It wasn't quite the cine-tastic Hollywood finish they had wildly imagined, but for the crew of Roy E. Disney's Morning Light 52-foot racing boat, a third-place division finish in one of the most prestigious yacht races in the world merited nothing but thumbs up.

Morning Light, the centerpiece of a film to be released next spring by Disney's Pacific High Productions, completed its grueling 2,559-mile journey from Long Beach, Calif. to Honolulu yesterday amid an appropriately majestic sunrise, earning its young crew an impressive third-place finish in Division 2 of the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race.

The Morning Light crew was made up of sailors from around the country, ages 18 to 22, who were given intensive training by top racing figures. Honolulu's Mark Towill, a 2007 Punahou graduate, was part of the crew.

"That was the longest, hardest, struggling, stressful thing I've ever done in my life," Morning Light skipper Jeremy Wilmot said in a release. "But at the end of the day, I loved it."

While Morning Light garnered much of the attention, John Kilroy Jr.'s Samba Pa Ti provided what might have been the most dramatic turn in the race.

On Monday, the boat's navigator, Nick White, made a bold decision to cut south in an attempt to maximize the boat's strength by gaining leverage in stronger winds.

The gambit, which initially appeared to have taken the boat out of contention, ultimately paid off in a first-place finish in Division 2. Brack Duker's Holua finished second.

Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 had earlier secured first place in Division I by completing the race in 7 days, 14 hours, 35 minutes, 37 seconds. Disney's Pyewacket finished second, followed by Roger Sturgeon's Rosebud.

Kailua resident Dan Doyle's On the Edge of Destiny crew, the youngest ever to compete in the race with an average age of 19.8 years, also impressed with a third-place finish in Division 5, completing the race Wednesday in 7:15:06:15.

Mike Diepenbrock's Rancho Deluxe took first place in the division, followed by Tower, owned by Doug Grant.

"You've got these kids and the Morning Light kids, and when that film hits the theaters next year, you'll have a lot of kids getting excited about sailing," Doyle said in a release.

Also Wednesday, Steve Calhoun's Psyche edged fellow Cal-40 boat Far Far, owned by Don Grind, for first place in Division 6.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.