The 100 Guineas Cup, also known as the Hundred Guinea Cup (£100 Cup), or the Cup of One Hundred Sovereigns, was a regatta in 1851 which was the first competition for the trophy later named

America's Cup 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 (known ...

. The trophy was valued at 100 pounds-sterling which led to its various names, all variations on 100 Pound Cup.Guinea, Sovereign, Quid, Pound, and Pound-Sterling are frequently used interchangeably, though there are slight differences in value. The race was won by the yacht ''America'', leading to the trophy being renamed "America's Cup". The official event known as "The America's Cup" was founded in 1857, when the

deed of gift A deed of gift is a signed legal document that voluntarily and without recompense transfers ownership of real, personal, or intellectual propertysuch as a gift of materialsfrom one person or institution to another. It should include any possibl ...

established the racing regattas. The 1851 competition was a

fleet race Fleet racing is a form of competitive sailing that involves sailboats racing one another over a set course. It is the most common form of sailboat racing and contrasts with match racing and team racing. Fleet racing can take place in two main fo ...

, whereas modern America's Cups finals are

match race A match race is a race between two competitors, going head-to-head. In sailboat racing it is differentiated from a fleet race, which almost always involves three or more competitors competing against each other, and team racing where teams cons ...

History

The race originated with an invitation for the Great Exhibition of 1851 by the

Earl of Winton The title Earl of Winton was created in the Peerage of Scotland and later in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It is currently held by the Earl of Eglinton. The title was first bestowed upon Robert Seton, 8th Lord Seton. His descendants held it ...

, then Commodore of the

Royal Yacht Squadron The Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS) is a British yacht club. Its clubhouse is Cowes Castle on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. Member yachts are given the suffix RYS to their names, and are permitted (with the appropriate warrant) to we ...

(RYS), inviting the recently formed

New York Yacht Club The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. ...

(NYYC) to enjoy the facilities of the clubhouse of the RYS. John Cox Stevens, Commodore of the NYYC responded positively, and anticipated racing. Due to the RYS rules of the time, other races in the 1851 RYS Regatta were restricted to RYS members and their self-owned yachts, so the R. Y. S. £100 Cup was established, open to anyone to enter. At a RYS meeting on 9 May 1851, the race was scheduled for 22 August 1851. This race was to be the first of a series of challenge races for successive £100 Cups. At the time, it was normal practise for the winners to own the cups that were won, and not to return them for the next race to be won by others.

Trophy

The trophy is a bottomless ewer made out of of silver, and is tall. The ewer was a stock item obtained by the (original)

Marquess of Anglesey Marquess of Anglesey is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, a hero of the Battle of Waterloo, second in command to the Duke of Wellington. The Marquess holds the subsidiary ...

from jeweler and silversmith Robert Garrard in 1848. He made the donation to the Royal Yacht Squadron in the hope they would use it for a special event to help the club revive from a sudden drop in attendance, afloat and ashore - the result of a short period of mismanagement under a Commodore who had assumed the role after Angelesey turned it down, at the age of 78. After the race, the trophy was engraved with the names of the yachts that raced against America, except the runner-up ''Aurora''. The winning owners of the America considered melting the Cup down to make individual medals for each of them, but decided against it. They did however perpetuate a misconception, by engraving it "100 Guinea Cup" instead of "The £100 Cup". 100 guineas would have been 105 pounds.https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350425554/explained-close-actual-americas-cup-cup

Race

The regatta, held on 22 August 1851, raced clockwise around the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

in a

. The course was called "The Queen's Course". The course was near

Cowes Castle Cowes Castle, also known as West Cowes Castle, is a Device Fort in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Originally built by Henry VIII in 1539 to protect England against the threat of invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, it comprised a circ ...

on the Isle of Wight, where the

headquarters are located. The race took place as part of the ''1851 Royal Yacht Squadron Regatta''. The signal gun for sailing was fired at 10am, and the winner saluted by a gun from the flag-ship at 8:34pm (8:37pm

railway time Railway time was the standardised time arrangement first applied by the Great Western Railway in England in November 1840, the first recorded occasion when different local mean times were synchronised and a single standard time applied. The key ...

). 18 yachts were entered for the race, but only 15 yachts started the race. The yacht ''Fernande'' did not make the start, while ''Strella'' and ''Titania'' both got to the starting line, though did not start the race. Those yachts that raced were ''America'', ''Alarm'', ''Arrow'', ''Aurora'', ''Bacchante'', ''Beatrice'', ''Brilliant'', ''Constance'', ''Eclipse'', ''Freak'', ''Gipsy Queen'', ''Ione'', ''Mona'', ''Volante'', and ''Wyvern''.

Gallery

File:33rd America's Cup Valencia.jpg, The trophy File:1851 Royal Yacht Squadron Regatta promo.jpg, A flyer from the RYS for, among other things, the race. In it, the race is referred to as the "R.Y.S. £100 Cup". File:The Yacht 'America' Winning the International Race Fitz Hugh Lane 1851.jpeg, ''America'', the winner, crossing the finish line File:The 193 ton yacht Alarm in a light swell.jpg, ''Alarm'', largest yacht in the regatta

Footnotes

References

{{Authority control America's Cup regattas 1851 in England Sailing in England History of the Isle of Wight Sport on the Isle of Wight 1851 in sports August 1851 19th century in sailing