August 22: The America's Cup

On this date in 1851, the schooner America beat the Royal Yacht Aurora in a race around the Isle of Wight to win the trophy known as the "America's Cup." It symbolised a victory for the new world over the old.

1. The America's Cup is not named after the United States. It is named after the boat which won the first race - America. After America's triumph, she was used as a blockade runner in the American Civil War and later as a training ship for the US Navy, with a little competitive racing in between times. Sadly, she was scrapped in 1945 after the shed she was stored in collapsed in a snowstorm.
2. The America's cup is the world's oldest sporting trophy. It pre-dates The Ashes and the modern Olympic Games. When the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896, there had already been nine America's Cup contests.
3. It's also said to be the most difficult trophy to win. Only four countries have ever won it, and the UK never has. (The USA has won it 28 times, New Zealand and Switzerland twice, and Australia once. The most successful yachtsman is New Zealand sailor Sir Russell Coutts, who has been on the winning team five times, including three times as skipper.) Challengers not only have to be excellent sailors, they also have to be rich - the entry fee as of 2017, is $2 million per team on top of the cost of the high tech racing boats and support crews. The final cost of taking part can run to $200 million.
4. British Tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton is credited with introducing the idea of sponsorship in sport. He was a member of the Royal Ulster Yacht Club in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and challenged for the cup five times. As I already said, the UK has never won - so he never won, but he was awarded a special cup for being “the best of all losers”.
5. An average sailor burns 6,000 calories in a day’s racing. That's a very expensive workout.
6. It doesn't take place over the same course every time, nor are the same type of boats used every time. The winners decide when and where the next race will be and what the rules will be, including the type of boat. In 2017, the race was held in Bermuda.
7. The motto of the competition is "There is no second" which arose from Queen Victoria, watching the first race, asking which boat was in second place. Her attendant replied, “Your Majesty, there is no second.”
8. The cup itself is affectionately known as the “Auld Mug” and referred to as "she" rather than "it". She was made by London silvermaker Robert Garrard in 1848 and is a claret jug rather than a cup. She is so valuable that it is never touched by bare human hands - she can only be handled by people wearing cotton gloves. She is transported in a custom-designed Louis Vuitton case, always in first or business class. When not on show to the public, she is kept in a secret location. Her vital statistics: height - 44 inches. It used to be 27 but two bases have been added to accommodate the growing number of winners engraved on her. Weight: approximately 32.4 lbs.
9. The trophy has survived a couple of mishaps - narrowly escaping being melted down to make medals for the winning team in 1852, and an attack by a Maori activist in New Zealand in 1997, who hit it with a sledgehammer. Robert Garrard silvermakers carried out the repairs.
10. Competitors represent their yacht club rather than their country, although in practice there has never been two entries from the same country, so teams are often referred to by their nationality. Originally, there would only be two teams in the race, the defender and a challenger, but nowadays there may be more. There are preliminary races to decide the final two.

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