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.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,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,3 and to rule on such nautical matters as the permissible configuration of the yachts’ hulls4 and the measurement of the waterline. 5
