Tiburon sailor’s America’s Cup campaign reaches the big screen
More than three decades after Tiburon resident Melissa Purdy Feagin helped propel the first all-woman America’s Cup team through one of the world’s most prestigious competitions, she is watching the story of Mighty Mary reach a new audience.
“Mighty Mary,” a new feature-length documentary, recounts the 1995 campaign in which the crew competed for the right to defend the America’s Cup. Feagin, then Melissa Purdy, was the boat’s mainsail trimmer, controlling the sail’s shape and tension to help keep the 55,000-pound yacht moving at top speed.
The 98-minute documentary, directed by former Olympic rower Mary Mazzio and narrated by actors Hugh Jackman and Elizabeth Banks, opened in select theaters nationwide Sept. 11. It screens at 8 p.m. Nov. 4 and 5 at the Marina Theatre on Chestnut Street in San Francisco, where both showings are scheduled to include Q&A sessions with members of the film’s cast. Feagin plans to attend the Nov. 5 screening.
The film revisits a campaign in which Mighty Mary took on teams led by some of the most experienced sailors in America’s Cup history and nearly advanced to defend the trophy before a series of internal conflicts, personnel changes and competition decisions altered its course.
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