Citizen Cup
The Citizen Cup Regatta is a selection regatta in order to determine the best yacht for the America's Cup challenge from within the US America's Cup teams .
history
For over 132 years, since 1851, American yachts had dominated and won the America's Cup (AC). The yacht clubs that defended the AC held a series of elimination competitions to nominate the fastest yacht to defend the Cup. For many years, the organization was in the hands of the New York Yacht Club , which carried out the so-called defender series (defender = defender) to select the best defensive team. In 1992 the sponsor Citizen Watch offered to donate a trophy Citizen Cup , which was to be presented to the winner of the defender races. It should be a parallel event to the Louis Vuitton Cup emerge, in which the challengers of the America's Cup determined the best sailing team, which then fought for the cup alone against the current defender of the America's Cup.
The 1995 Citizen Cup regatta was won by the yacht Stars & Stripes with skipper Dennis Conner . However, the defending San Diego Yacht Club opted to start with the runner-up boat, the yacht Young America and the winning team, the Stars & Stripes . They believed that they had a better chance of beating the New Zealand yacht Black Magic in the following America's Cup races . That should turn out to be a mistake, because Black Magic won 5-0.
Todays situation
The Citizen Cup was suspended after the regatta in 1995, as the cup was lost to New Zealand in the 29th America's Cup. With the America's Cup in 2000, the defending yacht clubs decided not to hold elimination regattas for the defense teams because both the New Zealanders and the Swiss could not raise the funds for several competing sailing teams.
Citizen Cup winner
| regatta | Sail number | Yacht name | Sailing club | nation | venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | USA-55 | Stars & Stripes | San Diego Yacht Club |
 United States
|
San Diego , USA |
| 1992 | USA-23 | America 3 | San Diego Yacht Club |
United States
|
San Diego, USA |
See also
- Louis Vuitton Cup - America's Cup Challenger Series