Episode Details

The oldest continuous trophy in international sport is a bottomless sterling silver ewer made by Garrard & Co. in London in 1848. Henry William Paget, first Marquess of Anglesey, bought it and gave it to the Royal Yacht Squadron as the prize for its 1851 race around the Isle of Wight, where the New York Yacht Club schooner America beat 15 British yachts as Queen Victoria watched. Valued at 100 pounds, it was engraved with an error, then renamed for the winning schooner, and sailors still call it the Old Mug. In 1857 the surviving owners gave it to the New York Yacht Club under a Deed of Gift making it a perpetual challenge cup between clubs of foreign countries.

The New York Yacht Club defended the Cup 24 times from 1851 to 1983, the longest winning streak in sport, helped by rules that forced challengers to sail across an ocean to the start. In 1983 at Newport, Alan Bond's Royal Perth Yacht Club broke it with Australia II, and the 1987 defense transformed Fremantle. Because the Deed is a charitable trust overseen by the New York Supreme Court, disputes go to court, including a 1988 ruling that a catamaran could legally meet a monohull challenge. Today's foiling AC75s fly on hydrofoils with rigid wing sails. In 2013 in San Francisco, Oracle Team USA overcame a cheating penalty and an 8 to 1 deficit to beat Emirates Team New Zealand 9 to 8, and New Zealand has since won in 2017, 2021, and 2024.

• A New York court had to decide whether the Great Lakes count as an arm of the sea, and ruled that they do.
• The Deed limits single masted boats to 44 to 90 feet on the load waterline unless both sides agree otherwise.
• Oracle Team USA spent an estimated 300 million dollars on its 2013 campaign.
• Peter Burling holds the record for match wins at 22 to 6, while Russell Coutts went 14 and 0.
• From 1928, Goodyear named blimps after Cup winning yachts such as America, Puritan, and Reliance.