America's Cup

America's Cup, sailing's most important competition as well as the oldest continuously held event in international sport. The name is that of the event's trophy, a silver ewer originally called ‘the Squadron Cup’, or (referring to its cost) ‘the £100 Cup’ or ‘Hundred Guinea Cup’. It was first awarded in 1851 by the Royal Yacht Squadron to the winner of a race around England's Isle of Wight. It came to be called by the name of the American schooner yacht America, which first won it. Since then there have been 31 contests for it, held between 1870 and 2003.

When the surviving members of America's syndicate donated the trophy to the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) they ruled in the deed of gift that it was to belong to the club which won it, and that it was to be ‘perpetually a Challenge Cup for friendly competition between foreign countries’. Races occur when the yacht club that holds the Cup is challenged by a yacht club from another country. Since 1871 it has been a match race, that is, between two competitors only.

Traditionally, the competition was always sailed in the largest boats of the time—some of them 27.5 metres (90 ft) on the waterline—and was held in waters of the defender's choice. A ‘mutual consent’ provision encourages the defender and challenger to negotiate many of the conditions, such as the type of boat, the number of races to be sailed, and the maximum wind strength so as not to damage the boats, many of which have been fragile. It is because of the simple, flexible structure of its rules that the America's Cup has thrived for so many years.

In the first challenge, in 1870, James Ashbury, an Englishman, had to face a fleet of yachts in a single race, just as America had done, though he had argued for a match race. He came tenth on corrected time and when he challenged again in 1871 the Americans relented and agreed to a match race—though in the best-of-seven series they claimed the right to have more than one defending yacht. Ashbury did win one race, but lost the other four against two different boats. From that time there was only one defending yacht.

After two Canadian challenges, Britain challenged thirteen times from 1885 to 1958. In the event's low point, in 1895, the challenger, the Earl of Dunraven, charged the NYYC with cheating. Bad feelings hung over the event until 1899, when Sir Thomas Lipton, a genial Scots-Irish food and tea merchant, issued the first of his five challenges. An exemplar of the rule that grand events attract grandiose personalities, Lipton came close to winning in 1901 and 1920 but none of his five Shamrock challengers managed to take home what he called ‘the auld mug’.

Between 1930 and 1937 the matches were sailed in the high-tech J-class yachts as large as 41.8 metres (137 ft) on deck. But they cost too much for a world impoverished by war and in 1956 the deed of gift was altered to permit the largest international metre class boat then sailing, the 12-metre, to be used. About 20 metres (65 ft) long, they had crews of eleven, most of them amateur. The NYYC beat the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1958, then met an Australian challenge in 1962. In this, their first try, the Australians won one race and came close to taking a second. They subsequently challenged regularly, often with very fast boats. The Americans kept winning because their teams were better organized, their boats were better sailed, and their crews were more familiar with the waters off Newport, RI, where the races were moved in 1930.

From 1970 the NYYC permitted multiple challenges from two or more foreign yacht clubs. Because all the challenging clubs underwent lengthy elimination trials while racing for the Louis Vuitton Cup, even a losing team gained experience at Newport. In 1983 a challenger finally won, beating the NYYC's defending yacht. Australia II, owned by Alan Bond, was faster than Dennis Conner's Liberty, in part due to an ingenious winged keel. Conner had already won the Cup twice before this bitterly fought series came down to the final race for the second time in cup history—the first was in 1920—and the Australians came from behind to win. Four years later Conner, representing the San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) of California, earned the right to challenge and won the first America's Cup match held outside the United States, at Fremantle, Western Australia.

Feelings have always run high in the America's Cup, but mutual consent about the conditions for a match did not collapse until 1988. This led to legal action and a bizarre mismatch between a 36.6-metre (120-ft) overall keel boat from New Zealand and Conner's much faster catamaran, which won easily. After more legal action, yacht designers developed the new International America's Cup Class of 24.4-metre (80-ft) sloops, and in 1992 the new design was used when SDYC's defending yacht, sailed by Bill Koch and Buddy Melges, defeated the Italian challenger. Three years later New Zealand, the world's most successful sailing nation in the late 20th century, beat Conner in a dominating performance by Russell Coutts and his team. When racing resumed at Auckland in 2000, Coutts defended successfully against Italy.

Year	Challenging yacht	Defending yacht	Result
1870	Cambria, s. (England)	Magic, s. (USA)	defender 1–0
1871	Livonia, s. (England)	Columbia, s. (USA)	defender 3–0
		Sappho, s. (USA)	defender 2–0
1876	Countess of Dufferin, s. (Canada)	Madeleine, s. (USA)	defender 2–0
1881	Atalanta, sl. (Canada)	Mischief, cut. (USA)	defender 2–0
1885	Genesta, cut. (England)	Puritan, cut. (USA)	defender 2–0
1886	Galatea, cut. (England)	Mayflower, cut. (USA)	defender 2–0
1887	Thistle, cut. (Scotland)	Volunteer, cut. (USA)	defender 2–0
1893	Valkyrie II, cut. (England)	Vigilant, cut. (USA)	defender 3–0
1895	Valkyrie III, cut. (England)	Defender, cut. (USA)	challenger disqualified
1899	Shamrock I, cut. (N. Ireland)	Columbia, cut. (USA)	defender 3–0
1901	Shamrock II, cut. (N. Ireland)	Columbia, cut. (USA)	defender 3–0
1903	Shamrock III, cut. (N. Ireland)	Reliance, cut. (USA)	defender 3–0
1920	Shamrock IV, cut. (N. Ireland)	Resolute, cut. (USA)	defender 3–2
1930	Shamrock V, sl. (N. Ireland)	Enterprise, cut. (USA)	defender 4–0
1934	Endeavour, sl. (England)	Rainbow, cut. (USA)	defender 4–2
1937	Endeavour II, sl. (England)	Ranger, cut. (USA)	defender 4–0
1958	Sceptre, 12‐m sl. (England)	Columbia, 12‐m sl. (USA)	defender 4–0
1962	Gretel, 12‐m sl. (Australia)	Weatherly 12‐m sl. (USA)	defender 4–1
1964	Sovereign, 12‐m sl. (England)	Constellation, 12‐m sl. (USA)	defender 4–0
1967	Dame Pattie, 12‐m sl. (Australia)	Intrepid, 12‐m sl. (USA)	defender 4–0
1970	Gretel II, 12‐m sl. (Australia)	Intrepid, 12‐m sl. (USA)	defender 4–1
1974	Southern Cross, 12‐m sl. (Australia)	Courageous, 12‐m sl. (USA)	defender 4–0
1977	Australia, 12‐m sl. (Australia)	Courageous, 12‐m sl. (USA)	defender 4–0
1980	Australia, 12‐m sl. (Australia)	Freedom, 12‐m sl. (USA)	defender 4–1
1983	Australia II, 12‐m sl. (Australia)	Liberty, 12‐m sl. (USA)	challenger 4–3
1987	Stars and Stripes, 12‐m sl. (USA)	Kookaburra III, 12‐m sl. (Australia)	challenger 4–0
1988	New Zealand, sl. (New Zealand)	Stars and Stripes, cat. (USA)	defender 4–0
1992	Il Moro di Venezia, IACC (Italy)	America 3, IACC (USA)	defender 4–1
1995	Black Magic, IACC (New Zealand)	Young America, IACC (USA)	challenger 5–0
2000	Luna Rossa, IACC (Italy)	Black Magic, IACC (New Zealand)	defender 5–0
2003	Alinghi, IACC (Switzerland)	Team New Zealand IACC (New Zealand)	challenger 5–0

Despite costs as high as $US60 million a team, the Cup was more popular than ever, with international television coverage of months of elimination races between boats from half a dozen countries crewed in most cases by international teams of professional sailors supported by commercial sponsors. With the stakes rising, many top people on the superb 1995 and 2000 New Zealand boats were recruited by other teams. They included Coutts and his key people, who joined the Alinghi team from Switzerland that easily beat the New Zealand defender in 2003.

All previous Cup winners had represented yacht clubs and nations fronting on the sea, but Switzerland's Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) qualified because it held its annual regatta on salt water, on the Mediterranean. The Swiss defenders chose to hold the next series of Cup races at Valencia, Spain, in 2007. The first Cup regatta to be held off Continental Europe, the 32nd match is expected to be even more closely followed than the previous matches in the America's Cup's almost 160-year history.

John Rousmaniere