney (Jan. 10, 1930 – Dec. 16, 2009) was a longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company, which his father Roy Oliver Disney and his uncle Walt Disney founded.

Tags: Charlie Enright , Leslie DeMeuse , Mark Towill , Morning Light , Robbie Haines , Stan Honey , The Ocean Race

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'Morning Light': Speed Racers On The Ocean Blue

Bob Mondello

After six months of intense training, a crew of collegiate sailors fling themselves across the Pacific in a 52-foot sloop christened the Morning Light . Abner Kingman/Disney Enterprises hide caption

After six months of intense training, a crew of collegiate sailors fling themselves across the Pacific in a 52-foot sloop christened the Morning Light .

Morning Light

• Director: Paul Crowder,                  Mark Monroe
• Genre: Documentary
• Running Time: 97 minutes

Rated PG: Mild language

Fifteen sailors — collegiate nonprofessionals all — compete in one of the world's most celebrated yacht races in the attractive if underwhelming Disney documentary Morning Light.

Through six months of what looks to be arduous but thoroughly enjoyable training in the Pacific, the crew prepares for the 2007 Transpac, a 2,225-mile race from California to Hawaii.

The back story: A decade earlier, Roy E. Disney's 73-foot maxi-ultralight, the Pyewacket, had won the race in a record seven days, 11 hours, 41 minutes.

So this time, the Disney corporate president sent cameras along to watch a 15-member team of 18-to-23-year-olds sail a newer boat, the even ultralighter 52-foot sloop Morning Light. They jointly whittle their number down to a crew of 11 (without noticeable acrimony), overcome fears (one of them can barely swim) and bond with one another in the manner of college students forced into close company in a dorm.

Whether that's enough to cause audiences to bond, too, is an open question. Bronzed and athletic, the crew doesn't qualify as Mousekesailors, exactly, but they're so squeaky-clean (there's no swearing like sailors on a Disney boat) that it's hard to even imagine the sort of flare-ups that lend reality TV its typical frisson.

The mild tribulations (the onboard food's not tasty) never lead anyone to mutiny, and the race itself, while hard-fought and wearing, takes place on the open seas. So for much of their weeklong voyage, our heroes' competitors are nowhere on the horizon.

Canvas billows, sunsets glow and there's eye-filling spectacle aplenty in the majesty of the swells. But the race gets off to an awkward start — the wind dies shortly after the teams lose sight of land, leaving everyone becalmed for the better part of a day — and co-directors Paul Crowder and Mark Monroe seem as relieved as the crew when the breeze picks up again. A day or two later, they manage to whip up some much-needed mid-voyage tension when a rival crew finally draws within camera range.

Mostly though, the film is more appealing for its scenery, which is as breathtakingly blue as you'd expect, than for its drama.

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Morning Light

March 12, 2009

Documentary, Sports

Fifteen rookie sailors have one goal in mind – to be part of her crew, racing in the most revered sailing competition on Earth, the Transpac Yacht Race. From start to finish, it's a rollercoaster ride of emotions and physical challenges, beginning with six months of intense training. Only eleven will survive to race in the grueling 2,225-mile Transpac.

Rated: PG Release Date: March 12, 2009

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Morning Light: Making the Cut: Morning Light

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10 Best Sailing Movies of All Time

• By Cruising World Staff
• March 19, 2024

Making a list of the 10 Best Sailing Movies of All Time is kind of like making a list of the 10 best ways to eat chocolate. Some people prefer the chomp of a candy bar. Other people love the miniature chips baked into cookies. Still other people go for temperature, reaching for ice cream or for a bomb to drop into a hot mug of milk.

For us, the 10 Best Sailing Movies of All Time are the ones we’re happy to go back and watch again and again. Each of them captures something special about being out on the water, and gives us a memorable insight into the human spirit that sailing brings alive.

Here’s a list of our favorites. We look forward to hearing from you in the comments about your favorites, too.

10. White Squall

Ridley Scott, more recently known for the hits Napoleon and The Martian , directed this 1996 movie about teenage boys who discover discipline and camaraderie after facing a severe storm while training aboard a brigantine. The story is based on real events aboard the Albatross , which sank in 1961. Jeff Bridges stars as “Skipper,” teaching the boys through tough love and discipline.

9. Morning Light

This 2008 documentary focuses on the sloop Morning Light and 15 rookie sailors who want to crew in the Transpac Yacht Race. All the crew members were between 18 and 23 years old. Filming took place during training and the actual sailing of the race aboard Morning Light in 2007. Roy E. Disney held a private screening for US Sailing prior to the film’s release.

8. Kon-Tiki

Thor Heyerdahl’s epic 4,300-mile crossing of the Pacific on a balsawood raft in 1947 is the subject of this 2012 film—which was 2012’s highest-grossing film in Norway. It was an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, and for a Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe, marking the first time a Norwegian film was nominated for both major Hollywood prizes.

Released in 2018, Adrift focuses on a couple facing a catastrophic hurricane. The story is based on the 2002 book Red Sky in Mourning by Tami Oldham Ashcraft, and is set in 1983, during Hurricane Raymond. The film stars Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, who end up adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, trying to get to Hawaii with a damaged boat and no radio.

6. True Spirit

This 2023 drama is about Australian teenager Jessica Watson, the youngest person ever to sail solo nonstop around the world. As the reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald wrote: “This is a family-friendly picture, wholesome and tailored for the American market—although I suspect that director Sarah Spillane also shaped it to inspire teenage girls, in particular.”

This 2018 documentary tells the story of Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook on charter boats who became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989. They finished second in Maiden ’s class, winning two out of six individual legs of the race. In 1990, Edwards detailed her story in the book Maiden , co-written by Tim Madge.

4. Captain Ron

You know you love this 1992 comedy just as much as we do. Kurt Russell stars as a quirky sailor with a questionable past who takes Martin Short and his family through the Caribbean on an inherited sailboat. We know it’s fiction, but we see a lot of reality in this film. If you’ve spent even a little bit of time on boats in the islands, then we’re guessing you see it, too.

3. All Is Lost

Robert Redford stars in this 2013 film about a resourceful sailor who collides with a shipping container at sea, and ends up face-to-face with his own mortality. Redford is the only cast member in the entire film, which includes just fifty-one spoken words. The title of the film is a nod to E. W. Hornung’s observation that when courage is lost, all is lost.

2. The Mercy

The story of amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst and his solo attempt to circumnavigate the globe are at the heart of this 2018 film. The struggles he confronted on the journey while his family awaited his return are one of the most enduring mysteries of recent times. Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz star as Donald and Clare Crowhurst.

1. In the Heart of the Sea

This 2015 film recounts how a whale sank a New England whaling ship in 1820, later inspiring the novel Moby-Dick . It’s directed and produced by Ron Howard, based on the book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex . The film’s stars include Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy and Tom Holland, a who’s who of today’s biggest Hollywood names.

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Morning Light (2008)

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Morning Light- the movie

Discussion in ' All Things Boats & Boating ' started by Doug Lord , Nov 3, 2010 .

Doug Lord Flight Ready

Just got this from the library and it is close to the best sailing film I've ever seen. Done extremely well by Disney it is about a group of kids selected to train and finally sail in the TransPac. They actually got second in class in their TP 52! Outstanding!  

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Morning light movie - MIA

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I heard the movie pretty much sucked, but I wanted to see it anyway just because it has sailing in it. Well, it must have sucked pretty bad. I found that the total theatrical earnings for the movie was about $275K, not even enough to pay for copies of the movie to send to the few theaters that got it. Disney corp appears to have disowned the movie all together. I can't find any evidence on Disney's web site that the movie ever existed. No trailer, no description, nothing. If it sucked that bad, maybe it's a good thing I won't have to sit through it.  

I saw it with my kids, I thought it was pretty good. But as far as the general public is concerned, I can see why it wasn't a big moneymaker. It was strictly about sailing, no dramatic plot lines or behind the scenes sexual innuendo like your typical reality show. It was just a good clean movie about some teens who have a passion for sailboat racing. My family enjoyed it because we are all sailors, but I doubt it would hold the attention of your everyday lubber. Besides, I think it was just a pet project of Roy Disney, so I don't think they were too concerned about turning a profit. With any hope, it might fuel the interest of a future sailor.  

So, I have Wind on my iPod. I still fast forward to the Cup scenes... there's got to be a couple of scenes in this thing worth watching.  

Anyone heard when Morning Light is coming to DVD?  

That's the info I was looking for when I found no information about the movie on disney's web site. If it weren't for the 'making of' book on amazon, it would be like it never existed.  

I enjoyed it but wouldn't recommend it to people who are not into sailing. Very little plot or development of the characters. But that is about as close as I am going to get to competing in a race on that kind of boat.  

I thought it was pretty good. After just putting my boat away for the winter, it really hit the spot. I really love the article from the New York Post- "HALF-AVAST YACHT SNOTS" "BLOWING some of the fam ily stash on a project of al most surreal vanity, Roy Disney and his uncle's company bring us a docu mentary about his pet sport, sailing across the Pacific. "Morning Light" belongs, if anywhere, on channel 145 of your cable system. Roy, long known within Disney as "the idiot nephew," sponsored a crew of 15 immensely spoiled collegians to be filmed sailing his 52-foot sloop from California to Hawaii for a "Roy E. Disney Production" that was, moreover, "Conceived and Produced by Roy E. Disney." Cue the training sequence! The aristo-brats are required to jump into a swimming pool and tread water for five minutes with their shoes on. Horrible! Still, one of them nearly drowns, proving that he shouldn't be allowed near a body of water larger than a bottle of Poland Spring. "This has been extremely nerve-wracking for me," says a teen who, while he worries about making the cut, gives every indication that his nerves have never even been given a noogie, much less wracked. "I think the best way to overcome fear is to face it head on," says another youth. Astonishing: only 20 years old, and already a master of clich�. Since you can't see the other boats in the competition most of the time, every scene looks alike: the waves, the boat bobbing. So all we've got is the personality dynamics, but no one ever argues - even when the gang throws the lone black guy overboard to test their lifesaving skills. The sailors seem to have had their senses of irony amputated around the time their trust funds kicked in. "Disappointment. Frustration. Loneliness," says a girl (and perhaps amateur poet) who has just thrown away her chances because she broke her arm snowboarding. "It's almost impossible to explain how unhappy I was," says a benched sailor. On the open seas, one kid says, "I started thinking, I'm already missing the small things - cheese pizza, HBO." Another chimes in, "No family and friends from back home. No Starbucks. No movies. No music. No surfing." Twelve days without HBO - has the UN Human Rights Commission been notified? The scene where food stores run low would be more convincing if it didn't end with the skipper throwing his oatmeal (or whatever it is) overboard because it tastes icky. I wasn't just rooting against the Morning Light; I prayed for a U-boat ambush or a cannon attack from the broadside of the Black Pearl. Hey, daredevils, want to prove your worth in a non-useless adventure? The military is hiring. MORNING LIGHT Boat of fools." HALF-AVAST YACHT SNOTS - New York Post  

I was wondering what happened to it as well. That review explains why it has been under the radar. Nevertheless, it would be kind of fun to see some of the sailing scenes. Here is the Disney website on it: Morning Light | On Disney Blu-ray & DVD June 16 - WDSHE Apparently out on DVD June 16th.  

Good find. When I put Morning Light in the box that says "movie finder and more" I got nothing that had anything to do with the movie. Every link I followed from other sites to disney came up with disney's web site, but but a could not find web page message on it. Maybe we'll get to see a horrible reality show with a little sailing mixed in after all.  

It's on Internet Movie Data Base ( IMDB , AKA "Internet time killer") Morning Light  

There is a book about the boat I just saw at barnes and noble, it is all about the crew and the race.  

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Movie: Morning Light

• Thread starter Rick D
• Start date Oct 19, 2008
• Forums for All Owners
• Ask All Sailors

Although people differ in what they like in a movie, I think Roy Disney's "Morning Light" will be a standard keeper for those of us who sail. We just returned from watching this 1.5 hour documentary movie and were very entertained. The movie's first half is an introduction to the crew and their practice sessions in Hawaii aboard the Transpac 52 'Morning Light'. I thought this might be the less stimulating part, but it turned out to be interesting to get a snapshot of the crew and see how they struggled early on to handle the powerful boat. The second part is the race itself, their challenges to pick the right course and tenseness as roll call revealed other boats' positions. The scenery is fabulous and plenty of action. Anyhow, highly recommended on our part, beautiful, stimulating and inspiring. It's a specialty movie, however, so catch it quick if you can. There is one review out there which is bylined by others in a couple of newspaper websites, but which has much the exact same language. Don't pay much attention to it (them). It basically says something to the effect that the crew is too nice, too white, too clean, no sex nor controversy. It also conceeds that it does almost make the elitist sport as exciting as jet skis. Almost bit my lip though. :cussing: Here is a link to the official site: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/morninglight/  

In lil' ole land locked Missouri it hasn't shown yet, and may not. I would really like to see it on the big screen but I may just have to hope that it will be on DVD soon. I take it from your comments that you think its "a keeper" for the DVD collection of sailors?  

Andy1237 said: In lil' ole land locked Missouri it hasn't shown yet, and may not. I would really like to see it on the big screen but I may just have to hope that it will be on DVD soon. I take it from your comments that you think its "a keeper" for the DVD collection of sailors? Click to expand

I was lucky to go to the premier here in portland where Roy Disney, One of the coaches and one of the kids attended. Proceeds went to the local sailing clubs. The movie was great and we were able to ask questions afterwards. The sailor stated it was the best time of his life, although the food was awful, it really tasted like dirt, they were lucky to get 2-4 hours sleep each day, but he is still sailing and doing more transpacs. Many of the proceeds of the movie goes to local sailing clubs to encourage sailing so tell your friends to go see the movie if it is playing in your area.  

I caught a 1 hour TV special the other night showing the selection process that the team went through. 15 youngsters selected from 30 - and not all American, which I thought was nice - very generous of Roy Disney to open up such a wonderful opportunity to kids from Canada, Australia and elsewhere. I'm sure the movie is as good as you say it is. I certainly enjoyed what I saw on TV.  

I really wanted to see this movie alsobut it is not playing anywhere in Wisconsin. I will have to wait until it is on DVD also.  

If you love sailing you'll love the movie I caught it last Sat. and like RickD I thought it was well done. There are some life lessons in ther also. Gary  

Scott T-Bird

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All lanes of Trask Parkway reopen following Beaufort Co. structure fire

BEAUFORT, S.C. (WCSC) - Beaufort County emergency crews responded to the scene of a structure fire that broke out early Monday morning.

https://t.co/RzPlL3qpPh pic.twitter.com/AHXk9ViqaM — BurtonFire_SC (@BurtonFD_SC) June 17, 2024

Burton Fire District and Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office had previously both advised that the majority of Trask Parkway near Poppy Hill Road is closed as crews work the scene of a “large structure fire.” Burton Fire District says it is investigating.

All lanes have now reopened

Beaufort motorists were subject to serious commute delays in the area.

There has been no word from officials regarding the type of structure that has caught fire or whether there have been any injuries.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

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