Another dawn for Morning Light

Two years ago they were plucked from relative obscurity, ranging in age from 18 to 23. They had little sailing experience and they were ticketed for one of the most historic and competitive yacht races, the Transpac.

And they had to do it all in front of a documentary filmmaker’s cameras.

The Morning Light team assembled by Roy Disney managed to survive the brutal 2,225-mile race and came out of it with earned lessons on the value of teamwork and friendship.

This weekend, the crew will go back to their roots, so to speak, as they return to the scene of their very first yacht race, the Invitational Regatta for the Hoag Cup in Newport Beach. Just a month before they set sail on the Morning Light as a crew of 15, Jeremy Wilmot, Graham Brant-Zawadzki, Jesse Fielding and Piet Van Os took a shot at the Hoag Cup, and although they finished out of the running they eagerly anticipate their second chance at it.

For this group of young men and women, sailing is about friendship, teamwork and trust.

“These guys are my best friends. That happens because you’re out in the ocean and you have to trust your teammate will save your life,” Wilmot said.

This friendship started in February 2007, after the Morning Light team was assembled. The team members were picked from a pool of 500 applicants.

Robbie Haines, sailing supervisor and member of the selection committee, said the candidates were selected based on their character and attitude, since sailing depends on teamwork.

“We were looking at whether the kids were trainable, what kind of attitude they had, whether they’d be a good team,” Haines said. “We’ve picked 15 exceptional kids.”

Haines, who won a gold medal for sailing in the 1984 Olympics, trained the Morning Light team, with help from other sailing professionals.

That training was so tough that the crew soon forgot they were on camera.

“At first it was a little obtrusive, kind of awkward. But after the first week, you kind of forget they are there,” Brant-Zawadzki said.

There is much to love about sailing: It offers a great deal of freedom and creates bonds that are stronger than years on land, the sailors agreed. Knowing your life is in the hands of your crew mate strengthens those bonds, Van Os said.

For these four men, the training and the Transpac was much more than a documentary project: It was a lifetime experience in which they not only learned about sailing, but many other life lessons.

“Sailing has made me a better person on land, a better team player,” Fielding said.

“I think I can say for everyone here that we’re going to sail for the rest of our lives.”