Mighty Mary (2026) Movie Script

1
(WATER BUBBLING)
LINDQUIST:
You have slow on main up.
("RUN THE WORLD
(GIRLS)" PLAYING)
We run this mutha, yeah
LINDQUIST: Hold.
We run this mutha, yeah
RACHLIN: One minute,
one minute to entry.
Clip it on,
we're going to grind it up
and pick it up,
all at the same time
to make this
as quick as possible.
Who run the world?
Girls, girls
Who run the world?
Girls, girls
Who run the world?
Girls, girls
Guys, you're equal in speed.
SAILOR: And you can plant it
A little faster same height!
Who run this mutha? Girls
RACHLIN: Ten, nine...
SAILOR: Pretty good stuff.
RACHLIN: ...seven, six, five
four, three, two...
(WHISTLE BLAST)
AMERICA3 SAILORS: Yeah!
BANKS: This story
begins with some feisty,
take-no-prisoners,
eats-nails-for-breakfast
type of women
who crashed the oldest,
most prestigious, exclusive,
big money event on the planet.
BALTZELL: Here we go!
BANKS: The famed
America's Cup sailing race.
LEECH: Let's go, let's go,
let's go, let's go!
JACKMAN: It's the pinnacle
of international yacht racing...
Twenty-one, 20, 19, 18!
...contested by the country
that won the prior Cup,
the Defender, against a single
international challenger.
SAILOR: Yes!
JACKMAN: It's an event
dominated by the richest men
in the world...
BALTZELL: Ease jib, ease jib!
SAILOR: Hold, hold, hold, hold!
...who had their own
set of rules.
SOWRY:
This is a dead-even boat race.
DENT: Unbelievable.
GARDNER:
Now we're cooking with gas!
BALTZELL: Go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, yeah!
GARDNER:
Let's go back and hit 'em.
BALTZELL: We got
a long way to go!
Who run the world?
Girls, girls
JACKMAN: Hold on
to your loved ones folks,
these seas are gonna get rough.
BANKS: Buckle up!
This ride's crazy.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
NARRATOR: (OVER RECORDING) This
is the America's Cup, a trophy
that has meant supremacy
in international yacht racing.
JACKMAN: It began in 1851,
when a young United States
defeated England,
striking a blow
to British naval dominance.
This is the holy grail,
the oldest
sports prize on record
that wealthy tycoons have spent
millions of dollars chasing.
NARRATOR: It's a holiday at sea,
here in Newport!
NARRATOR 2: The country's
top 12-meter yachts
compete
for the America's Cup Race!
KENNEDY:
I want to toast to those
who have, for a hundred years,
defended this Cup.
SPEAKER:
I christen thee Intrepid!
(SPECTATORS CHEERING,
APPLAUDING)
JACKMAN:
But unlike other sports,
the rules are made up
by the prior winning country
in consultation
with a foreign challenger.
And those rules can change.
There is no more
prestigious race, of course,
than the America's Cup.
DEAN: For more than a century,
the great event
of competitive sailing
has been the domain of men.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES)
BANKS: But then,
in March of 1994,
the 144-year-old tradition
of the America's Cup
was about to be unexpectedly
turned on its head.
JACKMAN: And by none other
than the defending Cup champion.
HOST: Let me introduce to you
the winning skipper
of the 1992 America's Cup
and Chairman of the Board
of the America3 Foundation,
Mr. Bill Koch.
(CROWD APPLAUDING)
Thank you very much.
What we plan to do this time
is to put together a team
of all females.
The competition for the oldest
trophy in international sport
is about to take on a new look.
They are all women.
Women!
Women!
This is no minor
tack into the wind.
There hasn't been
a battle of the sexes like it
since Billie Jean King
and Bobby Riggs
met on the tennis courts
in the '70s.
JOSENHANS: That was
the dumbest idea I ever heard.
DENT: What's he doing?
ARGO: On paper,
it just didn't make sense.
MIALIK: They're a novelty.
It's like, "What?"
JACKMAN: To the pundits,
the idea of Bill Koch
and his team, America3,
defending his
America's Cup title
with a group of women this time
was ludicrous, maybe a joke,
or was it a publicity stunt?
The story was that he had
a court case going on in Kansas.
KIRBY: He was
in a lawsuit with his brothers.
TRENKLE:
His attorneys had figured out
that the jury
was going to be mostly women.
A women's team would look
very favorable on his outlook.
HENRY:
Whether that was true or not,
I don't know,
but that was the story.
And it would probably
piss some people off,
which he enjoys doing, I think.
KOCH: I thought
it would be fun to snub my nose
at the yachting establishment,
and you know,
a great contrarian way
to, uh, you know, uh,
be a little bad boy there.
That was his way
to upset the applecart
of the old Guard
of the America's Cup.
STEITZ: This sport is stagnant.
So if you could change that,
that was good for the sport.
PAYARD: I really don't know
why Bill made the decision.
I think he was close
to Dawn Riley, frankly.
(ENERGETIC MUSIC PLAYING)
BANKS:
Dawn Riley, the only woman
aboard Bill Koch's
winning America's Cup team,
America3, in 1992.
DELLENBAUGH:
Plenty of pressure here, too,
plenty of pressure.
KOCH: She was fantastic,
and that showed me that women
could do the job as well as men.
The first time
I saw the America's Cup
was in Newport, Rhode Island.
Ted Turner was out there.
Gary Jobson.
And I said,
"I'm gonna do that one day."
KIRBY: Dawn was one of the few
people that could walk
into a locker room and probably
have equal the testosterone
of the guys in there. (LAUGHS)
STEPHAN:
Dawn's been one of the boys,
if you'll excuse that
expression, for a long time.
At the time,
it was the pre-MeToo world.
There were a lot
of cringing moments.
FERRINGO: She fit right in.
I'm sure, like, she may
not have felt that way,
but we never noticed
a beat difference,
we just didn't.
STEPHAN: It was definitely
a boys' locker room mentality.
RILEY: I would like to think
that I was chosen
because I was good,
but I'm pretty sure that
if I hadn't had the character
and the strength
to stand up
and give it back to 'em,
that I very easily
could have been eliminated.
We tried two,
we didn't try three.
SAILOR: Dawn, I got it!
RILEY: Okay!
I thought, that's a pretty
courageous person
to step into this mix.
PRICE: She couldn't come in
and be as good as the guys.
She had to be, like,
a level or two better.
WORTHINGTON: She carried
her weight every which way,
from sun up to sundown.
PRICE: And I was thinking,
it's like,
if they got a boatful of Dawns,
they're gonna go
out there kicking some ass.
BANKS: But finding
a boatful of Dawns
was gonna be
challenge number one.
She was the only woman available
with actual
America's Cup experience.
Then, they had to build
a new boat,
train a group of rookies to go
up against the best of the best.
And they only had
ten months for all of this.
JACKMAN: The clock was ticking.
BOTH: Tick tock, tick tock.
WORTHINGTON: Let's roll,
right? Here we go.
Like, what are we gonna do?
How are we gonna do this?
MOEYERSOMS: We opened
the selection to any woman
who wanted to apply.
"Strong athletic women apply,
no experience necessary."
ARGO: I think, you know,
800 people called in.
WORTHINGTON:
I had all kinds, pictures.
The whole thing,
women were, like,
standing next to a cactus
with their bathing suit on.
ARGO: They were in bikinis.
I mean, it was just crazy stuff.
Like, what?
No, you don't qualify at all.
My brother called me, he's like,
"You're not gonna believe this,
you should try out."
I just said to him
"You are nuts,
there's no way
this is happening."
My sister called me, she says,
"Deb, I'm gonna apply for this."
PETTIBONE: My sister
Debbie was thinking about it.
And I told her to apply.
And both of us were like, "Nah,
it's never going
to happen." (LAUGHS)
COOPER: Our grandmother
was really influential.
It was the times where we got
to spend with her on the water.
PETTIBONE:
We had a very close bond.
I was thinking to myself,
"Oh, I've still got
an American passport.
And I said to Dawn,
"Well, is there any chance
that I could have a go?"
I have sailing
in my blood from my grandfather.
He went to sea
when he was 16 years old,
and shipwrecked several times.
So, it was always in my veins,
the love of the ocean.
My mother called me up,
like, the last week
that you could possibly apply,
and said,
"Courtenay, there's this team,
you've got to apply."
And I was like, "Mom, I don't
want a dog and pony show.
I don't really want to do it."
And she's like, "Just apply."
PETTIBONE: My motto
in life is you gotta try,
you gotta knock on the door.
The door may not open.
That's okay.
It's not gonna open
if you don't knock on it.
So much of my sailing
up to that point,
the timing had been great...
and now all of a sudden,
I had a small child.
I remember feeling pretty torn.
I was a new mom,
I had a three-year-old
and a five-year-old.
When I approached my husband,
he wasn't really
excited about it.
I thought, well, wait a minute.
I'm gonna go for it,
because that's who I am.
I love racing,
and I want to be part of it.
I had custody of my son
who was three,
and he had just gone
to be with his dad,
and I was going insane.
I was so grateful
that I could get my mind
focused on something.
We had 700 applicants
and we're sitting in San Diego
with all the applicants
on the table.
Like. "Okay, this one?
No. Yep. No.
Yay. No. Oh.
Oh, look at this one."
I got a call when I was training
for the '96 Olympic Games.
The first response I got said
"We're sorry,
we filled the team."
I ripped it up.
I said,
"They're gonna call me back."
They called me back,
like, a week and half later.
I had studied
aerospace engineering.
It was fluid dynamics.
So I was interested
in making the boat go fast.
I'm a little obsessive.
I went through
every single VHS tape from '92.
I transcribed all of the moves,
the bow and the sewer, the mast.
And so I came away
with a playbook,
so I was ready.
To prepare for the tryouts,
I created a vision board
and I cut out pictures
of JJ Isler,
Dawn Riley, and Annie Nelson.
And I talked to them every day.
Like, I was on board
with them...
Come on!
...because I've not sailed
with them.
BANKS: Out of over
700 applications,
44 women are invited to try-out.
There's some serious
world-class talent
headed to San Diego,
with Olympians,
around-the-world sailors,
even weightlifters.
They're being evaluated
on physical strength,
sailing skills, attitude,
and the ability to get along
with each other.
WORTHINGTON: We set up
a spreadsheet of talent,
personnel, team,
attitude, the whole thing.
SAILORS: Twenty-three,
twenty-four.
The way
that the tryouts were run
was more trying
to find a group of sailors
that worked well together,
and not have
a bunch of superstars.
KIRBY: It was a test of how
much of a team player you are.
ARGO: America's Cup
is a mental grind,
so you have to have the capacity
to put up with people.
So chemistry was a big part of,
you know, selecting people.
GURTLER:
The culture clash of this team,
East Coast, West Coast,
and me from Hawaii. (CHUCKLES)
We don't share the same humor.
I don't understand the sarcasm.
Out, seven, out.
SMITH GURTLER:
There was no niceties,
and it was like, assimilate now,
or go home, cook rice.
JACKMAN:
But, other than Dawn Riley,
none of them
had raced an 80-foot,
55,000-pound,
16-person racing boat.
Our goal was to show
that women could compete
at the same level as men.
Other way, first jib.
There you go!
It was tense,
we were thrown on these boats
that none of us
had sailed before.
Yeah, this... a lot of current.
KIRBY: It was really
a rigorous tryout process.
ARGO: Fifty seconds.
It's like, okay, thank you
very much for coming.
(EXHALES) Next.
It was a physical contest,
mental contest,
are you a team player?
WORTHINGTON:
And so Bill Koch had this thing,
like, "You're a team player
or you're out of here.
I don't care who you are."
KOCH: There'll be no stars.
The team itself
will be the star.
Everybody on the boat
will be equally important
to everybody else.
BANKS: After three
brutal weeks of try-outs,
the team roster is announced.
KOCH: These women
are outstanding.
We had over 700 applicants,
we narrowed that down to 23,
and we picked the women...
BANKS: Of those chosen,
16 will be selected
to race the "A" Boat.
The others will become
back-ups on the "B" Boat.
We have a group that will rival
any group of men
that you can see.
BANKS: No one yet knows
what position they'll fill,
but Olympic Sailor JJ Fetter
is likely to be the tactician,
the chess master
responsible for race tactics.
The helmsman, or driver,
will be JJ, Dawn Riley
or Olympic Sailor, Leslie Egnot.
And the navigator,
Olympic Boardsailor
Annie Gardner,
or Courtenay Becker-Dey.
This is the brain trust,
the afterguard
which sits
at the back of the boat.
JACKMAN: But,
unlike any other afterguard
in the history
of the America's Cup,
there will be no skipper,
no leader, no star.
BANKS: The Pettibone sisters,
Merritt Palm,
and a number of others
will be trying out
for the trimmer position,
which controls
the shape of the sails.
Sarah Cavanagh,
and Round-the-World sailor,
Merritt Carey,
will vie for the sewer,
which is below deck,
handling the packing
and changing of sails.
And NASA engineer
Suzy Leech will likely be
the eyes of the boat on the bow.
The rest of the crew
is a hodgepodge
of Olympic rowers,
a power-lifter,
and even an American Gladiator.
I was so impressed
when I walked into the compound
in '95 with the women team
that had been assembled.
At first, I did wonder about,
you know, those sails are big
and they're heavy,
and it took eight guys
to lift up our main.
So the strength aspect,
I kind of wondered about.
And then the Amys walked in.
The towers of power from rowing.
Six-foot-plus, just ripped,
180, 190 pounds of sheer muscle.
KIRBY: They were beasts.
You just couldn't have any woman
come in and do the grinding.
JACKMAN: The grinders
are the muscle
of the entire operation.
Go!
JACKMAN: They have to crank
on those coffee grinder winches,
getting hundreds of pounds
of sails, up and down.
In other words, they need
the strength of ten men.
KIRBY: You can't sail
an America's Cup boat
without super fit,
strong grinders.
And those chicks
had game. (LAUGHS)
PALM KEFFER: There were
so many parts of that boat
that were designed for men,
and men who were strong,
and we needed those grinders.
BALTZELL: I had no idea
what I was doing.
But could I spin handles? Yes.
Could I pull down sails? Yes.
Did I think that I was stronger
than all of 'em? Yes.
Fitter than all of 'em? Yes.
Can I lift more than them? Yes.
Can I last longer? Yes.
(CHUCKLES)
I mean, I mean, come on.
BECKER-DEY: Come the fuck on.
First priority
is to get the pole off.
And then that turns--
Jib up!
STEPHAN:
Once I saw them working out...
my initial reaction of,
are they going to be
strong enough
to do certain things
on the boat,
was squashed right away.
Fucking go now!
ARGO: We had Shelley Beattie,
the bodybuilder.
(McDONALD)
Otherwise known as Siren.
WORTHINGTON:
For whatever reason, right?
She's stronger than everybody.
She's got guns on her
like no other.
She was fun.
She was kind of in your face.
BALTZELL: She would show up
on her Harley Davidson
with her husband coming in
late to practice knowing
if she's late, we're all doing
25 push-ups to start.
And she'd go down
and pop 'em out, laughing.
HUNTINGTON: She was deaf.
ARGO: Shelley couldn't hear,
so we had to develop
hand systems, like moving
your finger was trim,
and holding your fist out
was stop.
McDONALD: There was
a lot of apprehension initially,
having someone deaf on board,
because heavy equipment
can be sort of flying around.
RILEY: Fuck!
PETTIBONE: So you have
to really start using your body
to convey messages,
which we need to do anyways
'cause you can't hear
very well on a big boat.
I need you
to use your hand signals.
Tell me when to grind,
because I can't hear you.
PETTIBONE: We developed skills
that we needed to be successful.
MAXWELL PIERSON:
And we're a team.
So, fostering
everyone's strengths,
regardless
of what their deficit is,
was really key.
She was unbelievably strong,
and to make sure
that that could be applied
on those grinders
was really important.
She was strong, and I'm not
going to hold it against her
that she couldn't hear.
I can't tell you
what a relief it is,
I feel like
we're all working together.
KEFFER: You guys good
on your buttons right there?
SAILOR: Yeah.
KEFFER: Okay, great.
Because I am clueless.
WORTHINGTON: It wasn't like
we had a lot of time.
KIRBY: In a perfect world,
you already have
a seasoned team.
So you're working on boat speed,
checking new sails,
and not so much crew work.
With the team,
we had to start from scratch.
BANKS: Many of these rookies
had never set foot
on a sailboat,
and it was especially
challenging for the rowers
who kept confusing the left
and right sides of the boat,
or starboard and port,
because rowing shells
race backwards.
That was the biggest concern
of going to the right part
of the boat.
Turning around backwards in
my head and going to starboard.
You know what I mean? (LAUGHS)
JACKMAN: This entire thing
was gonna be a very tall order.
WORTHINGTON: We don't know
what we're getting into.
Now we gotta figure this out,
like, how are we gonna do this?
What's our plan?
FETTER: So, one thing they
were worried about early on
was if we would be
scrappy enough
to do the match racing.
America's Cup is a match race,
so it's like a boxing match.
(BELL DINGS)
And you have to be willing
to go in there
and fight hand-to-hand combat
against this other boat.
JACKMAN:
A match race is one boat
racing another, mano-a-mano.
It might look graceful,
but you have to get
within inches of your opponent
to take away their wind,
disrupt their strategy,
make split second decisions
while calculating the velocity
and direction of the wind,
the magnitude of the waves...
Warning the keel to the boat!
...and with these
expensive boats,
there is no room for error.
You crash, game over.
Like, really over.
SAILOR: Oh, my gosh!
JACKSON: Crikey!
BANKS: Yikes!
(CROWD EXCLAIMING)
SPORTS COMMENTATOR:
The damage was substantial.
The faster the boat goes,
the bigger the crashes are.
JACKMAN: This is a ruthless,
unpredictable game
of multi-dimensional
chess on water.
FETTER: And so they brought in
all kinds of really good coaches
to help with the tactics.
MELGES:
You gotta be more aggressive.
You wanna go
a little slow and high.
You need a little more
protein at breakfast.
We need some blood running
out the side of your mouths.
(ALL LAUGH)
BANKS: The coaches
had a very long way to go
to bring the women up to speed
on match racing tactics,
but they found
there was one aspect of sailing
that needed
no coaching whatsoever.
LINDQUIST: Kimo looked at me
one day and said,
"Oh, my God,
you guys are the most
foul-mouthed people
I've ever met." (LAUGHS)
SAILORS: Stop (BLEEP)!
I was just one of the girls
out there,
basically, with them,
when we were coaching.
Some of the dirtiest
conversations
were on the tow out.
KIRBY: I was like, holy shit.
I mean, I have three sisters,
but this was next-level.
(CHUCKLES)
LINDQUIST: We were a new
experience for the coaches.
ARGO: One of the gals
came up after a take down
and said,
"Anybody got a tampon?"
I'd never heard that
on a 75-footer before.
There's this sort of misnomer
that somehow women
sometimes are more polite,
they don't curse as much.
Major (BLEEP) up on the runners!
That's probably
not a true statement. (LAUGHS)
ARGO: The girls getting used
to, you know, taking a dump
off the back,
and stuff like that.
Well, okay,
I don't need to watch that.
(LAUGHS)
BANKS: This new
women's team, America3,
begins training 13 hours a day
for the America's Cup
Defender Series.
Here we go!
BANKS: An 18.55
nautical mile course,
racing three times
around a set of buoys...
one mark placed upwind,
and another mark
placed downwind.
They have only six months until
they hit the starting line,
and a very steep
learning curve.
Oh, boy.
JACKMAN: Whoa!
That's gotta hurt.
They'll face
two other American teams
for the right to represent
the United States
in the America's Cup.
The first
is Young America-PACT 95,
which is jammed
with Olympians...
Let's go guys.
Big trim, big trim!
...and America's Cup Veterans.
The other team, Stars & Stripes,
will be helmed by the brash,
almost-never-beatable,
cover of Time Magazine,
New York City
Ticker Tape Parade,
winningest sailor of all time,
Dennis Conner.
The man, the myth, the legend.
Thank you, Mr. President.
(UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
Dennis Conner,
the king, of course.
BRADY: Probably the one name
that people are going
to come up when they say
"Who's the most famous sailor
there ever was?"
MIALIK:
Dennis was Mr. America's Cup.
What he could do with a boat
was... was amazing.
JOBSON:
If I were to describe him
to a music composer,
I'd put him by Beethoven.
Every note is exactly right.
And Conner is that way.
FETTER: The guy is a legend.
SHAVER: As far as I'm concerned,
he was...
he was the guy to beat.
LARSON: Do you think you could
beat Dennis Conner at his best?
If we're at our very best
and we have
a slightly faster boat, yes.
If we're at our very best,
he's at his very best,
the boats are dead even?
God help us.
WHIDDEN: He's a
self-described carpet salesman,
and that's underselling
what Dennis is about.
I mean, he's got a lot
of street sense,
and he's a brilliant sailor.
FERRINGO:
Dennis could conquer the world.
He could take, like,
four dollars
and a Styrofoam cup,
and, like, compete
for the America's Cup.
And his ability to get
the maximum speed out of a boat
and a crew is unsurpassed.
REAGAN:
During the Challenger
final race against New Zealand,
Stars & Stripes blew a jib.
To many skippers,
it would've been cause
for panic, but you only said,
"Hey this is too bad."
(ALL LAUGH)
That's not all I said, right?
(ALL LAUGH)
SHAVER:
You talk about a leader, right?
This... this guy, he can get
a locker room behind him.
Dennis is completely focused,
competitive at all times.
PALM KEFFER:
Dennis Conner's a perfectionist,
and there needs to be
respect for a man
that was willing to pour
everything into this sport.
But I don't know
that he was necessarily
the most diplomatic person
when it came to dealing
with women.
You would think that Dennis
really didn't sail
with very many women.
And I sailed on, I don't know,
ten or fifteen
different boats with him.
VOGEL: She paved the way for me
by being the first woman to sail
on one of the America's Cup
boats in modern history.
CONNER: They were good enough
to be considered
a part of my crew,
and they had attitude.
Attitude, attitude and attitude.
They wanted to win.
I've heard that he wasn't
to other women in sailing,
but for me,
he was always supportive.
Dennis has a reputation.
"Dennis the Menace."
He's got this reputation
of big, bad Dennis.
The big bad wolf.
CONNER: I certainly
was not friendly
with a fellow competitor
when you're racing
for the America's Cup.
You didn't go out
and spend too much time
at the candy store with them.
KIRBY: He had this aura
that he was invincible.
And he liked to keep that.
You know,
a little Darth Vader-ish.
WHIDDEN: I have a much
different impression of Dennis.
I mean,
he's actually a little shy.
He's a big softie.
TRENKLE: It was just
so surprising to so many people
when they came on the team,
they all thought
he was this big,
evil ogre, nasty guy.
And all of a sudden
they're on with him
and they're like,
"This is Dennis Conner?"
SEARS: I never heard him
raise his voice
at any point in time.
Never yelled.
MAZZIO: Really?
Yes.
MAZZIO: How about off the boat?
Well, that's a whole
different story. (LAUGHS)
(MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING)
BOYD: History
in the making this weekend.
The first all-female crew
has its first chance to shine.
BANKS: To get some
big boat racing
under their belts,
the women's team enters
the 1994
International America's Cup
Class World Championships,
a warm-up series
for America's Cup contenders.
Almost every team, from here,
and around the world,
vying for the America's Cup,
is also entered.
JACKMAN: Yeah, it's a rogue's
gallery of champions.
So the expectations
of this inexperienced
women's team are...
well, yeah, not so much.
BANKS: (SCOFFS)
There's just no way.
BECKER-DEY:
It was our first debut.
So I had no idea
where we stacked up
against the competition.
GARDNER:
Everybody was talking about,
"How are the girls gonna do?"
I was very concerned
at how we were going to do,
because just weeks
prior to that,
we had difficulty
getting the spinnaker down
and into the boat.
PORTER: We'd worked hard
on the maneuvers,
we'd worked hard on learning
how to operate the boat.
And the question was,
well, how far did we get?
It was kind of pathetic,
because the press
were really there
because they didn't think
we were going to be able
to get the main sail up,
let alone get around the course.
People were really skeptical
of what we were doing.
GARDNER: "Those girls
don't have a chance,
there's no way."
LINDQUIST: The Las Vegas odds
against us doing well,
were pretty much,
um, one percent.
MIALIK: I didn't have a grasp
of how the women's team
would handle the physicality
of the whole thing.
CUTLER: The strength
aspect was probably the one
that would have
raised most eyebrows.
JOSENHANS: I always wondered
what they were doing
and how they could
possibly ever beat us.
It's not a gender question.
It's Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid.
"Who are those guys?"
Who are those guys?
PRICE: I was just excited
to see what would happen.
Looking at it on paper,
I would've given them
a ten percent chance.
Ten percent, maybe,
on the high side, you know,
I mean, just because experience
plays so much in that game.
STEITZ:
I thought they had a chance.
Did I think they could beat us?
Probably not.
Nobody believed
we could do this.
Okay, you can be a naysayer,
but we're gonna prove you wrong.
BANKS: On the morning
of the final race,
tensions are high.
The starting line-up
has not yet been posted.
KOCH: And the rest of it
belongs up to you.
SMITH GURTLER: Everyone
was posturing on our team.
Everybody wanted to make
the cut for that race.
You never knew
if you were on the boat or not.
For practice,
for races, for anything.
They would put
a list up in the morning,
and you just hoped
your name was on it.
SMITH GURTLER:
There seemed to be this energy
of not-cohesion.
There was little cliques.
And I just decided,
I'll bring everybody together,
do a prayer.
Everybody, listen up
before you leave.
CREW 1: Hold... hold!
CREW 2: Hold on, hold on!
SMITH GURTLER: I'm going
to ask for permission
to open up the energy.
This is showtime.
You're gonna execute at your
highest level of excellence.
The word for today is Lokahi.
Can everyone say that?
SAILORS: Lokahi.
And then...
Suzette is a very
spiritual person.
She was a really, really
unique individual
who drew us all together.
Lokahi, together, means
all of these individuals
coming together as one.
SMITH GURTLER:
And all of a sudden,
the energy just came together.
In fact, I'm getting
chicken skin right now,
and everybody
was glowing, and lit up.
SAILORS:
One, two, three, Lokahi!
(SAILORS CHEERING)
SMITH GURTLER:
And all of us just loved it.
WORTHINGTON:
Always a new twist, isn't it?
KERR: We're all here
to be women supporting women.
And she really
helped us start to see
that it didn't need to be
what it was.
(DYNAMIC DRUMMING PLAYING)
Hey, Mama!
PETTIBONE:
We were really nervous.
Annie Gardner was navigating.
2-10.
PETTIBONE: I was trimming.
Dawn was driving.
Suzy on the bow.
FETTER: How far away are we?
The apprehension
was pretty wild.
Looking out at all of the boats,
and it's all men.
I did for a moment think,
"Wow, this is really strange."
RILEY: Everybody keep
their fingers and toes
and not hit anything,
was honestly our..
our first goal.
(LOUD BOOM)
(CROWD CHEERING)
PETTIBONE: We were doing great,
like, playbook stuff.
SAILOR: Lower!
BANKS: Almost incredibly,
the women's team
surges in front of the pack.
JACKMAN: Dennis Conner's team,
Stars & Stripes,
Young America-PACT 95,
and the other
international stars,
all fight to keep up.
SAILOR: Geordie, can I clear?
Can we go up, Geordie?
PETTIBONE: And then
we get to this bottom mark.
It was a late call.
LEECH: And, I don't know
if there was a camera boat
or something in the way...
RILEY: I saw the ESPN boat
with this huge-ass camera.
And I was like,
"I can't run into that!"
PETTIBONE: We made a hard turn,
and the spinnaker
didn't come down correctly.
And then the kite blows up.
PETTIBONE: And we're
on the last leg to finish.
Talk about drama!
It ends up streaming
like a flag behind us,
which is really slow.
That was, like, chaos. (LAUGHS)
And we were flipping out
on that chase boat going,
"Oh no, don't blow this race!"
And we were right behind them
trying to overtake them,
but we can't just sail
through their spinnaker.
LINDQUIST: We're getting
slower and slower.
And we had Suzy up the mast,
and we're just screaming at her.
We sent her up the mast
with a knife in her mouth,
and she started
hacking and slashing.
LEECH: The knife was definitely
not in my teeth, by the way.
That would be very dangerous.
Don't do that.
That's very Crocodile Dundee.
PETTIBONE:
These things are ginormous,
so she couldn't see
which part she needed to cut
and we're trying to yell up
and we're like,
"Cut the red tape!"
"Cut the red tape!"
I remember is like,
looking down and they're like,
pointing, and they're yelling,
and I'm like going,
"what are you saying?"
Knife out, she cuts the tape.
You could see the boat
lurch forward,
and we were off
and running again.
(CROWD CHEERING)
GARDNER: Then it flew off,
and it... luckily
it didn't hit the other boat...
and we... we sailed
onto victory.
(ALL CHEERING)
(HORNS HONKING)
MOEYERSOMS:
Way to fucking go, ah?
Unbelievable!
GARDNER: I've got goosebumps!
It was tight, it was intense.
Everybody was out there,
international and American,
and we had a shit fight,
and we overcame it, and won.
KEFFER: We had some uncertainty
about what we could
and couldn't do, and we did it.
We killed it.
"Cut the red tape!"
BANKS: That win
puts the women's team second
in the overall ranking
for this series.
Beating both Young America
and Dennis Conner's
Stars & Stripes.
Wait, what?
JACKMAN: Incredible!
LINDQUIST: By the time
that we finished that event,
the shift was extraordinary.
SWETT:
That was the turning point of,
when everyone realized
that we could do really well.
The feeling of possibilities
opening up
was... was very powerful.
We could do this,
we could be competitive.
And the whole world was like,
"Wow, check these women out."
PHILLIPS:
At a warm-up competition
for the America's Cup,
the women's team
is more than holding its own.
ISLER: Beating
all the other American boats,
including Dennis Conner!
REPORTER: On the course,
America3 dispelled any questions
about the viability
of an all-women's team.
It was like, "Oh, my God,
we're not a joke?"
Because, you know, on some
level, like, what are we doing?
This billionaire or whatever
puts together a women's team
and we're just,
like, a media blitz.
Is it a joke?
But it was like,
it showed us, like,
no, actually you know what?
You could do well,
you could even win.
It's possible. It's possible.
They're for real.
Well, right!
They are.
Don't start with me, all right?
Just don't.
Oh, I'm finished with you.
("IN THE HALL OF
THE MOUNTAIN KING" PLAYING)
FERRIGNO: We were just like,
"You know what?
They're going to be a team that
we're going to have to beat.
They're not going to lose.
We're going to have
to beat 'em."
I take this challenge
very seriously.
Until we beat 'em, talk's cheap.
Their win surprised us.
LINDQUIST: Up to that point,
the management didn't know
how we were gonna do.
You know,
I think they were braced for us
to be six out of six.
They come in,
freakin' whooped their ass,
basically just kicked them
all around the course, so...
There was a mission shift.
When we started the effort,
it was definitely,
let's show the world
that women can compete
against men at the same level.
SAILOR: Come on, guys!
MOEYERSOMS: The women did well
and at that point,
the decision was made
to try to win.
KOCH: And those critics
are gonna be eating their words.
LINDQUIST: All of a sudden
they shifted from,
"Oh, we've gotta teach
women how to sail",
to, "We're in full
America's Cup mode
and we've gotta win this thing."
(MUSIC CONCLUDES)
JACKMAN: But to win
the America's Cup,
they first have to win
the Defender Series,
which begins two short
months later in San Diego.
And the home of the brave
(CROWD CHEERING)
(FIREWORKS POPPING)
ISLER: They were
the top placing defender
at the recent
World Championships,
please welcome America3.
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
ISLER: Our second
US defense team,
Young America-PACT 95...
and DC's name is synonymous
with the America's Cup.
Team Dennis Conner.
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
BANKS: It's the night
before the first race
of the Defender Series,
and the games
have already begun.
I'm gonna sail my own boat,
and um...
I don't think I need
the help of the ladies yet.
Yeah, that's him,
right there.
Always poking, prodding,
trying to get a little mental
advantage, get in their heads.
HUFNAGEL: They were doing
anything they could
to throw the women
off their game.
I'm not gonna do his imitation,
but he basically said,
"I don't need the help
of ladies yet on my boat."
And we were like, "Yeah?
Watch this!"
(LAUGHS) The stuff he would say
to the press was like,
oh, man.
And he'd say something,
you know, and they'd be like,
"Fuck him,
we're gonna kick his ass!"
LEECH: He was a guy
that actually was
very helpful for us,
because it gave us
the embodiment of evil.
You could really sink
your teeth
into trying to...
to beat this guy.
I want to beat them down.
WHIDDEN: If you're with him,
he's fantastic.
If you're against him,
he's not so fantastic.
SHAVER: I know DC
and those boys,
they had little hatred
towards them.
Maybe I shouldn't say hatred,
maybe it's more sexism,
maybe it's more, you know, like,
"We can't lose to the girls."
BECKER-DEY: For the men
to be competing against us,
they had everything to lose.
We were perceived
as the rookies.
And we're the big man on campus,
we're the team to beat.
HENRY:
We had seven guys on the boat
that had won the Cup before.
We had World Champions,
Olympic gold, silver,
bronze medalists.
I mean, we were stacked.
JOBSON: Conner has an ace crew,
blending veterans
with sensational rookies.
There's a lot of reputation
on the line.
Like, you can't lose
to the women.
CAYARD: It's like
a no-win situation, really.
You win, you're expected to win.
You lose, you're the,
you know, laughingstock
of your little world.
McDONALD: There was sometimes
interaction between the boats,
and, you know,
they would be shouting things
across the water.
There was a little trash talk
coming from our boat.
FERRIGNO:
We trash-talked everybody.
And so the women
weren't anything different.
But we were just like,
"We want to fucking kick
the shit out of them."
Oh, there definitely was no
love lost between the two teams.
We would get regularly
flipped the bird
as we would cross switch.
It was the '90s...
Schwing!
...and we weren't
quite as careful
as we would be today.
(BOTH LAUGH)
MCCANN: You could easily
look at all that and go, like,
"That was toxic masculinity."
Like, "Yeah!" (GRUNTS)
That wouldn't have happened
if it was
two men's teams out there,
I don't think.
Press a little!
MCCANN: I don't think that
I probably participated in it.
And if I did, I would be very
embarrassed about that now.
FERRIGNO This was new,
this was, like,
guys racing girls.
And, so we did come together
as a team and said,
"We can hate the other team
and just want 'em
to sink, die, get struck
by lightning, whatever.
But we're gonna be,
you know, respectful."
Like, we actually had
that meeting.
Probably... maybe we needed it!
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
Today, you know,
you're gonna spill some blood.
(ALL CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
MOEYERSOMS: I consulted
with my daughter.
So this morning I pick her up,
and I say,
"You know, the girls are gonna
race against Dennis."
You can't imagine what came out
when I mentioned Dennis's name,
so... (LAUGHS)
...it's a good sign, guys.
(ALL LAUGH, CHEER)
Okay, let's load the boat.
Let's go.
MOEYERSOMS: All right!
PETTIBONE: This is it,
cards on the table,
we've gotta perform.
I had butterflies in my stomach.
Jitters. The whole boat.
EGNOT: I was incredibly nervous.
To be sailing against someone
that, as a young kid,
I'd been following and admiring.
And to suddenly be sailing
against someone like that,
it was nerve-wracking.
We were ready.
But we didn't know
if we were ready enough.
(HORN HONKING)
BANKS: There's
a five-minute countdown
where the boats furiously jockey
with each other
to be in the best position
when that gun goes off.
FETTER: I don't think
they were expecting us
to come out
as aggressively as we did.
JACKMAN: Now there are
many rules to the start,
but the most important
is that the boat on the right,
or the starboard side,
always has the right of way.
Failure to yield to the boat
that has the right of way
will result in a penalty.
JACKMAN: And Stars & Stripes
didn't yield.
We were able to line him up,
and, uh, draw the foul on him.
DENT: The veteran Conner
and his highly experienced crew
had begun their match against
the women with confidence,
but copped a penalty
during the pre-start.
With Conner forced
to do a penalty turn,
the women raced away
to a big lead.
TSUCHIYA:
JJ outwitted Dennis Conner,
the highly experienced, highly
decorated America's Cup sailor.
ARGO: Right out
of the box, you know,
they get kicked in the teeth
by the women.
BECKER-DEY: Same speed.
JOBSON:
They were loaded for bear.
BECKER-DEY:
Gain bearing a little bit.
The whole race was intense.
It was quite a battle.
JOBSON: The gloves came off.
We have a real regatta
going on here.
DENT: While Conner
made some gains,
the women managed
to stay out front...
winning by more
than a minute.
(CROWD CHEERING)
BECKER-DEY:
When we crossed that line,
oh, my gosh,
I can feel it today.
KEFFER: You know, to look over
and see the disappointment
in their faces, 'cause they had
just been beaten by women.
I was elated, I mean,
it's a punch in the gut
to Dennis and his team.
That's the biggest
fear they had.
CAVANAGH: I just feel this huge,
ecstatic feeling
like I want to cry right now.
RILEY: We were all looking
around at each other going,
"Holy fuck, this is...
this is kind of fun."
EGNOT:
Even without that penalty turn,
JJ still did a better job
of starting the boat,
and we would've crossed
the start line
ahead of the other boat anyway.
My dear old granddad
who I had sailing
my blood from him,
he watched that race.
He was in a nursing home
and saw that race,
and he said, "That's it.
I've seen all I need to see now.
I can go now."
My granddad got to see us
beat Dennis Conner
before he passed away.
DENT: Conner reflected on his
historic defeat by the women.
CONNER: Congratulations
to the, uh, women.
I lost the first race ever to
the women's America's Cup team.
Certainly the first American
skipper ever to do so.
(ALL LAUGH)
If there's any good news
out of this,
is I have the best losing record
in the America's Cup.
(ALL LAUGH)
MIALIK: The women
come out there and spank 'em.
And boy, can you swallow
a pill that big?
The moment you get
beaten by the women,
it's like a little humble pie
that you have to eat as well.
JOSENHANS: Our opinion changed
on how to handle them, and how
to attack them at the start.
We were not looking at a team
that was gonna self-destruct.
We were looking at a team
that we needed to beat.
TSUCHIYA: This women's team
was able to beat
one of the greatest skippers
in the America's Cup.
It was like the shot
heard around the world.
It went just the way
I wanted it to go.
MARTY: We were ecstatic,
because I knew that a boat
four times as fast
as the one they're sailing now
is coming down the pipeline.
Wait until
the rocket ship arrives.
DENT: Whatever
the results after today,
there's no doubt
that the women's victory
has given the America's Cup
the best start possible.
BANKS: Celebrating
this epic victory
will have to be short-lived,
because the women race again
the very next day.
JACKMAN: This series
is a grueling 120-day marathon.
Thirty-three races over
four rounds or round robins,
and then another 14 races
in the semi-finals.
From there, the two top teams
will then advance to the finals.
The ultimate winner
will go head-to-head
against the winning
international challenger
who's gone through
the very same process.
BANKS: For Race Number Two,
the women take on
Stars & Stripes. Again.
RACE OFFICIAL: Three, two, one!
(GUNSHOT POPPING)
BANKS: It's a physical race
with lots of tactics.
But this time,
there's no storybook finish.
FETTER: They're
a little bit faster.
Let's keep going.
Come on, Melissa!
We're not gonna make it, are we?
BECKER-DEY: Come on, you guys!
BANKS: The women's team,
still in their old boat,
struggle to keep up...
and they win only one race
in the first round.
LINDQUIST: Jib up!
BANKS: The second round,
which awards two points per win,
starts off more promising.
FETTER: Okay,
let's start our tack.
Final approach,
nice lay line, Courtenay.
BANKS:
The women defeat Young America.
BECKER-DEY: You guys
just keep racing here!
BANKS: But by the end
of the second round,
they're in last place.
FETTER: Oh, that was tough.
PORTER: That was hard.
JACKMAN:
As Round Three gets underway,
wins are now worth
four points apiece.
KOCH: There's plenty of time,
all these early rounds,
they're like preseason games
or exhibition games.
BANKS: The women
open Round Three with a bang.
They win!
BECKER-DEY:
You guys, awesome race.
ISLER: Out on
the racecourse, America3,
the all-women's team, has had
its share of very close races.
They've been very strong
at the starts
and on the first upwind leg,
but they're off
the pace downwind.
JACKMAN: Meanwhile, Young
America and Stars & Stripes
have used the early rounds
to tweak their
brand-new racing boats,
making changes
in the hunt for more speed.
ISLER:
At the end of Round Three,
Team Dennis Conner
and PACT 95 are all tied up.
BANKS: But for the women,
their new boat is still M.I.A.,
missing in action.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
They kept pushing off
the timeline
for when she was gonna arrive,
which is not ideal to go
into do-or-die-type racing.
We definitely got caught behind
in the rig and sail development.
There were still
tank test developments going on
very late in the program.
And it was like, God, you know,
like, yeah, we could do
one more session,
you know, we can try this,
we can try that.
ARGO: If we could make
the boat fast enough,
then we had a shot.
FERRIGNO: A lot
of the America's Cup,
it's like Formula One.
If you have a fast car,
you're gonna deliver,
you know, on... on your promise.
KOCH: We're coming up
with a new boat
that'll be two to three minutes
faster around the racecourse.
So you will have
the fastest boat in the world.
The designers always want
as much time as possible.
Kind of like,
I suppose, an artist.
BANKS: But then,
just before the fourth round
is set to begin,
the women's new boat,
as late as she is,
enters stage left.
This evening is, what I believe,
is the dawn of a new era.
This boat, which I call
this instrument of change,
is also a tribute to a woman
who had a very profound
effect on my life.
(SIGHS)
That woman was my mother,
her nickname was "Mighty Mary".
(ALL APPLAUDING)
SAILORS: (IN UNISON)
We christen thee Mighty Mary!
(ALL CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
BECKER-DEY:
Mighty Mary arrives.
Beautiful, sexy, exciting.
COOPER: We knew
that Mighty Mary could be
a complete disruptor
for the event.
We all had great hopes that she
was gonna be this magic yacht.
JACKMAN: Everyone expects that,
even untested,
she'll be
a technological wonder,
a speed demon, a rocket ship,
that will catapult
the women's team to victory.
We are just getting ready
to get into Round Four,
and there's a new boat here.
Are they waiting too late?
No one knows.
FETTER: Heading up. One minute!
JACKMAN: Her first test
is against Stars & Stripes.
For this round, each win
is now worth seven points.
FETTER: Blow it off, Melissa.
We can't do it.
BANKS: But Mighty Mary
doesn't win.
Mighty Mary came out of the box,
raw, untested.
We didn't know
how to sail it at all.
FETTER: Ready now. Go!
SWETT: It was completely
different
than what we had been sailing.
Literally, we had
to relearn a boat
at the same time
we're trying to race.
Mary wasn't quite
the rocket ship
that we thought
she was going to be.
FETTER: Okay,
let's do a circle now, jibing.
It was really twitchy.
It wasn't faster.
EGNOT: Just not doing it.
Was it a revolutionary
breakthrough of a boat? No.
RILEY: 1-30!
We thought the problems going
downwind were operator error.
LINDQUIST: There was
a lack of interface
between the designers
and the team.
I don't know if the coaches
did it intentionally.
I think there was a concern
that we would scare 'em.
Or confuse 'em.
PETTIBONE: We were perceived
to not have enough experience
for the design conversations,
as in what was working
on the boat.
RILEY: There were the guys
trying to take care
of the women.
Like, "No,
don't worry about that."
Like, what are you
talking about?
We felt ignored.
We, as a team,
especially Leslie,
would bring up these issues
with the rudder.
It had a rudder on it that was
so long, it used to flex.
JACKMAN: The rudder
is what steers the boat.
BERGERON: The nickname
of the rudder for Mighty Mary
was the Johnny Holmes. (LAUGHS)
EGNOT: It was the most
difficult boat to sail.
Not getting it going
with help from the rudder here.
BECKER-DEY: This was, "We don't
know what we're doing."
This is how we felt.
We felt like we weren't
being taken seriously.
I think,
especially today, as a woman,
you just walk
into the office and say,
"There's something wrong
with this rudder, fix it."
Back then, if you complained,
you put your neck out,
you have opinions,
hmm... that's not so good.
So we softly say things.
You go, "Hey, I think there's
something wrong with the rudder.
Do you want to check it out?"
And maybe it will happen.
Maybe it won't.
I didn't realize it until I was
sitting in a debriefing room
after we lost a race.
And Leslie said it was
really hard to steer downwind.
The solution was
to cut the rudder down.
Meanwhile, we've lost
a number of races
that we really couldn't
afford to lose.
You know they've been
promised a Ferrari,
and they're just in a Chevrolet
like everybody else.
STEITZ: I expected
another big jump in technology.
MAZZIO: And when you didn't
see that, how did you feel?
(CHUCKLES) Pleasantly surprised.
FETTER:
That's it, guys, good job!
BANKS: In addition to
a radically new boat to learn,
and the uncertainty of who
will be on the final "A" Boat...
RILEY: 1-50!
...there's nothing
like hurricane conditions
to ratchet up
the pressure on Mighty Mary.
(THUNDER RUMBLING)
BANKS: It's wild out there
for Race Number Four.
JACKMAN: Just insane conditions.
EGNOT: Hey, guys,
we gotta be really careful.
MONTGOMERY: The breeze
now up to 14 knots.
It was gnarly out there
on the Pacific Ocean
off Point Loma.
KERR: It was right on the edge
of the conditions
that those boats could handle.
I remember
being in communications
with the race committee,
and telling them not to race
the boats that day.
And I was quite surprised
that they allowed racing
to take place that day.
EGNOT: It's really hard here,
'cause I can't see
the waves or anything.
STEITZ: And in the pre-start,
the main sail came
out of the track.
So I had to go up
and get this sail down,
and I lost my grip.
MONTGOMERY: Stars
& Stripes bowman Ralf Steitz
lost his grip on the mast
and was smashed against
the headsail like a ragdoll.
HENRY: I was terrified for
Ralfie flying around up there.
I mean, if he hits his head
and he's 100 feet
off the ground,
what's gonna happen to him?
And then you just look up
and like,
our guys are tumbling
through the rig,
like, really getting hurt.
And we're just like,
"This... this sucks."
JACKMAN: Stars & Stripes
abandons the race.
FETTER: We still have
to finish the race,
and all of a sudden
there was this loud crash.
(SPLINTERING CRASH)
SWETT: The rest of us
kind of looked at each other
and said,
"That didn't sound good."
Dawn's like,
"I need to go downstairs
and check everything."
So I ran down below
and I'm like, "Fuck!"
All of a sudden, there's water
coming into the boat,
and we're essentially sinking.
"Oh, my God, holy shit,
what are we gonna do?"
I'm like,
"Take the bucket, bail!"
KERR: When we started to bail,
I started thinking
that it's possible this boat
could not make it back.
RILEY: And I was like,
"JJ, we're fucked.
We need to go in."
FETTER: And Dawn Riley says,
"Turn around."
But the weather mark
is just, like, right there,
and all we have to do
is round that weather mark,
and then we get
our seven points.
RILEY: And she is,
to her credit, very calm.
FETTER: It was tough,
'cause here's Dawn,
who has all this experience,
who is saying to me,
"We can't do it."
She's seen legitimate shit
go down that could kill you.
FETTER: And I said,
"We're gonna turn back upwind
and round this mark,
it's just right there!"
RILEY: And she said,
"There's a race to win,
we might be able to get
these points on the board."
And I went, "Oh,
I can keep this boat afloat."
CAREY: "Let's stay out.
Let's get the seven points,"
all day long.
Now, at 55, I might be like,
"Maybe we should go in.
(LAUGHS)
It's really windy out there."
If I had known we were gonna
potentially collapse and go,
I would've jumped off
the dang boat. (LAUGHS)
JACKMAN: Mighty Mary
limps back home with the win.
Meanwhile,
some of the international teams,
who are also racing here
to determine who'll challenge
the winning American boat
after this series is over,
are still out on the course.
MONTGOMERY: Now, about halfway
up Leg Number Three,
and the seas are getting bigger.
KAIKO:
Our design coordinator said,
"Well, what's wrong with you?"
And I said,
"Something's gonna break,
something's gonna happen."
And...and he said, "what's the
worst that could happen?"
MONTGOMERY: There is definitely
a problem aboard oneAustralia.
The boat is turning
into a banana.
The boat had folded in half.
HENRY: Our chase boat came over.
"Hey, you guys think
you had a rough day?
OneAustralia sunk."
I mean, it just opened up
and just... (INHALES)
It was the wildest thing
I'd ever seen in my life.
MONTGOMERY: This is incredible.
Now you see it, now you don't.
We were just so happy that
everyone was okay out of that.
We didn't lose anyone.
We lost a thing.
Great. Could have died. Great.
(LAUGHS) What a bargain.
MAZZIO: (LAUGHS)
You're so dramatic.
KELLY: Here we go,
Mighty Mary, Young America,
what a day it'll be.
BANKS:
The Fourth Round closes out
with a race
against Young America.
But Mighty Mary
continues to act up.
FETTER: Don't trim yet.
(Banks) Her battens, which
are thin pieces of fiberglass
meant to hold
the shape of the sail,
are not inverting
when they're supposed to.
RILEY: Goddammit.
To flip these battens,
you have to send somebody
up the mast
and they have to kick 'em.
BANKS: Up goes Merritt Carey.
BECKER-DEY: Go ahead, Merritt.
RILEY: Go, go!
BECKER-DEY: Try it, try it.
RILEY: Go, go!
JACKMAN: Even with the batten
problem, it's a close race.
BECKER-DEY: I think she's
kicking right at the batten.
JACKMAN: But the women lose.
PRESS REPORTER: First question?
This is not the first time
that those battens
haven't gone over,
why haven't you done
anything about it?
EGNOT: It will be
worked on tomorrow,
and hopefully it will be solved.
BANKS: Currently in last place,
the women's team
has only one week
to get the hang
of their new boat.
If they don't, they'll be
eliminated in the next round.
MOEYERSOMS:
The writing was on the wall,
that we weren't going to go
much further
the way... the way the boat
was being sailed.
ISLER: Those low-point
early rounds are over,
we're getting into crunch time
in the trials.
Slow it down!
MAZZIO: How did you
handle the pressure?
Sometimes not well. (CHUCKLES)
LUCIER: One of us hit
the other person in the face
while bringing down the sail,
and we got up
in a little tussle.
Very close to a fistfight
here or there. Um...
MOEYERSOMS: So, we weren't
ready for the range of emotions
and exchanges
in a team of women.
We had no experience with that.
KOCH: We made a huge mistake.
'Cause I put men in charge
and no women
in the upper management.
That was a mistake.
We should have done that.
PORTER: My greatest weakness
is probably my temper.
I got mad too fast,
impatient too fast.
LEECH: It would be great if I
was able to close my mouth more,
and just, you know,
like, not let
some of the things come out
that sometimes come out.
RILEY: Sometimes
if I just slowed down
and listened to the cues,
I would have a better outcome.
Protest, you fuckers!
That goes for dating, too,
by the way.
PETTIBONE: Sometimes
I don't know when to stop,
and to throttle back.
BALTZELL: A lot of deep
personalities in that team,
a lot of dominant people.
There was a lot of disquiet
in the back of the boat.
FETTER: Mast on, mast on!
BANKS: The back
of the boat consisted
of Leslie Egnot driving,
Courtenay Becker-Dey
navigating...
We're red.
BANKS: ...and JJ Fetter,
driving or as tactician.
ARGO: JJ was really aggressive,
and, uh, Leslie
was always uncomfortable
where JJ wanted to put the boat,
so there was
a little tension there,
which, you know,
caused some indecision.
FETTER: Get it trimmed!
JOBSON: The people that
are in the spotlight the most
are the helmsman
and the tactician.
JJ Fetter is the tactician.
When something goes wrong,
the spotlight is on her.
FETTER: Things are happening
so fast and furious
that you can't talk
someone through it.
We need to get in there
and do maneuvers
and battle our way
for tiny little leads
and act quickly.
JACKMAN:
The challenge here is that,
unlike typical
America's Cup teams,
no skipper had been named.
So no one, not even JJ,
had the authority
to make final split-second
decisions in the heat of battle.
BECKER-DEY:
I don't think management
felt like we needed one person
to be in charge on the boat.
FETTER: Leslie,
are you gonna take it?
Bill didn't want
any tall poppies in the field,
he wanted the team to be based
on everyone being equal
and no one being a skipper.
BECKER-DEY: If you stuck
your head a little bit too high,
you were either taken off
the boat or you were criticized.
PETTIBONE:
And we were never settled
on who was gonna do what.
Is JJ gonna drive? Or Leslie?
That led to this game
of thrones,
like, who's going to be
on the throne?
BECKER-DEY: Oh, (BLEEP)!
LEECH: Oh, I know how
to (bleep) communicate.
I wanna learn about the tactics!
When there's a void
in leadership,
people behave badly.
It's just a fact.
LINDQUIST:
The tension was terrible.
Somebody should have been
installed as the final voice,
and everyone should have
lived with it.
You need one person
making the final call,
or else you get
uncontrolled chaos.
So, that was a mistake.
EGNOT: Come on, guys,
we've got to get the bow down!
Cohesion in the back of the boat
is critical.
There were some days the team
was much more cohesive
than others.
And that they would scramble,
and you could see
the flurry in the afterguard.
SAILOR: Whoa! Oh!
JOSENHANS:
It just wasn't coordinated.
The decibels would go up.
That would be,
"Okay, let's get 'em now."
The fact that we'd not
focused on leadership
was starting to really show up.
EGNOT: Forty-five!
FETTER: How did we do this?
So lame.
EGNOT: It was very difficult.
And in fact, that JJ and I,
we tried to make it work
with the two of us.
But it just didn't gel,
I guess.
For some reason,
it just wasn't working.
MOEYERSOMS:
When you're facing elimination,
you're kind of
grasping for straws,
and you're trying
to find something
that's gonna keep you going
in the next round...
and something
had to be done.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)
PORTER: We usually went
for, like, a mile run
first thing in the morning.
FETTER: The team is heading out.
And Bill Koch taps me
on the shoulder
and said he wanted
to talk to me.
And she got pulled aside,
which I kind of thought was odd.
We were told,
"Go to the gym,
we're gonna have
a private conversation."
I was apprehensive.
I didn't know what was coming.
Last night, we, uh,
made a very tough decision
as you all know,
probably heard about.
Uh, we are rotating, uh,
David Dellenbaugh on the boat,
and we've rotated Leslie off
for this race.
CREW: JJ.
I'm sorry. JJ. Excuse me. JJ.
FETTER: He had said
that he had decided
to replace me with my coach,
Dave Dellenbaugh.
I sure didn't see that coming.
The reason for making
the change, was, uh,
which was an extremely
difficult decision,
was, uh, that we were...
we were losing,
and, uh... (CLEARS THROAT)
...we didn't see
enough dramatic improvement
to have any confidence
that with what we were doing
we could win.
There was a palpable
loss of oxygen in the room
when this was announced.
It was just shocking.
I can tell you that I wanted
to quit that day.
The only reason that we were
as far as we were
was because of JJ.
It was really too bad,
she was the one being punished
for our lack of wins.
She welled up and cried,
and it's hard
not to get emotional
thinking about her
standing up there.
Uh, JJ herself handled it
with, uh, great courage
and strength and she's...
KIRBY: Dave's
an incredible sailor,
but it's like,
you go through all this effort
to have a women's team,
and now you're gonna,
at the last minute,
you know,
throw Santa Claus in there?
Live by the sword,
die by the sword.
WORTHINGTON: We just told
the world we're doing this,
and now we're not doing it?
God damn it, really? Come on.
They don't make it,
they don't make it. So what?
Like, what?
What are we doing?
TOWNLEY: Did we mistake
what the real battle was,
what the real war was?
Was it to win,
or was it to just do this
for the first time,
and do it as well we can?
CAVANAGH: We weren't supposed
to get this far.
Now they want to win.
Why don't you just replace
the whole boat with men?
BECKER-DEY:
I think that management
maybe didn't really
trust us as women
to pull our shit together,
and it's sad
that they didn't believe in us
enough just to try.
We'd been surprising people
all the time,
why not just let us
keep doing it, win or lose?
KEFFER: I wish my
50-something-year-old self now,
was back in the America's Cup
and would raise my hand and say,
"Hey, we're not
doing this right."
I wasn't sure if that was
the right thing to do.
I'm still not sure if that was
the right thing to do.
REPORTER: Question of the day
is why Bill change his mind?
The press crucified us.
REPORTER 2:
A lot of people out there
are gonna see this
as a big deal.
How do you not see this
as a big deal?
REPORTER 3: Bill,
you said you were gonna go
with an all-women's effort,
and it seems like
you've backed off
everything you had talked about.
I probably have to eat
a bit of crow now.
MOEYERSOMS: To this day,
I don't believe
it's a reflection
on JJ's performance.
It's just the fact that we had
a vacuum in leadership,
and somehow
we had to address it.
REPORTER: Why do you need
a man to get around
the America's Cup course?
My point has always been to win.
This is very traumatic,
and I don't think
I have ever seen
a show of strength
and leadership
like I saw in JJ,
as Bill announced this
to the team this morning.
One of the hard things is hoping
that there will be more
opportunities in the future.
And that's, you know,
that's what I don't know.
BECKER-DEY: And then when they
announced that it would be Dave,
there's no better person
in the world
that I'd like to sail with,
if it was a guy,
than Dave Dellenbaugh.
WORTHINGTON: You know,
at the end of the day,
she's getting replaced
by the guy
who won the America's Cup.
JOSENHANS: We had heard rumors
that there was gonna be
a crew change.
When we saw the bearded lady
the first time...
well, that was
a big chuckle.
SHAVER: Hal Sears,
who's our port grinder, he goes,
"I don't know what they're
feeding those chicks over there,
but that one's got
a red beard in the back."
(BOTH LAUGH)
Now you've
really jogged my memory.
SHAVER: And we went,
"Okay, the gloves are off.
Here we go."
SAILOR: Let's go!
KELLY: And the first race
of the Defender Semi-Finals
is under way.
JOBSON:
By the end of this round,
one of these teams
will be eliminated.
DENT: But the big shock
was where a man
was brought on to
the all-woman crew.
FISHER: Mighty Mary has ceased
to be an all-woman crew.
KELLY: America3 is in the lead,
heading to the right side
of the course.
JACKMAN:
For the semi-final round,
the scoreboard resets,
and each win is worth one point.
But Young America,
as winner of the early rounds,
enters with two bonus points.
Stars & Stripes enters with one,
and Mighty Mary with zero.
KELLY: Disaster
for America3 here, Gary.
JOBSON:
The spinnaker has ripped!
The new sail is going up,
so a fairly good recovery
from this disastrous situation.
FISHER:
Closing now on Young America.
BANKS: It's a close race...
JACKMAN: But no cigar.
DENT: Even with a bloke onboard,
the women still lost to PACT 95.
FISHER:
Mighty Mary today, they lost.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
BANKS: Next up, Mighty Mary
takes on Stars & Stripes.
KELLY: What do you think,
Mighty Mary,
is she fast enough to get A3
into the Defender finals?
JOBSON: You can be sure
the design team
is working overtime right now.
BANKS: And the gun smoke
at the finish line
signals the winner...
Mighty Mary!
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
SAILOR: We tied Dennis! (WHOOPS)
KELLY: Stars & Stripes,
Mighty Mary,
it's a must-win for both.
Ease, ease, ease!
KELLY: Ralf Steitz, the man
you saw flying upside down
like a ragdoll is back upright.
ISLER: Halfway up the third leg,
Mighty Mary crossing ahead
of Stars & Stripes.
JOBSON: Now they're only a half
a mile from the finish line,
and there's a protest flag
on Stars & Stripes...
Mighty Mary? Foul.
They'll have to do a penalty
turn before the finish.
RILEY: Three, two, one, gun.
FISHER: A win for Young America.
BANKS: Race number seven
against Young America
is do-or-die for Mighty Mary.
She loses? She goes home.
DELLENBAUGH: Hey, Les,
let's do a fake jibe
with dropping
the pole down, okay?
SAILORS: (SHOUTING) Trim! Trim!
JACKMAN: But she dodges
a bullet to live another day.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES)
JACKMAN:
It's down to a tie-break.
BANKS: Do-or-die.
JACKMAN: Win-or-go-home race
between Mighty Mary
and Stars & Stripes...
BANKS:
To get into the final round.
JACKMAN: So, this race
is for all the marbles.
BANKS: The whole enchilada.
MOEYERSOMS: We've beaten him
twice in this round,
you know what
he's gonna do today.
We can go balls to the wall,
you guys can do it,
we believe in ya,
you will do it.
It's that time again,
everybody come together.
(ALL CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
Who are we? A3.
One, two, three, A3!
ALL: A3
(ALL CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
JOBSON: For the women's team,
here was a chance to eliminate
Dennis Conner, in his home
waters, from the America's Cup.
KELLY: Our ESPN sailing team
welcomes you back,
we are now live
on the racecourse.
MONTGOMERY: PACT 95 syndicate
had qualified for the finals,
while the other place had come
down to a sudden-death race
between the women
on Mighty Mary,
and Dennis Conner's
Stars & Stripes.
BECKER-DEY: We have more speed
than they do!
JOBSON: Mighty Mary is sailing
much faster now.
ISLER: Stars & Stripes
well behind right now.
JOBSON: T.A. McCann
making an adjustment
to the backstay there.
KELLY:
And look who's driving the bus.
ISLER: Leslie Egnot
liking what she sees,
the mark dead ahead of her.
KELLY: Top mark,
righthand side of your screen.
RILEY:
Here we go now, beautiful!
JOBSON: Boy, you know, you look
at the faces of Jim Brady there
and Tom Whidden, T.A. McCann,
they're realizing
that they're simply outclassed.
If this were a football game
right now,
the score would be
40 to zero at halftime,
that's what
this kind of lead is.
Suzy Nairn on the bow,
holding onto the spinnaker pole
going through a tack.
Mighty Mary
by about 12 boat lengths.
RILEY: Hold, hold, hold.
KELLY: Stars & Stripes lumbers
around the fourth mark.
(SAILORS SHOUTING)
JOBSON: But Stars & Stripes
is definitely a lot closer here.
This race is not over yet.
If you look at the two boats
now, they're only separated
by about seven or eight
boat lengths here.
KELLY: And the crew aboard
Stars & Stripes actually
getting back into the race,
look at this!
JOBSON: Mighty Mary fell
into a hole of no wind,
and Dennis Conner,
just about back into it.
KELLY: Huge pickup
by Dennis Conner.
JOBSON: Getting a little
bit more intense now,
as Stars & Stripes
has been moving up here.
Tom Whidden looking around.
KELLY: Looks like
they've dropped back a fair bit.
I think we're gonna see
a lot of emotion
when this boat
crosses the finish line.
(MIGHTY MARY SAILORS WHOOPING)
MIGHTY MARY SAILOR:
We beat the fat man!
ISLER: Well, you gotta be
happy for 'em though, don't ya?
Great race today.
MIGHTY MARY SAILOR: We got 'em!
GARDNER: Guys, I almost had a
fucking heart attack out there.
BECKER-DEY: Oh, shit.
RILEY: We finish,
and it's just jubilation.
(ALL CHEERING)
We were so excited
to have won that race.
BECKER-DEY: We just knocked it
out of the park.
Six minutes lead.
That's huge.
I mean, sorry, Dennis.
You didn't think
we could do it,
but we just showed you
we could do it.
KLYBERT:
We eliminated Dennis Conner
from the America's Cup,
and that's what we came to do.
STEPHAN: How I felt watching
the women kick Dennis' ass
was like watching Princess Leia
take down Darth Vader.
We've slayed the evil empire,
it's crushed forever.
Everybody's got their heads
down on Stars & Stripes.
CAYARD: We thought,
"Oh, my God, we're out.
The girls pushed us out."
I mean,
how are we ever going
to live that down?
It was a sad moment that,
you know,
in essence,
our America's Cup is over.
I mean we were all embarrassed
about losing.
I was glad that
the shit show was over. (LAUGHS)
What a fantastic feeling
to cross the line
over five minutes ahead
of Dennis Conner.
We spanked him,
we totally trounced on him
today, it was fantastic.
TVNZ REPORTER: Um...
we have some news for you guys.
Well, not so fast...
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
JOSENHANS: I smell a rat.
I smell a rat.
Something's wrong.
BECKER-DEY: Gary Jobson comes up
in his media boat,
and he looks at all of us,
and he's like, so confused.
He's like,
"How'd you feel about the race?"
I'm like, "It's amazing!"
"How do you feel about
the three-boat-final?"
I'm like,
"What are you talking about?"
"Didn't you hear
about the deal?"
"No."
And I see
a couple of the women crying,
and I'm like,
"What the hell is going on?"
And I look at Dawn
and she's shaking her head,
and I think,
"Oh, something's up here."
After the race was over,
Dennis told us on the way in
that he had made a deal
with Bill Koch
before the start of that race.
BANKS: That deal,
a secret backroom deal,
initiated by Stars & Stripes,
was apparently struck
in the wee hours of the morning
before that race.
So, behind closed doors,
the fix was in.
JACKMAN: No matter
who would win the do-or-die race
between Mighty Mary
and Stars & Stripes,
both teams would now go through
to the finals
to join Young America.
I mean,
are you fucking kidding me?
JOBSON: Boy, were they in shock.
A deal's been put together,
and all three teams
are going to advance.
That is uncool.
CAREY: I don't think
a lot of people realized
you could do
something like that.
Because... like, what?
I just was like,
"Are you kidding me?"
Like, "They weren't
even a part of this?
They didn't even know?"
We thought
at the end of the race
that, um,
we had eliminated Dennis
and he was out of there.
And you could just read
the headlines
in your mind
across the world saying,
"Dennis Conner eliminated
by the women's team."
It was just the most incredible,
historic moment
I thought
I'd ever participated in.
And when I heard the news
I have to admit, I... I cried.
Am I a zoo animal or something?
Or whatever.
I was so pissed off,
and the TV cameras
are in my face, and I just
dropped the F-bomb so much
to every question
that they asked,
'cause I did not want to be
on camera.
REPORTER: Are...
are you still mad about it?
It'll take some time.
REPORTER: Okay.
WHIDDEN: I went in to Dennis
a few days
before this all came up,
and I said, "I've got an idea."
CONNER: I'm not sure
how it evolved,
but we would've been out.
'Cause we were the third man
on the, uh, totem pole.
JACKMAN: Now, their idea
was to present an offer
to the other teams
that Mighty Mary would enter
the finals with one point,
or the equivalent of one win...
Young America would enter
with two points, or two wins...
and Stars & Stripes,
with zero points,
would not have
to worry about losing.
Imagine trying to pitch that.
It's like, "Hey, I have this
great piece of coal."
You know?
WHIDDEN: I'd learned through
my five previous campaigns
that the America's Cup was more
than just a game of sailing.
It was a game of strategy.
There are ten teams,
eight from overseas,
and two from the United States,
that would like nothing better
to knock me off and win the Cup,
but I still have
a few tricks up my sleeve.
VOGEL: If there was
anybody who knew
how to work a backroom deal,
Dennis would be the person.
MOEYERSOMS: And I got a call
in the middle of the night,
the day before
the final race and saying,
"Are you guys interested
in doing this?"
Bill and Dennis were all in.
You know, they're like,
"Okay, we'll do this."
MOEYERSOMS: The three-way-final
was another way
for all of us to make sure
that we could stay
in the competition
another round,
and hopefully find something
that would make us better
than the other guys.
And we decided, based on math,
that it was
in our best interest.
KOCH: We did
a very careful analysis
and we thought that this
would enhance our probability.
After, um,
carefully analyzing this...
(AUDIENCE LAUGH)
...it was our conclusion that...
you can't fight if you're dead.
(AUDIENCE LAUGH)
JOSENHANS: When we found out
that he somehow was still alive,
it was a painful shock.
KELLY: So what was supposed
to be a winner-goes-on,
loser-goes-home kind of a day
between these two boats,
forget about it.
KARSTEN: Today's race
was billed as do-or-die...
but nobody died!
DENT:
Cup watchers say it's ludicrous.
MCCANN: I felt like,
"This is bullshit!
The rules are the rules, okay,
we lost. Just deal with it."
When backroom deals get made,
it sticks with you forever.
DENT: It's a lucky break
for Dennis Conner.
He would have been eliminated
without today's deal.
CAYARD: There's an elimination
series written up,
it's been there for months,
and on the morning
of the most critical race,
an elimination race,
someone changes the rules.
Only in the America's Cup.
That's not gonna happen in,
you know, the NFL playoffs.
BRADY: The America's Cup has
always been about rich men
manipulating the system
to the best of their ability.
TSUCHIYA: Was this really
out of the ordinary
from the America's Cup? No.
CAYARD: To be fair, the girls
got the full experience,
because they got to see
how the America's Cup works.
MAZZIO: In a brutal fashion.
In an unfortunate way.
TRENKLE: They're just
small pawns in the whole thing.
So, tough shit. (LAUGHS)
BECKER-DEY: We were sold out.
I thought it was bullshit
that he was back.
(SCOFFS) Stabbed in the heart.
Stabbed in the heart.
"Oh, there's going to be
a three-boat-final now
in the defender series
of the America's Cup."
I was like, "Are you kidding?"
Like, "Where did this
come from?"
HUFNAGEL: It made you sick
to your stomach.
I wanted to puke.
It was devastating.
If they really believed
that we could win,
they wouldn't have cut
that deal.
PORTER: It's like, well, did
you have that little confidence?
CAREY: And also,
maybe we were gonna lose.
That's what sport is.
Like, you don't win it always.
And you sure as hell
don't, like,
rearrange the rules!
BECKER-DEY: There are places
throughout the whole campaign
that there was a lack
of confidence
that the women could do it.
Even though we would prove
ourselves and prove ourselves,
they would come back
and do something that was like,
"Hmm, I don't think so."
And this was the ultimate.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
BANKS: The final round
would have been a showdown
between Young America
and Mighty Mary.
But because of the deal,
Young America enters
with two points,
Mighty Mary with one point,
and Stars & Stripes, with zero.
MIGHTY MARY SAILOR:
Tacking here, Merritt.
Come on, come on, come on!
(SAILORS SHOUTING)
(GUN BOOMING)
BANKS: Mighty Mary defeats
Young America by 48 seconds...
and she's now tied for the lead.
JOBSON: Mighty Mary now on
starboard with the right of way,
Stars & Stripes is gonna
have to stay clear here.
MIGHTY MARY SAILOR: Whoa! Flag.
STARS & STRIPES SAILOR:
Flag 'em!
JOBSON: Boy, that looks close!
BECKER-DEY: We're clear,
we're clear.
KELLY: Merritt Carey
up there about
six stories high right now.
SAILOR: Okay.
JOBSON: Gotta give them credit,
they're still fighting,
aren't they?
(HORN BLARING)
STARS & STRIPES SAILOR:
Come up a little.
Protest, protest.
Ah, you're crazy. Get 'em!
JACKMAN: With the teams now
within a point of each other,
it is a dog fight.
On the water... and off.
It was so close
to having carnage on the water,
and we had someone injured.
JOBSON: The pole is broken
aboard Mighty Mary!
I'm trying to be
as aggressive as I can
and win every race I can.
GARDNER: Pulling!
MIGHTY MARY SAILOR: Hard!
I think he's just pushing
the rules too far, really.
It's part of the sport.
Part of the game.
KELLY: Nice gain
on this leg by Mighty Mary.
Another win for Mighty Mary.
JACKMAN: While Mighty Mary
is still in the hunt...
KELLY: Hang ten, Geordie.
...the once dominant
Young America is struggling.
KELLY: The finish line only
about a minute away.
SHAVER: We pretty much were
running away with the thing.
All of a sudden,
we're dead even with everybody,
and we're going like shit.
STARK: We were completely
out of money.
And we're
breaking steering cables,
we're borrowing stuff
from Bill Koch.
JACKMAN:
It's come down to a duel
between Young America
and Mighty Mary.
Race 11 is yet another
sudden-death race.
They're in deep trouble.
A loss today, and Mighty Mary
is home for the holidays.
JOBSON: I like the aggression
of Mighty Mary here,
attacking and attacking,
keep forcing 'em left,
don't let 'em off the hook.
Good chance for a slam dunk
by Mighty Mary
if they do this right.
KELLY: First run downwind.
"Hi, Grams."
JOBSON: Young America
taking the turn very wide.
KELLY: Six-second gain
by Young America.
BECKER-DEY: Give them a little
pressure coming down here.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
BECKER-DEY: Whoo!
We're still alive!
BANKS:
By the end of the final round,
the teams are now tied up.
Amazingly, Mighty Mary
is on the verge
of winning this series
and representing
the United States
in the America's Cup.
She only has to defeat
Stars & Stripes
and then Young America
in her two final races.
Down six.
BANKS: It's on between Stars
& Stripes and Mighty Mary.
There's no backroom deal here.
This... is... it.
MONTGOMERY:
Hello from San Diego.
Where this long drawn out
Defender Series
is about to continue
amidst controversy.
If Dennis Conner wins today,
he goes through to defend
the America's Cup.
DAVIS: Big problems
for Mighty Mary, protest,
protest from Stars & Stripes.
KELLY: And Mighty Mary
with a protest flag.
DELLENBAUGH: No, no jibe.
KELLY: What a surprise,
another green flag.
It's there.
(STARS & STRIPES SAILORS
CHEERING)
EGNOT: We had a great start.
Oh, my God! (WHOOPS)
(LAUGHS)
And we just nailed it.
HENRY: We come off the line,
we're behind.
JOBSON: They're four
boat lengths behind already.
I'm like,
"Okay, let's get after 'em."
And they just sailed away
from us.
There was nothing we could do.
We were well behind.
ISLER: Tell you what,
there's so much gas coming off
the women's sails right now,
they're gonna need
an oxygen mask
on Stars & Stripes!
HENRY: The harder we tried,
the behind-er we got.
They beat us at the start,
they beat us up the first beat.
They beat us down the run.
We were getting annihilated.
PETTIBONE: Little main on.
DAVIS: Two-thirds of the way
through the race.
Mark Number Four, and the women
aboard Mighty Mary
on their way to pulling off
a very, very big win here!
STEITZ: We were getting fucking
hammered by them.
They were so far ahead.
We can barely even see them.
They're so far in front of us.
DAVIS: Three minutes,
51 seconds,
from 00:48 to 3:31,
a gain of nearly three minutes.
STEITZ: It was like,
"Holy smokes, this is not good."
DENT: Stars & Stripes
is certainly looking gloomy,
and I mean,
three minutes on one leg.
At the last mark, they were
quarter of a mile ahead.
JOBSON: Mighty Mary has
a huge lead at the final mark.
Only three miles to go
to the finish line.
MONTGOMERY: The fifth and final
mark of this crucial race.
Things are looking
very ugly for Dennis Conner.
We were so far behind.
It was over.
This Cup is over.
TSUCHIYA: A delta of
four minutes, three seconds,
which is an eternity
in the America's Cup.
MONTGOMERY: Nothing they can do.
WHIDDEN: My son got a call
from his mother who was watching
the race, and she goes,
"Are you watching?"
And he said, "No, I gave up."
We're like, "Oh, my God...
we're gonna eliminate
Dennis Conner."
MONTGOMERY: The man that has
dominated America's Cup racing
for the last 20 years,
four minutes
and eight seconds behind...
SOWRY:
So Mighty Mary on the run home.
It seems that time has run out
now for Team Dennis Conner.
They were so far ahead that,
when we got to the mark,
our only choice
was to go the other way.
CAYARD: Ready T.A.?
KELLY: 4-08.
CAYARD: Here we go.
DC jibed away and then
both boats just split
all the way to the corners.
BECKER-DEY: One-nine-five.
Ten on starboard, 11-50 on port.
Seems a little odd.
CAYARD: We got pressure
behind, were we in
pressure or no?
We're almost matching.
Things are...
And all of a sudden,
the wind sort of just died.
CAREY: And everything starts
happening in slow motion.
Like you're underwater,
like you can't breathe.
BECKER-DEY:
Okay, let's get her going here.
EGNOT: We weren't moving at all.
And it's really difficult
to maneuver a boat
through something like a jibe
when you are not moving.
You get this feeling
in your stomach
like you want to throw up,
and you're like,
"We got to jibe now.
We got to go!"
SOWRY: Personally, I would
like to see America3 jibe here
and get more directly between
Stars & Stripes
and that finish line.
JACKMAN: Jibing is a maneuver
to change direction
when heading downwind.
But trying to jibe with no wind
can be like slamming
the brakes on 55,000 pounds.
It is so difficult
to get moving again.
HENRY: They didn't jibe,
which kind of left
the door open a little bit,
but we're four and a half
minutes behind at this point.
(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)
BANKS: With no wind,
both boats
are dead in the water.
JOBSON: Nerve-wracking
as the wind dies.
BANKS: But then...
the tiniest bit of wind appears.
JACKMAN: On Dennis's
side of the course.
BANKS: Of course.
JACKMAN: Of course.
And a little breeze
starts coming in.
We're like,
"Hey, this is kind of, like,
a little something here."
LUCIER: Dennis started
marching down the racecourse.
DAVIS: It does appear as though
Dennis Conner
might have picked up
a little bit of time
so far in this final leg.
ISLER: Dave Dellenbaugh
has to be kicking himself
for not covering
around that top mark.
SOWRY: Just in a matter
of a few hundred meters,
this race
has changed dramatically.
And you just watched them
start getting closer and closer.
JOBSON: Dennis Conner
is closing up
within four boat lengths,
can you believe this?
All of a sudden,
we are within a boat length.
And we had a batten failure.
RILEY: Goddammit.
BECKER-DEY: It's not good.
RILEY: And it's a shitshow.
STARS & STRIPES SAILOR: They've
got a really bad jibe, guys!
Quiet, guys.
STEITZ: We were so close
to the women,
you basically saw
their disbelief on their faces.
FERRIGNO:
And I'll never forget T.A.
just looking at me, and goes,
"You know,
I never really believed in God,
but this is unbelievable."
(LAUGHS)
And one of my teammates says
in a very light voice,
"We're back!"
"We are back!"
"We're back!" (LAUGHS)
JOBSON:
For the first time in the race,
Stars & Stripes takes the lead!
(SIGHS)
KIRBY: Shit.
D.C. and the Death Star...
when we're almost home!
SOWRY: Dennis Conner,
he's come back from the dead!
And then our spinnaker breaks.
ISLER: Their sail's exploded.
They have ripped their gennaker!
DENT: Unbelievable.
So yet another dagger,
it's like, "Oh, no."
And what looked
to be an amazing,
you know, comeback
is looking not so good.
DAVIS: Is this going to get
the women off the hook?
JOBSON: Mighty Mary on the left
is gaining once again.
We just all were like, "Fuck!"
STARS & STRIPES SAILOR:
Cut it. Cut it away!
STARS & STRIPES SAILOR 2:
Let it go.
KELLY:
And it looks to our eye, Peter,
almost dead even right now,
doesn't it?
ISLER: Bad jibe maneuver
by Stars & Stripes.
JOBSON:
This race isn't over yet.
Mighty Mary going faster
on the left.
DELLENBAUGH: Come on, you guys.
SOWRY: This is
a dead-even boat race.
DELLENBAUGH: Jibe.
Get a jibe now.
DAVIS: There's a one-meter
advantage to America3.
Unbelievable.
ISLER: Mighty Mary
is still making ground
down towards the finish line.
("IN THE HALL OF THE
MOUNTAIN KING" PLAYING)
KOCH: Come on, please, come on.
STARS & STRIPES SAILOR:
Come on, drop the halyard!
JOBSON: And at this point,
it's anybody's race
as they near the finish.
(HORN BLARING)
SOWRY: Stars & Stripes
will defend the America's Cup
for the United States in 1995.
REPORTER: Look at these guys!
Look at them!
STEITZ: Nobody,
even on our boat,
we couldn't believe it.
Oh, rats.
STARS & STRIPES SAILOR:
Good fucking race, you guys.
Good race.
All of a sudden
you're just like... (GASPS)
Like, I don't have words,
really.
It was, um,
it was quite emotional.
It was pretty devastating.
Oh, that's an understatement.
It was crushing.
Four minutes and 30 (BLEEP)
seconds behind.
Here it is!
(ALL CHEERING)
FERRIGNO: When we finished,
we were so happy.
It honestly is a testament
to how good
the women had become.
They... they pushed us
every day.
They were
formidable competitors.
We got a lucky break, frankly.
If it was a normal windy race,
Mighty Mary would've won.
And I've thought about
the last race, many, many,
many times in the last 30 years.
VOGEL: For this new,
young upstart team,
who are just starting
sailing together,
new to the America's Cup,
to go as far as they did,
and trounce him, was huge.
Absolutely enormous.
So, I was very proud of them
for what they accomplished.
It was that close
to the girls defending the Cup.
The three-way-final
was an insurance policy
for all of us,
and the premium
was... was expensive.
I believe
it's the worst decision
that I had ever been
involved in.
MAZZIO:
Isn't there a lesson here?
Yeah, there's a lesson.
Never let D.C. back
in the regatta.
What do you mean?
"Is there a lesson?"
Yeah. Don't let
people back in that lost.
That's what I would
say is the lesson.
MAZZIO: Having lost
so dramatically,
almost six minutes,
how do you feel about the deal?
I feel fantastic.
(CHUCKLES) That's how
I feel about the deal.
MAZZIO: Why ever
let him back in the game?
His boat was slow.
We... we were actually
more concerned
about Mighty Mary.
The entire team
did an outstanding job,
far beyond
anybody's expectations.
We'll walk out of here
with our heads very high.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
Racing Mighty Mary proved
to do away all my stigmas
about what women
can do and can't do.
They proved to be as competitive
on the water as anybody.
CAYARD: And so we in '95,
we the men, they the women,
all together
were living that change,
and that different idea
about who could actually race
in the America's Cup.
Oh, there it is.
Where's the other one?
We need the one with...
CAYARD: It's a constant
evolution for men to be current,
and be respectful,
and evolve away
from what our fathers
were teaching us,
into what our sons are learning.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
BECKER-DEY: I think as a team,
we grew and gelled,
not overnight.
It was a long process
that took the whole year to do.
We lived together,
we ate together,
we trained together,
we sailed together,
we cried together.
Right. Keep going a little more.
BRAUER: And these women did
the hardest thing
you could possibly do.
They broke that glass ceiling.
Now, it's our responsibility,
it's our privilege,
to do whatever it takes
to keep that door open.
KERR: I think it's really
important to be able to see
other women doing
exceptional things,
to feel that you have hope to do
exceptional things yourself.
To have a team of women
go up and beat Dennis
is, like, a pretty
spectacular achievement,
not just for winning
any given race,
you're winning against
all of these years of history
and legacy of the Cup,
and to set that new standard
is pretty incredible.
KLYBERT: What matters truly
is the experiences we had,
what we bring with us today,
and the fact that, mmm,
we eliminated Dennis Conner
from the America's Cup.
CONNER: These women
were to be respected.
They were a tough,
dedicated group of people...
that I really admired.
BANKS: But wait, there's more.
(MELLOW INSTRUMENTAL PLAYING)
(MUSIC FADES)
JACKMAN: They're back.
(MUSIC CONTINUES)
So, it is currently 9:19,
so we have about ten minutes
for Temptation to get ready
and start walking down
to the dock,
Wizard will just be about
15 minutes behind that.
(SAILORS LAUGHING)
Oh, ladies! Don't get old.
GARDNER: Oh, I hope you do.
'cause the alternative is...
(BOAT RADIO CHATTER)
LEVY: Let's reload
the cab real quick,
from the stern.
RILEY: Whoa! Hello!
GARDNER: We want to
start ahead, stay ahead.
Try to hold 'em off downwind.
SAILOR: I'll be right here.
We'll wait and see...
He's footing through.
SAILOR: All right.
RACHLIN: (OVER RADIO)
Competitors,
competitors, competitors.
Wizard will be blue!
RILEY: Shit!
RACHLIN: Oh, pardon me,
Wizard will be yellow!
(RILEY LAUGHS)
There we go!
RACHLIN: You are yellow!
SLAYTER: Fuckin' freight train,
look at this thing.
STEPHAN: Fuck, that boat's fast.
Keep it up, keep it up,
keep it up!
Hey
SAILOR: Oh, let's go!
(ALL SAILORS SHOUT)
BALTZELL: Come on, come on,
you guys, come on, you guys,
come on, you guys,
come on, you guys!
Yeah, we have
a long fuckin' way to go.
Come on, you guys.
MAZZIO: Dawn,
did we win that start?
RILEY: Yes.
MCCANN: More pump in three,
more pressure coming.
GARDNER: We're still faster.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Yeah, yeah, oh
BECKER-DEY: We're just
a boat a half above them,
and half a boat length ahead.
We beat them.
(SAILORS CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
Oh
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
DELLENBAUGH: If I could just
tell you about a couple things
that happened, Wizard
came around behind Temptation.
Remember that? Yeah, Amy?
BALTZELL: So, you know
I'm a grinder
I don't know much about sailing,
but I never understood
that last race,
how we could be
so far ahead and lose.
(ALL LAUGH)
DELLENBAUGH:
I've regretted that race,
and I've thought about it
a thousand times.
The wind was dying,
but, you know,
in hindsight,
if we knew
what the wind was gonna do,
maybe we'd go down,
go halfway, and jibe here.
But if we guessed wrong
and the wind came
from over here,
we're giving up a bit of risk.
MCCANN: I remember
all of us sitting
in the middle of the boat
on that first jibe,
starting to plan our summer.
We were all like,
"Oh, we're definitely lost."
(SAILOR LAUGHS)
Total luck.
I'm so glad
that you asked that,
and, for me, personally,
may have been right,
may have been wrong.
It makes more sense, you know?
Makes more sense.
MAC: The fix was in.
(ALL LAUGH)
There were fixes
that we didn't know about
that y'all knew about.
Just saying. So...
That was
a little bit of a shocker.
I wish that race never happened.
Should've been a two-boat final,
us racing either you or Dennis.
But our management got involved,
and we ended up
with the short end of the stick.
And then the whole negotiation,
and three-boat-final,
that came after.
MAC: It was on WhatsApp.
(ALL LAUGH)
SAILOR: So far, so good.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SAILOR 2: Oh, yes.
SAILOR 3: So this is...
Dennis, this is Dennis!
Oh, yeah.
KEFFER:
Did he go around the world?
PETTIBONE: Yeah.
Well, not the whole race.
Aw!
MCCANN: One, two, three,
say, "Yoplait!"
ALL: (LAUGH) Yoplait!
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
Oh
Hey
Oh
Hey
Hey
Oh, oh
Hey
Oh
Hey
Hey
Oh
Hey
Hey
Whoa
Hey
Whoa, yeah
Oh
Hey
Whoa
Hey
Whoa, oh, oh, whoa
Hey, hey
Hey, hey
Hey, hey
Yeah
Hey, hey
Hey, hey
Hey, hey
Hey, hey
Yeah, hey, hey
Yeah, hey, hey
Yeah, oh
Hey
Oh, yeah
Hey
Hey
Yeah
Hey
Yeah
Hey
Oh, oh, oh
Yeah
Hey
Hey
Yeah
Hey
Oh, yeah
Oh, whoa
Yeah, oh, oh, oh
Hey
Whoa
(MUSIC CONCLUDES)
(WATER GURGLING)