 The concept for the film came from TP52 Class Association executive director Tom Pollack, who passed it on to former ESPN producer Leslie DeMeuse, who has worked with Disney on other sailing-related film projects.In early 2006, Roy E. Disney, longtime sailing master Robbie Haines and DeMeuse considered 538 applications and picked 30 finalists, from which 15 were chosen in a week of selection trials in Long Beach, California.Training began in Honolulu, Hawaii in January 2007, for two weeks at a time through late June, with time off in May.