Two Decades Ago, They Sailed A Tall Ship to California for a Hollywood Movie. Now They’re Reuniting in Newport.

The Rose pictured in 2002. (Photo by Rick Hicks)

Will Sofrin didn’t exactly follow a traditional career path.

In 2002, the twenty-one-year-old was living in Newport and looking for his next gig on the water. A Connecticut native, he attended the IYRS School of Technology and Trades after graduating high school to learn boatbuilding and went on to sail professionally. He had just completed a stint working in the Mediterranean and was rooming with a former captain when he heard about a ship in Newport Harbor that needed some work.

“He was a tall ship sailor by background, and I was kind of being the typical twenty-one-year-old, not very motivated. He nudged me and said, ‘I need you to go down and do something. I want you to work on this ship,’” Sofrin recalls. “I thought I was doing some dirty work, and instead I went down to the ship and I got offered a job to be crew on the boat to sail her to California to make the movie.”

Will Sofrin

That movie was “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” a historical drama starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany that would go on to win two Academy Awards (and be nominated for eight others). A year earlier, 20^th Century Fox had purchased the eighteenth-century replica tall ship Rose to stand in for the HMS Surprise in the film. The ship looked the part, but the logistics presented a problem: The Rose was in Newport, and filming was due to start in San Diego. The only way to get the Rose to California was to sail it, just like the sailors depicted in the film.

“I accepted the job on the condition that they would also offer a job to my best friend. And they did,” Sofrin says.

What followed was a whirlwind, thirty-six-day journey on the open ocean that Sofrin chronicles in his new book, “All Hands on Deck.” The book begins with preparatory work on the boat in Newport and finishes with more repairs in San Diego, covering the six months he spent with the “band of happy misfits,” as he affectionately remembers the crew. The group ranged from a sixteen-year-old high school student to individuals in their 50s and included both seasoned tall ship sailors and those who had no sailing experience at all.

“We had one guy who had hitchhiked from the Appalachian Trail and was sleeping on park benches in Newport and finally got the courage to ask for a job,” Sofrin recalls.

(Courtesy of Abrams Press)

Next Wednesday, June 21, the Jane Pickens Theater and Event Center will host a presentation and discussion of the book along with a screening of “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.” Far from a simple book reading, the event will serve as a reunion for the crew of the Rose and include a panel discussion of their experiences sailing the ship. Sofrin says fourteen of the original thirty crew members will be in attendance, including one flying in from Spain for the event.

“[The book has] really rekindled a lot of friendships and relationships. I cherish the fact that we are all going to get to see each other for the first time in a couple of decades,” he says.

The month-long journey involved freak weather, including a hurricane-strength storm and a dismasting that nearly halted the trip. The thirty strangers knew nothing about each other and little about the seas they faced, and had to contend with cramped quarters and sometimes jarring personalities as they pursued their shared goal of delivering a floating movie set safely to California.

Of course, no journey is complete without humor, and Sofrin says they indulged in their share of practical jokes throughout the trip. At one point, his fellow crew members told him to put on his all-weather gear and help out on deck during a storm, which turned out to just be his shipmates dousing him with water. In another, the crew convinced the captain they’d caught a five-foot fish.

“For me, it was exciting,” he says. “I was ignorant because I was new to professional sailing. I didn’t have any offshore experience, and I was trusting in the leadership of the officers of the ship.”

Sofrin behind the wheel of the Rose. (Photo by Blythe Daly)

While some of the crew went on to serve as extras in the movie, Sofrin flew back to Newport after the trip and continued his sailing career. After working in the industry for about a decade, he retired from sailing and now works in historic restoration in southern California. Sofrin says he’s able to apply many of the woodworking skills he learned at IYRS to his work in preserving historic estates.

Four years ago, he was at a New Year’s Eve party when he realized his tale had potential as a book. Along with consulting the ship’s captain and film director Peter Weir, he also spoke with his former shipmates, many of whom had photos or early-2000s-era camcorder footage from the trip. That footage has been compiled into a live narrated documentary that will be presented at the event.

Sofrin says he hopes the book inspires a new generation, including his seven-year-old daughter, to pursue adventure in their lives.

“I think it’s important for people to get uncomfortable. To get out there a break their routine. That’s how life works. You have to tear yourself away from where you are and experience new things,” he says.

The event, presented by Charter Books and IYRS, will take place next Wednesday, June 21, at 6:15 p.m. at the Jane Pickens Theater and Event Center. The evening will begin with an introduction and video presentation by Sofrin, followed by a crew panel discussion. The twentieth anniversary screening of “Master and Commander: Far Side of the World” will begin at 7:30 p.m. Books will be available for sale in the lobby. Tickets are $15 per person and available for purchase here.

The ship’s course from Newport to San Diego. The book includes illustrations like this one developed by Sofrin.

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