The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy and the other from the yacht club that is challenging for the cup. The winner is awarded the America's Cup trophy, informally known as the Auld Mug. Matches are held several years apart on dates agreed between the defender and the challenger. There is no fixed schedule, but the races have generally been held every three to four years.
The Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race (MHOR) is a biennial sailing race which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005. It runs between Marblehead, Massachusetts and Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is believed to be the longest running offshore ocean race in the world and is considered one of the pre-eminent ocean races of the North Atlantic.
The Puritan was a 19th-century racing yacht and the 1885 America's Cup defender of the international sailing trophy.
Vigilant was the victorious United States defender of the eighth America's Cup in 1893 against British challenger Valkyrie II. Vigilant was designed by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff and built in 1893 by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company of Bristol, Rhode Island. She was Herreshoff's first victorious America's Cup defender design.
Genesta was the unsuccessful English challenger in the fifth America's Cup in 1885 against the American defender Puritan.
Valkyrie II, officially named Valkyrie, was a British racing yacht that was the unsuccessful challenger of the 1893 America's Cup race against American defender Vigilant.
Edward Burgess (1848–1891) was an American yacht designer. Several of his boats won fame in the waters of the eastern United States.
The 1987 America's Cup was the twenty-sixth challenge for the America's Cup.
The 34th America's Cup was a series of yacht races held in San Francisco Bay in September 2013. The series was contested between the defender Oracle Team USA team representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
The 1962 America's Cup, the second to be sailed in 12-metre yachts, marked the first challenge for the Cup from a country other than Great Britain or Canada, and was the first challenge from a country in the southern hemisphere. An Australian syndicate headed by Sir Frank Packer, representing the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, challenged with their yacht Gretel. Although the New York Yacht Club won the regatta four races to one represented by the yacht Weatherly, the challenger, Gretel won the second race, beating the Americans for the first time since the 1930s, and only lost the fourth race by twenty-six seconds. The NYYC was so shocked at the closeness of the contest that they immediately changed the rules to ban the use of American design and technology by Cup challengers.
Stars & Stripes 87 was the 12 Meter challenge boat sailed by Dennis Conner in his bid to reclaim the America's Cup from the Royal Perth Yacht Club of Australia in 1987.
The 1920 America's Cup was the 13th challenge for the Cup and the first since 1903. It took place in New York Harbor and consisted of a best-of-five series of races between the defender Resolute, entered by a syndicate of New York Yacht Club members headed by Henry Walters, and Shamrock IV, the fourth in Sir Thomas Lipton's line of Cup challengers. Charles Francis Adams III was the skipper of Resolute in this race.
The 1895 America's Cup occurred just two years after the 1893 America's Cup pitting the New York Yacht Club against the Royal Yacht Squadron. The 1895 race was between the Herreshoff designed sloop Defender owned by Charles Oliver Iselin, William Kissam Vanderbilt, and Edwin Dennison Morgan from the New York Yacht Club, and the Watson designed Valkyrie III owned by Lord Dunraven of the Royal Yacht Squadron.
The Hesper was a 19th-century Boston pilot boat built in 1884, designed from a model by Dennison J. Lawlor as a Boston yacht and pilot-boat for merchant and ship owner George W. Lawler. She was known to be the largest pilot boat under the American flag at 104 feet long and the fastest of the Boston fleet. She competed in several first-class sailing races, and in 1886, the Hesper won the silver cup in what was known as the first Fishermen's Race. She was withdrawn from the pilot service and sold in 1901. The Hesper became a wreck on the point off Cape Henlopen in 1919.
The Gracie was a 19th-century racing sloop yacht built in 1868 by James E. Smith shipyard at Nyack, New York. She raced the America's Cup defender Mischief in the trails off Sandy Hook in 1881. Gracie raced at the New York Yacht Club, Atlantic Yacht Club and other eastern yacht clubs. After a 42-year career in racing, she was sold in 1909 and converted to a freight boat sailing from Milton Point, off Long Island to New York.
The Dauntless was a 19th-century wooden yacht schooner, designed and built in 1866 by Forsyth & Morgan at Mystic Bridge, Connecticut, and owned and sailed by noted yachtsmen, among them James Gordon Bennett Jr. and Caldwell Hart Colt. She was first called the L'Hirondelle and later renamed the Dauntless. The Dauntless was in three Trans-Atlantic matches for the New York Yacht Club. She came in fourth in an unsuccessful America’s Cup defense in 1870.
The Phantom was a 19th-century centerboard schooner-yacht built in 1865 by Joseph D. Van Deusen and first owned by yachtsman Henry G. Stebbins. She was one of the fastest yachts in the New York squadron. The Phantom won 1st place in the June 1867 New York Yacht Club regatta. She came in 7th place in an unsuccessful America's Cup defense in 1870. She was sold as a racing yacht several times before she went out of service in 1900.
The Madeleine was a 19th-century racing schooner-yacht built in 1868 by David Kurby in Rye, New York and owned by Commodore Jacob B. Voorhis. Madeleine was the winner of the America's Cup in 1876 and an American defender in the 1870 America's Cup. She won the two most desired trophies reserved for schooners, the Bennett and the Douglas Cups. In 1911, the Madeleine was dismantled and sunk at the mouth of the Hillsborough River, Florida.
The 1930 America's Cup was the 14th challenge for the Cup. It took place in Newport and consisted of a series of races between the defender Enterprise, entered by a syndicate of New York Yacht Club members headed by Winthrop Aldrich, and Shamrock V, the fifth in Sir Thomas Lipton's line of Cup challengers.
The 1886 America's Cup was the 7th staging of the America's Cup yacht race. It was contested as a three-match-race series in New York City, New York, United States between Mayflower owned by Gen. Charles Paine, representing the defender, the New York Yacht Club; and Galatea owned by Lieut. & Mrs. William Henn, representing the Royal Northern Yacht Club. It was the first time a Scottish club challenged the America's Cup.
USA 
New York Yacht Club 
Great Britain 
New York Yacht Club 