Velux 5 Oceans in feature film

Ex-Tommy Hilfiger features in the Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud

The newly released film Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud is an adaptation of the best-selling Ben Sherwood novel of the same name. The eponymous hero, played by heart throb Zach Efron falls in love with young sailor Tess Carroll, played by Amanda Crew, days before she is due to go to sea in a challenging solo round the world yacht race. Producers chose to base the film on the Velux 5 Oceans.

The yacht used in The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud is Velux 5 Oceans skipper Brad Van Liew's former yacht Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America, the undisputed victor in class two of the 2002/3 race. She was originally launched as Mike Garside’s Magellan Alpha, designed by Groupe Finot and built by JMV Industries in Cherbourg for the 1998/9 race.

The yacht appears in the film as the heroine’s boat The Querencia with full Velux 5 Oceans branding on its hull and sails.

We attended the film’s premier in London’s Leicester Square last night accompanied by a real life Tess Carroll, in the form of round the world yachtswoman Dee Caffari, well known for being the first woman to have sailed around the world non-stop both eastabout and westabout. Dee is soon to set off on the Barcelona World Race.

We were most impressed by the Velux 5 Oceans ‘plants’ in the crowd either side of the red carpet, put there by the race’s new PR company Hill & Knowlton. They were equipped with Velux 5 Oceans posters emblazoned with ‘I love Zach’ and were duly signed by the Hollywood star.

The film includes footage of 420s racing in moderate conditions but with a sound track giving the impression the wave impacts are those of a frigate doing 30 knots in the Southern Ocean. But there are numerous shots of the Open 50, even one of Tess successfully tacking the boat.

As for the film itself...

Those with a taste for such things or who can't find anything better to watch on a flight at some point - the film's setting is a magnificent looking harbour which a little research tells us isn’t New England, as is the impression given, but Eagle Harbour, Vancouver. So now you know.