Morning Light

When I was at the Allianz Cup, I had the good fortune to meet Genny Tulloch, who is one of the fifteen members of the Morning Light project that will comprise the youngest crew ever to sail Transpac. It was interesting to hear her talk about the program thus far, which has mostly involved the process needed to whittle the initial applicants down to the final fifteen. While I am not sure how many people initially applied, thirty individuals were invited to Long Beach, CA in the summer to provide the judges a chance to determine who would go on.

Since this team will be filmed during the race, and that the hopes are for the completed movie to wind up in movie theatres, I figured that the finalists would be based not so much on their sailing skills as on their looks and personality. Surely this movie would not be about “sailing.” In this day and age of reality TV, the chemistry amongst the crew, or should I say lack of chemistry, would be vital for the success of the film.

Not so, said Genny. In fact, she believes the judging was based completely on sailing skills. The coaches really want the team to do well in the race, and she feels they selected individuals that would enable to the team to excel. She surely was not boasting about this – given that she made the cut – but rather admitting to being somewhat surprised as well. She had her list of hotties that she figured would have an awesome screen presence, but apparently their big boat sailing skills weren’t sufficient to keep them onboard.

The team has revealed a couple adventures before the start of Transpac. Later in November they will be sailing a Polynesian canoe from Maui to Honolulu via Molokai, where they will experience the ancient ways of the sea and navigation. In January, members of the crew seek to be sailing in the 2007 Key West Race Week (contact Genny if you want one of the Morning Light crew to sail with you in KWRW).

After watching how exciting sailing can be portrayed from the videos listed on the Scuttlebutt website, I am pretty enthusiastic about this movie project. The impact of this project on the growth of sailing could be significant. – Craig Leweck