Thirty years on, the story of the first all-women crew to challenge for the America's Cup is finally getting a New Zealand airing.
Mighty Mary, the documentary charting that 1995 campaign, will have its New Zealand premiere at Takapuna Beachside Cinemas next month. The black-tie fundraiser is being hosted by the New Zealand Sailing Trust in collaboration with Lawson's Dry Hills and Takapuna Beachside Cinemas, with the screening set for 6pm on Tuesday 3 November.
Two guests of honour will attend: Leslie Egnot, the Kiwi skipper who led the Mighty Mary campaign, and Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Erica Dawson. Proceeds from ticket sales go to the New Zealand Sailing Trust.
The film has already had a strong run offshore. Narrated by Elizabeth Banks and Hugh Jackman, and directed by Olympian and award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, it traces an audacious campaign that started with nothing more than an advertisement in The New York Times. Women across the United States responded, including one applicant memorably pictured flexing in a bikini beside a cactus.
What emerged from that call-out was a genuinely remarkable crew. World-class and Olympic sailors sat alongside Olympic rowers, a deaf sailor and a Native Hawaiian sailor. The team also brought on the first African American sailor to win an America's Cup race, who joined as a coach.
Plenty wrote the campaign off early as a publicity stunt. It wasn't. The crew went on to eliminate Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes from contention, only for a backroom deal the night before the race to upend that result, according to the film.
Egnot is the heart of it. She grew up in Christchurch after her family moved to New Zealand when she was ten, and by 1995 she was skippering Bill Koch's Mighty Mary into the challenger final, pushing Conner through a genuinely compelling series.
She'd already proven herself among the world's best. Egnot won silver in the women's 470 class with Jan Shearer at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, finishing behind Spain's Theresa Zabell and Patricia Guerra after recovering from a disqualification in the opening race to climb from fourth to second overall, sealing it with a win in the final race.
Her involvement in sailing didn't stop at the start line. She went on to work as a contracted coach with Yachting New Zealand and later as the organisation's Olympic Operations Manager, staying involved in the sport long after her own competitive days ended.
The reviews for Mighty Mary have been strong. USA Today called it "inspired", and the film picked up the Maria Mitchell Visionary Award at the 2026 Nantucket Film Festival before opening in US cinemas on 11 September.
The New Zealand premiere also lands at an interesting moment for the Cup itself. The 38th edition launched in Naples on 21 September, with a signature event featuring Mighty Mary as part of the occasion. A woman is now guaranteed to win the next America's Cup as part of an AC75 crew, which makes the film's themes of opportunity and representation feel far from historical.
For Takapuna, it's a chance to mark Egnot's place in New Zealand sailing history, and to put money back into the next generation of sailors coming through the New Zealand Sailing Trust.
