The New York Yacht Club contends that a new perpetual governing body is incompatible with the charitable trust that has governed the Cup for more than 160 years.
New York Yacht Club Commodore Clare Harrington announced today [31 Aug] that the Club has asked the New York Attorney General’s Charities Bureau to examine whether the newly created America’s Cup Partnership (ACP) can be reconciled with the Deed of Gift—the 1887 charitable trust instrument that has governed the America’s Cup since the trophy was first placed in trust in New York.
The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) has submitted a request to the Charities Bureau of the Office of the New York State Attorney General, which supervises charitable trusts in this State, to review the newly created ACP in light of the terms of the America’s Cup Deed of Gift (the “Deed”).
At the heart of the matter is the essence of the competition itself: whether the America’s Cup remains, in the words of the Deed, a “perpetual Challenge Cup for friendly competition between foreign countries,” or whether it can be converted into a centrally managed, commercially controlled regatta run by a standing body of incumbent competitors.
NYYC notes that this deliberately narrow, two-party structure — renewed each cycle by whichever clubs then hold and challenge for the Cup — has defined the event for more than a century and a half, and that the Deed has been altered only a handful of times, each time by order of the New York courts.
NYYC contends that the ACP — established under the Protocol for the 38th America’s Cup and a purported set of related “Partnership Agreements” that have not been made public — departs from that structure in several fundamental respects.
The Club has asked the Charities Bureau to consider whether the ACP structure is consistent with the rights and obligations established by the Deed and whether further action or judicial review may be appropriate.