Amerikas Cup - Änderungen an der Deed of Gift

Die Regeln im Amerika´s Cup besagten vor 1983, daß nur ein Yacht Club eine Herausforderung zum Amerika´s Cup abgeben kann, der an der offenen See oder an einem Arm, der zur See führt, beheimatet ist und dort mindestens einmal im Jahr eine Regatta ausrichtet. Aus diesem Grund ist z.B. 1983 der Potsdamer Yacht Club mit der "Berlin Challenge" mit dem Lübecker Yacht Club eine Partnerschaft eingegangen. Inzwischen wurde diese Regelung gelockert (siehe Beitrag aus Scuttlebutt unten) und der Weg war für die Schweiz frei, eine Herausforderung abzugeben, die sie mit der "Alinghi" dann auch gleich erfolgreich gewonnen haben.

* From David Anderson (Regarding Mr. Robert Johnston's question concerning how Switzerland was and is able to compete for the America's Cup without actually having a yacht club on an ocean or an arm of the sea): The long answer is that there have been many changes and reinterpretations of the Deed of Gifts, written in 1887 between George L. Schuyler, the then sole surviving owner of the Cup won by the yacht AMERICA at Cowes in 1851, and the New York Yacht Club, the trustee. One
such amendment involves a yacht club's location. Specifically, in 1984, the Chicago Yacht Club was given the right to compete for the America's Cup by a judgment from the New York Supreme Court. (CYC was the first yacht club that organized a challenge for the cup that was not located on a sea, or an arm of the sea.) But the short answer is the governing
body wanted to find a way for them to compete, so they changed the deed, hence subsequent yacht clubs wishing to compete that are not located on a sea or arm of a sea, can site the same change to the deed.

Two other such changes to the deed, for example, are the must-be-sailed-to-the-competition-on-her-own-bottom rule, and that sails, equipment, design, etc.., be made only in the country of the representative challenging nation. But the big change to the interpretation of the deed, in my thinking, is basically the allowance of a sailor to compete for a yacht club located in a country that is not native to that individual. That really opened up a whole new ballgame.

4. April 2006
Another opinon: Eine aktuelle Stellungnahme zu diesem Thema. Please also read the comments.
* From Chris Ericksen: I don't think David Anderson is right when he says that Chicago Yacht Club was "the first yacht club that organized achallenge for the (America’s) Cup that was not located on a sea, or an arm of the sea" ('Butt 2064). In 1876, Major Charles Gifford of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto challenged in "Countess of Dufferin" which sailed to New York City via the St. Lawrence River. What really tore things for the New York Yacht Club was the 1881 challenge by
Alexander Cuthbert of the Bay of Quinte Yacht Club on Lake Ontario: "Atalanta" made her way to New York City via the Erie Canal, for which passage the yacht had to be ballasted to list her over enough so that she could pass through the locks. It was only after this challenge that the so-called "second Deed of Gift" was redone to require any challenger to belong to a yacht club that had "it's annual regatta on an ocean water course on the sea or an arm of the s ea." Note that a challenging
club need not be located on the sea, just hold its annual regatta on the sea.

My source for this information is one of the jewels of my book collection, Herbert L. Stone's "The America's Cup Races." Written in 1914 and revised in 1930, at the very dawn of the J-Class era, its last section previews the then-upcoming match of 1930 when J's were sailed the first time.