Team Alvimedica welcome aboard old friend Roy P. Disney

Volvo Ocean Race In-Port races in Auckland © Ivor Wilkins

The Auckland In-Port Race on Waitemata Harbour today had the Viaduct abuzz with old and new friends joining Team Alvimedica.

Veteran offshore racer Roy P. Disney, a longtime friend and mentor to Team Alvimedica co-founders Charlie Enright and Mark Towill, was a guest on board for the Auckland In-Port Race.

Roy and his father, the late Roy E. Disney, ran the Morning Light sailing program, where 525 young sailors tried out for an offshore racing team to compete in the 2007 Transpacific Yacht Race from California to Hawaii.

Team Alvimedica co-founders Enright and Towill made the final squad. They raced aboard the TP52 Morning Light in the 2,200-nautical-mile ocean race from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Their endeavours were made into a feature length film titled Morning Light and released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2008. This experience sparked the dream for the pair to compete in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Disney has encouraged Enright and Towill in pursuing their ambitions and is proud to see their performance to date in the Volvo Ocean Race. "It is amazing the distance they have come," Disney said. "The goal of every sailor is to sail around Cape Horn and they are going."

Disney, an accomplished and passionate racing sailor, has competed in the Transpac Race 22 times and in the 1995 America's Cup. He will be racing in the Transpac later this year with the 100-footer Wild Oats. Disney is the grand nephew of Walt Disney and the grandson of Roy O. Disney, the founders of the Walt Disney Co.

Following racing, the American duo had the chance to meet current stand-up paddle (SUP) World Champion Kai Lenny, 22. Lenny was in town from Hawaii for the Ultimate Waterman competition.

The Red Bull Athlete was excited to meet Towill, a fellow Hawaiian and lover of big waves and surf. The young master of big waves weighed in on the challenge ahead for Team Alvimedica in the Southern Ocean.

"Big wave surfers go out in the most treacherous, scary, gnarly conditions in the world and their life's on the line and this is what these guys are doing. As a Red Bull Athlete and as an athlete in general, man this is crazy. I would be pretty scared out there for 20 days. It's pretty extreme."

Team Alvimedica placed fifth in today's New Zealand Herald In-Port Race. Sailed in light east/northeasterly winds, Team Alvimedica was fighting from behind the whole race after getting stuck in a windless hole off the start line.

The crew had little opportunity for clawing its way back into the race when the wind shifted and made the racetrack a progression, but the youngest crew in the Volvo Ocean Race staged a furious comeback late in the race to fend off overall leader Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing.

The two crews reached into the finish line under Code 0 headsails, and Team Alvimedica's position to windward of Abu Dhabi helped them secure fifth place.