1988 America's Cup
Encyclopedia
| 27th America's Cup |
|
|---|---|
| Defender |  San Diego Yacht ClubSan Diego Yacht Club San Diego Yacht Club is a yacht club located in San Diego Bay. Its address is 1011 Anchorage Lane, San Diego, CA 92106. It is located in Point Loma across from a spit of land known as Shelter Island.- Facilities :... |
| Challenger |  Mercury Bay Boating Club |
| Winner | San Diego Yacht Club San Diego Yacht Club San Diego Yacht Club is a yacht club located in San Diego Bay. Its address is 1011 Anchorage Lane, San Diego, CA 92106. It is located in Point Loma across from a spit of land known as Shelter Island.- Facilities :... |
| Location | San Diego, United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
America's Cup
The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
was the twenty-eighth running of the America's Cup regatta, and was contested between the defender, San Diego Yacht Club
San Diego Yacht Club
San Diego Yacht Club is a yacht club located in San Diego Bay. Its address is 1011 Anchorage Lane, San Diego, CA 92106. It is located in Point Loma across from a spit of land known as Shelter Island.- Facilities :...
represented by Stars & Stripes, and the challenger, the Mercury Bay Boating Club represented by KZ-1. Run under strict Deed of Gift rules, the regatta was won by the San Diego Yacht club, two races to none.
Challenge and response
The 1988 America's Cup was the first hostile Deed of Gift challenge. Dennis ConnerDennis Conner
Dennis Conner is an American yachtsman, noted for winning the bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and four wins in the America's Cup.-America's Cup:...
had won the America's Cup for the San Diego Yacht Club
San Diego Yacht Club
San Diego Yacht Club is a yacht club located in San Diego Bay. Its address is 1011 Anchorage Lane, San Diego, CA 92106. It is located in Point Loma across from a spit of land known as Shelter Island.- Facilities :...
on February 4, 1987 at the 26th America's Cup
1987 America's Cup
The 1987 America's Cup was the twenty-seventh challenge for the America's Cup and the first time for 132 years that it had not been defended by the New York Yacht Club....
. In July, New Zealand banker Michael Fay
Michael Fay (banker)
Sir Michael Fay is a New Zealand merchant banker and partner in the merchant bank Fay Richwhite. He was educated at St Peter's College, Auckland, St Patrick's College, Silverstream and Victoria University of Wellington ....
came to the San Diego Yacht Club and issued a Notice of Challenge from the Mercury Bay Boating Club of New Zealand, which was based on a strict reading of the Deed of Gift of the America's Cup. The Fay challenge stipulated that the boats to be sailed would be defined only by the details of the Deed, namely single masted yachts no more than 90 feet at the waterline, and that the race would be held the following year in 1988. He proposed to bring a 90 foot racing yacht for his challenge boat.
The San Diego Yacht Club, who wanted to continue running the Cup regatta in 12-metre yachts, initially rejected Fay's challenge out of hand. Fay then took the dispute to the New York State Supreme Court, which on November 25 of 1987 declared the challenge valid and instructed the San Diego Yacht Club to meet the challenge on the water, brushing aside the twenty-one 12 Meter syndicates that had declared their intention of racing in a 1991 America's Cup regatta.
The unconventional challenge was met with an unconventional response. As the challenge used the original Deed of Gift as its basis, there were no explicit class or design requirements, other than that the boat was to be 90 feet or less at the waterline if it had one mast. Thus the San Diego Yacht Club and the Sail America Foundation chose the assuredly faster multi-hull design.
On May 5, 1988 the Cup returned to the courts with Michael Fay seeking a court ruling that the catamaran was an invalid defender. The court instead ruled that the cup should be contested on the water, and any further legal action should be delayed until after the race.
Boats
The New Zealand challenger was KZ-1, a huge 90 ft monohull with a crew of 30 to 40. The boat was launched in March 1988 and regarded as the fastest monohull at that time for its size. It now resides outside the National Maritime MuseumNational Maritime Museum, New Zealand
The Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum is New Zealand's premier maritime museum. It is located on Hobson Wharf Auckland, adjacent to Viaduct Harbour...
in downtown Auckland, New Zealand.
The San Diego Yacht Club responded by building two catamaran
Catamaran
A catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas...
s, one with a conventional soft sail (Stars & Stripes S1), and the second with a wing mast (Stars & Stripes H3) built by Scaled Composites. The wing masted boat demonstrated superior performance, and after being modified to improve its structural integrity was chosen for the successful defense.
Results
| Date | Course | Winner | Loser | Winning Time |
Delta | Score | Winner's Velocity on Course |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 7, 1988 | 40 miles, windward leeward | Stars & Stripes USA-1 | KZ-1 | 4:53:54 | 18:15 | 1-0 | 8.2 | Wind 7 to 9 knots |
| September 9, 1988 | 39 miles, triangular | Stars & Stripes USA-1 | KZ-1 | 3:27:37 | 21:10 | 2-0 | 11.3 | Wind 6 to 15 knots |
Aftermath
After the completion of the races the battle returned to the courts and on March 28, 1989 the cup was awarded to New Zealand on the basis that the competition between a monohull and a catamaran was a gross mismatch and not in the spirit of friendly competition between countries. However the Appellate Division reversed that ruling, saying the Deed of Gift does not limit design or say anything about the number of hulls a yacht may have, and the reversal was confirmed on April 26, 1990 by the New York Court of Appeals. Thus San Diego retained the cup, defending it again at the 1992 America's Cup1992 America's Cup
The 28th America's Cup was contested between the winner of the 1992 Citizen Cup defender selection series, America³, and the winner of the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series, Il Moro di Venezia.-Races:-America³:-Il Moro di Venezia:...
.
The 27th America's Cup put an end to the 12-metre era of yachts as the International America's Cup Class was developed for the next Cup defense.
The 33rd America's Cup shared some similarities with the 27th in that it was also the subject of intense litigation, and the precedent set by the 1988 court decision guaranteed that any non-mutual consent match will be sailed in the fastest boats legal under the Deed, e.g. multihulls. The build up to the 33rd America's Cup was slightly different though, in that a challenge had already been accepted by defending yacht club Société Nautique de Genève
Société Nautique de Genève
The Société Nautique de Genève is a yacht club based in Geneva . It was founded in 1872 with the goal of developing nautical sports and high level sailors...
, but the courts decided that the challenger did not meet the requirements of the Deed of Gift governing the cup and forced the defender to accept a challenge from the Golden Gate Yacht Club
Golden Gate Yacht Club
The Golden Gate Yacht Club is a yacht club founded in 1939 and is the current holder of the America's Cup won by its racing team BMW Oracle Racing.In 1939 the first members built a clubhouse on a barge in the San Francisco Marina...
instead.
External links
- Think this is ugly? You should have seen 1988 Scuttlebutt News, April 2, 2009
- War at Sea New York Times Magazine, May 29, 1988