History of America's Cup

The 100 Guineas Trophy

The America's Cup started life in 1851 as the 100 Guinea Trophy, donated to the Royal Yacht Squadron as the prize for a race around the Isle of Wight. Donated by the Marquis of Anglesey, the sterling silver ewer was made by the Royal jeweller, Garrards.

At the time, the British Empire was in its prime, in large part a result of the nation's supremacy at sea. Britannia did indeed rule the waves. But as the British celebrated Victorian achievements at the Great Exhibition that year, there were those in the New World, America, who aimed to take them down a peg.

Interest was intense when the schooner America, designed to be the fastest yacht afloat, crossed the Atlantic to take on the best of British. The outcome was humiliating for the hosts, America beating 15 British yachts to take away the cup, which was know thereafter as America's Cup, named for the yacht, not the country.

Now, more than 150 years later, the British would still like to return the cup to its original home although in 2007 there will not be a British challenger. In the first 114 years, 16 British challengers crossed the Atlantic to tackle the defending New York Yacht Club, so unsuccessfully that they managed to win just six races out of 54. The format changed from time to time, but the outcome was always the same: defeat for the challenger.

America waives the rules

The New York Yacht Club was shameless in its determination to win at all costs, constantly stacking the rules in favour of the defender, drawing accusations of cheating and bad sportsmanship from the likes of James Ashbury (1870 and 1871) and Lord Dunraven (1893 and 1895). The New Yorkers were not averse to asking the challenger to take on a whole fleet, rather than a single defender.

Yet the British approach was often less than hard-nosed and always amateur. When William Henn challenged in 1886, his yacht Galatea was laden with rugs, pot plants, mirrors and curtains, and the complement included Henn's wife, a pet dog and a monkey. A far cry from the stripped down lightweight racing machines of today. Dunn was easily beaten 2-0, by brand new defenders.

Sir Thomas Lipton

In the twentieth century, a new breed of self-made men entered the fray from the British side. Grocer and tea magnate Thomas Lipton was not granted membership of the exclusive Royal Yacht Squadron until the age of 80, after he had mounted 5 campaigns in the name of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club. He described his failure to win in campaigns stretching from 1899 to 1930, as the greatest disappointment of his life. But he also attributed his long life to the cup, which he said had kept him "young, eager, buoyant and hopeful".

America's defenders were hugely wealthy, ruthless and utterly determined. Steel baron John Pierpont Morgan was one of the richest men in the world, while Henry Vanderbilt, credited with bringing the management of a racing yacht into the modern era, reputedly made the British look like amateurs during the 1930s.

Decline of the British

The last pre-war challenges came from aircraft manufacturer T.O.M Sopwith, who was beaten twice, in 1934 and 1937, before the modern era of multiple challenges began. The challengers now had to sail an elimination series, as they do today, and with the introduction of the 12-metre class rule in 1958, they also had to sail boats of a similar style. These changes greatly reduced the defender's advantage, and ultimately brought an end to the longest winning streak in sporting history.

During this period, the British influence also began to wain, with the rise of Australian challengers, including Sir Frank Packer, who was prominent with two unsuccessful Gretel campaigns. At least Packer won his elimination series. Baron Bich, who made his fortune selling the Bic biro, made four attempts from 1970 to 1980, but never managed to even challenge for the Cup.

Ted and Dennis dominate the defence

During the 70s and 80s, two highly combative Americans dominated the defence. First Ted Turner, the "Mouth from the South", and later Dennis Conner ensured that the Cup stayed in the cabinet at the New York Yacht Club. CNN founder Turner reportedly downed two bottles of rum after winning 4-0 in 1977 and passed out cold under the table at the media conference.

Conner brought modern professionalism to the Cup, along with a methodical hard-working approach that worked superbly well for him until he came up against Alan Bond and Australia II equipped with a radical new winged keel.

The Aussies break the mould

Millionaire Alan Bond was making his fourth bid for the cup in 1983. His boat's winged keel was fast, but he outgunned the New York Yacht Club's efforts to ban it, and his sailors came from 1-3 behind to win the decider and take the Cup home to Fremantle. Conner judged it "the race of the century", and set about planning to win the Cup back.

Bond himself was eliminated from the defence in 1986, when Kevin Parry won the right in Kookaburra. But they were no match for Conner, who beat KZ7 in the Louis Vuitton series and then downed Kookaburra to win back the Cup and take it to a new home in San Diego.

The rest is recent history. In 1988, Sir Michael Fay's challenge in the majestic "big boat" KZ1 came to grief when the crafty Conner defended in a lightning fast catamaran, with the outcome subject to lengthy and acrimonious legal battles in America.

In 1992, the Kiwis were back and the contest was between yachts of a new kind, the bigger, faster International America's Cup Class. New Zealand's Bruce Farr designed NZL20 was beaten by the Italian Il Moro di Venezia in the Louis Vuitton Cup, and the Italians in turn were defeated by the defenders, Bill Koch's America3.

The New Zealand era

In 1995, Dennis Conner, eliminated from the previous defence, won the right to defend against Team New Zealand, who had defeated One Australia for the Louis Vuitton Cup. Conner's Stars and Stripes was defeated 5-0, earning him the dubious honour of being the only American to lose the America's Cup, and not once but twice. The victors, Team New Zealand, returned to a rapturous ticker tape parade in their home town, Auckland, and the Cup found a new pride of place at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

In 2000, Team New Zealand did what the Australians could not and became the first syndicate outside America to successfully defend the Cup. The Kiwis beat the Italian Prada challenge 5-0, to set up the 31st Defence in February 2003.

In 2003, ten challengers fought for the right to take on Team New Zealand. The elimination series, the Louis Vuitton Cup, was won by the Swiss Challenge Alinghi, in a final against a US challenger Oracle.

In the America’s Cup regatta, Team New Zealand was beaten 5 - 0 and the America’s Cup returned to Europe for the first time since 1851.