Disney boat subject of film

Next week, Graham Brant-Zawadzki will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Stanford University, but this weekend he will be busy racing Roy Disney’s Transpac 52, named Morning Light, in the First Team Real Estate Invitational Regatta for the Hoag Cup.

The 22-year-old Newport Beach native was one of 15 young sailors chosen from an application pool of more than 500 to operate the 52-foot boat in the upcoming Transpacific Yacht Race as part of an adventure documentary led by Disney, tentatively titled “Morning Light.”

With an average age of 21, the group will be the youngest crew ever to sail the Transpacific race, and although they are significantly younger than many of their competitors in the First Team regatta, they are not lacking in enthusiasm.

“We are just really excited about the regatta,” Brant-Zawadzki said, “but in no way do we think we are going to go out there and blow everybody away.”

The crew members have been training together since January, though the regatta will mark their first serious competition leading up to the big event. Some came into the project with extensive sailing experience, and others, like Brant-Zawadzki — who joined Stanford’s sailing team as a sophomore — are fairly new to the maritime sport.

“When I heard about the project, I sent out an application, but I didn’t think I had a chance,” he said. “The training was intense but never bad, and now we’re really excited to race.”

Disney promises the documentary will appeal to nautical enthusiasts as well as the general public, and though it is being distributed by the Walt Disney Co. in 2008, he admits that language may preclude it from a G rating.

“The movie is less about sailing as it is about watching the sailors coalesce into a team and how they become a functioning group of people,” he said. “You’ll want to root for them to finish the race, hopefully gracefully.”

Brant-Zawadzki — son of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian’s medical director of radiology Michael Brant-Zawadzki — did have one caveat for potential viewers.

“Well, there’s not a whole lot of drama — which I know people like — because we’re all just really having a good time,” he said.

After next month’s Transpac race, Brant-Zawadzki plans to go back to school in pursuit of his medical degree, adding that he would like to be a medic on a boat someday.