As a thick blanket of fog settled over the harbor Sunday, sailors — many decked out in bright pink — boarded their boats and sailed to the mouth of Marblehead Harbor for the fifth annual Fast Mermaid Pursuit Race. Twenty-four boats from the North and South shores competed to celebrate the remarkable resilience of Marblehead sailor Lindsay Smith and financially support her recovery.
The five-mile pursuit race was created to help financially support Smith’s treatment and recovery, after she survived three gunshot wounds to her head in an act of domestic violence in 2021. It’s been a long road to recovery for Smith, who has worked tirelessly in physical therapy to reclaim her mobility. Sailing has been a lifelong passion for Smith, who spent many summers sailing at Pleon and works at Doyle Sails in Salem. Before the race, she spoke with the Current about the support she received from the tight-knit Marblehead sailing community during her recovery, and the source of strength it has been.
“To see the community supporting me is just beyond words,” said Smith. “It’s amazing that this has been the most well-attended pursuit race of the summer every year since it started. And I think people like to come out for a cause and it’s a fun race, it’s only about 5 miles, so it’s short and sweet.”
The sailboats participating ranged from about 20 to 50 feet. In the pursuit race, the smaller, slower boats started first, followed by the faster boats. Sunday’s conditions almost kept the fleet ashore, though; thick fog settled over the harbor on Sunday morning right before the scheduled start, forcing race organizers to weigh whether visibility was sufficient.
“The conditions were kind of foggy at the beginning,” organizer Jack Cochrane
said. “So it was a question of whether it was safe to race or not.” He made the final decision to let the race go forward at noon, just an hour before the race commenced, as the fog lifted just enough to allow for a safe race. Visibility was certainly still a big challenge for the sailors though, as they could only see about 100 yards ahead through the thick fog. The sailors relied on electronic navigational tools to guide them through the course.
“It was very much a navigator’s race,” said Cindy Smith, Lindsay’s mother, who sailed on Africa B Squad with her husband and daughter.
This year, Smith was out on the water, sailing with her parents, Cindy and Jud Smith on the Africa B Squad, which finished first in the spinnaker class. Jud, a 10-time world champion sailor, introduced his daughter to sailing at a young age, and she spent much of her youth crewing alongside him.
“It’s fun to go with him because you’ll probably win,” she said.
In the jib and main division, Peter Engel’s Goldeneye finished first, followed by W. Hundahl’s Stag in second and Christopher Lubeck’s Man of War in third. Behind the Smith’s Africa B Squad, Allen Breed’s INDRA placed second and Dan Rabin’s Virgo placed third.
For Smith, the biggest victory was being able to reflect on how far she has come in her long and challenging road to recovery, and seeing the support of her sailing community behind her.
“The sailing community here has rallied around me in a way that I could never imagine,” said Smith. “I started getting letters from other club members here when I was in the hospital, and they were very supportive, and I caught a tear or two embracing the support of my fellow sailors”
Smith wants to show, through telling her story, how devastating domestic violence can be, and how our community can do more to call it out and prevent it.
“One of the best things about this event is just for a community like this to recognize that domestic violence does not discriminate,” said Smith. “It can happen to any of us. In general, people need to start getting better at recognizing signs of domestic violence so that they can intervene before it’s too late.”
