Few sporting events are as steeped in tradition as the America’s Cup yacht race. The coveted America’s Cup, the oldest active trophy in international sport, is the corpus of a charitable trust created over 150 years ago under the laws of New York state.[FOOTNOTE 1]
That trust, the Deed of Gift, has twice been the subject of litigation before our courts, most recently, in Golden Gate Yacht Club v. Societe Nautique de Geneve,[FOOTNOTE 2] in which New York courts were called upon to construe the deed’s requirements for a yacht club seeking to establish itself as the challenger of record,[FOOTNOTE 3] and to rule on such nautical matters as the permissible configuration of the yachts’ hulls[FOOTNOTE 4] and the measurement of the waterline.[FOOTNOTE 5]
