America's Cup History

By Hamish Ross, Alinghi General Counsel and America's Cup

The America's Cup is a symbol of yachting supremacy. Winning the America's Cup is one of the most difficult sporting accomplishments possible, and it took 132 years before the trophy was wrestled from the New York Yacht Club in 1983.

The Cup itself was made in 1848 by Garrards of London who were, at the time, the Royal Jewellers. The Cup was one of several identical cups made at the time. It languished at Garrards, unsold, for several years until it was purchased by the Royal Yacht Squadron as a trophy for a special race held in the year of the Great Exhibition of 1851 held in London. Now, it is a priceless sporting treasure.

A syndicate of 5 members of the New York Yacht Club built and sailed a schooner they called America to Britain where it entered the Royal Yacht Squadron's race which was open to all nations but in fact was only raced by America and other yachts of the Royal Yacht Squadron. America convincingly won the race and took the Cup home to New York amongst great acclaim.

Several years later, the syndicate gifted the Cup to the New York Yacht Club as a trophy for friendly competition between yacht clubs of foreign countries and the Club then invited the eminent yacht clubs of Europe to compete. In time, the Cup became known as the "America's Cup".

The advent of the Crimean War involving several European nations including Britain, and later the American Civil War, was largely responsible for a lack of challengers.