Deed of Gift

The Deed of Gift is the primary instrument that governs the rules to make a valid challenge for the America’s Cup and the rules of conduct of the races. The current version of the Deed of Gift is the third revision of the original Deed. The original Deed was written in 1852 and forwarded to the New York Yacht Club on July 8, 1857. [ ["The Deed of Gift of the America's Cup and related manuscripts from the archives of the New York Yacht Club Revised Edition" (2007) by Ryoichi Steven Tsuchiya] ]

History

After the 1881 Cup match, the New York Yacht Club officially returned the Cup to George L. Schuyler, the sole surviving member of the syndicate that owned "America" to rewrite the deed to discourage inland-based yacht clubs from challenging the Cup. This revised Deed incorporated, among other things, the following rules: the challenger’s yacht club's annual regatta must take place on the sea or on the arm of the sea and that the challenging boat must sail to the site of the contest on her own bottom, as the yacht America did when first winning the cup in England. [ ["The Lawson History of the America's Cup" (1902) by Winfield M. Thompson and Thomas W. Lawson.] ]

In 1887, the challenging yacht’s hull was longer than it was originally stated by the challenger; this alarmed the N.Y.Y.C., but they rectified the situation by handicapping the challenger. Although the N.Y.Y.C. successfully defended the Cup that year, it spurred them to rewrite the Deed. Once again the club officially returned the Cup to Mr. Schuyler. The third Deed is much longer and couched in legal terminology; it is unlikely that Mr. Schuyler himself authored the document. The third Deed tightened the rules for challenging; for example, it explicitly stated that the challenger must not exceed the dimensions provided to the holder of the Cup. The new version of the rules created an uproar among many British yachtsmen who claimed that the new rules made it impossible to challenge. No one challenged until six years later when a British lord set forth his first of two challenges.

After the Second World War, the N.Y.Y.C. amended the Deed by changing the requirement regarding waterline length: the minimum water-line length from 65 feet to 44 feet (20 m to 13 m) to allow the use of the 12-metre class. In addition, the rule that the challenging boat had to sail on her own bottom to the site of the match was eliminated.

In 1985 a second amendment was made to allow for matches to take place during an antipodean summer. [ [http://www.bymnews.com/new/content/view/8582/80/ BYM News] More about the Deed of Gift & subsequent changes.]

Mutual Consent Provisions

The Deed of Gift also allows for a 'Mutual Consent Challenge' which allows the races to be conducted under a set of rules which are mutually agreed between the Challenger of Record and the Defender and may differ considerably from the rules as laid down in the Deed of Gift.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.a3.org/ac2000_DeedofGift.html Deed Of Gift]

ee also

* America's Cup