The yacht America wins the first America's…

The yacht America wins the first America's Cup race, off the coast of England, on August 22, 1851.

Commodore John Cox Stevens, a charter member of the fledgling New York Yacht Club (NYYC), had formed a six-person syndicate to build a yacht with intention of taking her to England and making some money competing in yachting regattas and match races.

The syndicate had contracted with pilot boat designer George Steers for a one hundred and one foot (3thirty point seventy-eight meters) schooner, which had ben christened America and launched on May 3, 1851.

On August 22, America races against fifteen yachts of the Royal Yacht Squadron in the Club's annual fifty-three-nautical-mile (ninety-eight kilometers) regatta around the Isle of Wight.

America wins, finishing 8eight minutes ahead of the closest rival.

An apocryphal report has Queen Victoria, who was watching at the finish line, ask who was second, the famous answer being: "Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second."

The surviving members of the America syndicate will donated the cup via the Deed of Gift of the America's Cup to the NYYC on July 8, 1857, specifying that it be held in trust as a perpetual challenge trophy to promote friendly competition among nations.