Catamaran vs. Monohull | The controversy of the 1988 Americas Cup

Injustice or a clever interpretation of the rules? Some argue that the 1988 America’s Cup was not a legal match. Legal drama surrounded the 27th America’s Cup well before they got to the start line and well after they crossed the finish line.
This Deed of Gift match between the Michael Fay backed Team New Zealand and Dennis Conner’s Stars and Stripes saw the controversial birth of catamarans in the America’s Cup. This is the story.
I have re-edited this footage to make it more fast-paced and watchable. The sound quality is also improved.
Thanks to Adam May & Secret Sailing for uploading the original footage. The documentary that much of the footage is taken from was presented by renowned sailing journalist Bob Fisher.
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[@wynnmac6656]

This video is a bit one sided. Dennis Conner was an asshole, and his behavior in 1988 was especially despicable, but Michael Fay’s “rogue” challenge wasn’t very sportsman like either. Fay used the courts to force a Cup Defender to accept a challenge less than a year after the previous Cup, then he tried to force them to design, build, test, and race a very radical boat in a matter of months. The catamaran was a ridiculous response to an equally ridiculous challenge.

[@FastForwardSailing]

Agreed. Both sides had their faults.

[@ThatSB]

But the cup could be challenged for at any time.

[@khaderach19]

@@ThatSB A challenge can be lodged at anytime. However is up to the cup holder to set the racing protocols. It was the Kiwi's fault for forcing their protocol when it wasnt theirs to make.

[@rhysnolan7458]

@@FastForwardSailing I was asked to be on board! Stupidly I declined saying that there was no money, even wages , to be part of AC! I have 20/20 vision looking back.

[@FastForwardSailing]

@@rhysnolan7458 Well done for being in a position where they'd take you. Was it New Zealand or USA?

[@lanceryley5052]

It wasn't a fair matchup, but as I recall the Kiwis pretty much had the boat built and ready before they issued the challenge. The US didn't have a way to quickly design something similar, so they did what they did with the two cats. It would have been interesting to see what the San Diego team would have come up with if they had more time.

[@HaysClark]

Sadly, this cup marks the end of sailing being 'cool' in the US for the next generation. These days, all of the US Americas Cup teams are full of sailors from NZ and Australia.

[@zoepaulastrassfield2664]

While I was a baby at the time and completely unaware of sailing, from looking at the media of the day, I think the San Diego editions of the AC in the 90s were still broadly popular in the US-- they were the first story in the sports sections of newspapers and sometimes even on the front page overall, they had ESPN coverage, there were America's Cup jokes in MAD Magazine and on Aaron Sorkin's show "Sports Night", etc. *Offshore* sailing also got a surprising amount of coverage in Sports Illustrated in the 1990s during the extreme sports craze even though most competitors there were French or British. I think the real point it fell out of American popular consciousness was sometime in the 2000s.

[@greggjohnson621]

Kiwis show up with a radical design… America responds with a radical design. And because the Kiwi’s did that, Americas Cup keeps getting faster and more radical. Far beyond what Fay and Connors could have imagined. It’s astonishing to see how far it has come. Truly breathtaking feats of engineering and sailing skill… just as the Americas Cup has always been.

[@AirJKB13]

Best comment!

[@marioslider6337]

Michael Faye stopped others from challenging, cut the time between AC regattas, changed the boat to a design that gave his team a huge advantage over the holders and then cried foul when the rules were used to the Americans advantage. This whole challenge was a disgrace and although you might have concerns over some of the sportsmanship of previous teams, at least the competions were in 12s of the same type and open to all challengers with a time period that allowed designers and boat builders a fair go. The Sail GP series is the best sailing now, the AC is an expensive joke!

[@MicrophoneAssassin13]

Sail GP exists becauase of the advancements in development by AC. AC's fun stuff. SGP is spectacular sailing.

[@Master.Daddy.Wicked]

When you challenge someone to a duel the challenged gets to pick the weapons. Sorry Michael you picked a fight and got out played 😂😂😂😂

[@polostar]

There's a Harvard Business School case about this. I suspect this could be shown in quite a few business school classes in the future

[@Lozzie74]

I wish Michael hadn’t caused the demise of the 12m class

[@veryrare7647]

got greedy

[@vibratingstring]

Huh? First of all the 12 metre is still an active class. I race on NEFERTITI in Newport on occasion. There is an active series there. Second, they are small boats and were never suited to the America's Cup except for the extraordinary circumstance of coming out of World War conflagration. 3rd, they were old technology even when they were being sailed in the first post-war edition. 4th, the America's Cup for the whole period from l890s through the 30s was the largest most advanced sailing technology. It was not raced in small obsolete leadmines.

[@darrinheaven4643]

I see KZ1 most weeks, the turning point on my long run is under her bowsprit. Unfortunately the rig has been removed and she is not quite the imposing landmark she was.

[@CockatooDude]

Damn that's pretty sick not gonna lie. At least the hull is still on display instead of rotting away somewhere.

[@brotherloops]

I hate how they took the rig off. When I first moved to nz when I was 6 we often visited KZ1 with her rig on multiple times and its a nostalgic memory I have

[@tangycheeseman3963]

Fantastic videos! Please keep them coming

[@FastForwardSailing]

Thank you. Glad to hear you like them 😊

[@bachtre]

The bias is laughable. "They expected nothing less than integrity, sportsmanship and a fair match...", yet issued a challenge with their boat already built and tested, giving the defenders minimal time to respond in kind. He did not challenge in good faith and made the AC a lawyering circus. That is his legacy.

[@desmondcrosland7884]

As a kiwi I was as caught up in this at the time, but in time I’ve come to appreciate that USA was just as entitled to do and act the way they did. The unintended consequence was the galvanisation of a generation to support Team NZ to bring the cup here. My fear is the betrayal of home town defence, the cornerstone of support, in pursuit of a bigger payoff will dull the fervour that could as easily disappear as it did with NZ soccer in the 80s

[@jameskiehm546]

For me, this was the end of the Americas Cup. I lost complete interest and I’ve only held more contempt for those players since then. I can’t relate to any of the boats in the last couple of decades but I love TP52’s, Comanche, Skorpios, the J Boat revival etc.. It’s all quite disappointing.

[@paulgush]

What was wrong with the IACC boats?

[@CHMichael]

When lawyers go sailing.

[@vibratingstring]

My first 505--we named it Fast Forward. So nice channel name.

[@FastForwardSailing]

Snap! The first cadet a sailed regularly was called Fast Forward. That was part of the reason for choosing it

[@vibratingstring]

When I bought a copy of Rhinoceros software in 2008, it turned out the dealer personally owned one of the two Connor catamarans. He had some crazy stories about sailing her. It had both a wingmast and a standard soft rig.

[@FastForwardSailing]

Cool!

[@vibratingstring]

​@@FastForwardSailing Its a crazy small world.

[@jammcguire1276]

We used to drink w the crew and go on the cat when it was parked at the downtown rowing club.

[@SeaScoutDan]

The original americas cup race, was held in England, and America has a far superior boat and unfairly faster than anything else england had.

[@quickdry3]

As despicable as I find Dennis and his team's attitude/way of responding to others - it typifies the American stereotype, they build th faster boat according to the rules. If one side decided that they'd use the letter of the law/rules to force the issue, they can't then get upset when the other side uses the letter of the rules as well, and wins with something faster. They decided the playground was tight interpretation of rules.

[@macman6107]

This was a farce & for me the beginning of the end of my love of the America's Cup. That died completely after the 2007 series. I can't see it ever coming back.

[@RupertFoulmouth]

After watching this video, i looked up the Gift of Deed and there is nothing that i can see to make the cat illegal.

[@Penguinracer]

The Deed of Gift is a nineteenth century document which has been redrafted twice. It' language is ambiguous in places and the drafting style is imprecise. Over time the meaning of several key words has changed, reflecting the etymology of language in the period between the execution of the third deed on 24th October 1887 and the NYSC's validation of the NZ challenge on 25th November 1987. The America's cup is a challenge cup and the 1988 Deed of Gift Match set the precedent that any hull configuration is acceptable under the Deed's terms provided the Deed's dimensional limitations are observed. The legal action between the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) and the Societe Nautique de Geneve further clarified the Deed in requiring a qualifying yacht Club to have run an annual regatta on the sea or an arm of the sea in the past as a condition precedent. it is insufficient that it has not yet held such an annual regatta bu plans to do so. The SDYC could potentially have agreed terms to meet the Mercury Bay Boating Club in a similar boat at a time which was mutually agreeable, but they viewed the audacity of the Deed of Gift Challenge in such a way that the animosity made a agreed match an extreme improbability. Mediation by a party other than the NYSC might have improved the chances of a competitive match, but again the probability would have been low.

[@SeaScoutDan]

Kiwis switched from Aluminum to Fiberglass and were like "doesnt say anything about building material in the rules" and won. Then American switched from 1 to 2 hulls and were like "doesnt say how many hulls in the rules" and won. Pushing technology by definition means doing different things. An alternative is to say in the stone age, saying bronze makes it not a fair fight. Yea, life is not fair, this is a competition of boat technology.

[@ben3989]

all of it is ridiculous. every little bit.

[@rccroatiachannel4633]

Geoff Willls designed that Catamaran

[@mini696]

Neither side were honorable. The New Zealanders started it. USA took up the challenge and finished it.

[@bobcornwell403]

As far as I'm concerned, it was the judge's fault. She should have followed rule of precedent and told New Zealand to return three years later. Connor and crew were guilty as charged for poor sportsmanship. But so was New Zealand. They had their boat already built and tested before they submitted their challenge. Then they insisted on having a race right away, giving their opponents little time to prepare. They should have posted their challenge, along with the new boat type, then waited for the traditional timing of the race. I think both sides cheated. And I think the judge should have thrown the matter out of her court. If only both sides could have lost.

[@SeaScoutDan]

9:25 the catamaran is obviously the better boat. Ok, the Americas cup is about who can make the best boat, within the rules. Rules just said max length, no minimum length.

[@michaelbaughman8524]

This was the end for the America's Cup. I was incensed at the Kiwis for breaking traditions and then at the SDYC for the further degradation of the whole thing into a legal fight off the water. And I felt at the time and still do that Dennis Conner, whatever his ability as a skipper - and he was a superb skipper, no question about it - is an arrogant ass.

[@vibratingstring]

You do understand that the "traditions" had always been NYYC "heads we win, tails you lose" right?

[@michaelbaughman8524]

@@vibratingstring That ended in 1983 when Australia II beat Dennis Connor and Liberty and took the Cup to Perth. The wing keel was a technical innovation within the class rules and I always thought the Aussies beat the defender fair and square. Yeah the NYYC had established the format with 12-meter class boats from '58 on but they were no longer dictating the rules. Fay's challenge with the big boat was unsporting in that he tried to exploit loopholes in the Deed of Gift to his advantage, technically legal but nevertheless unfair. And then Dennis had to go and be an ass about the whole thing - a specialty of his.

[@DMWayne-ke7fl]

@@michaelbaughman8524 So when your opponent is an asset within the letter of the law, you're supposed to take it up the ass and not show him to be a farce?

[@thomasedwardking7286]

Connor was an ass. But make no mistake about it, Fay was the bigger ass. Rather than learning from a promising first AC campaign, he single handedly started a spat which should never have happened in the first place. Even as a Kiwi, Fay deserved the biting on the ass he got.

[@fishjj76]

​@michaelbaughman8524 I agree with your comment generally. But I think the initial response was intended in good humour. For a long time, the rules did favour the defender. That has changed and nowadays the race is almost unrecognisable from the 90's onwards.

[@lowbatteryrobot7961]

I don't know. The whole thing might have been distasteful, but it seems to me something good came out of it in the end. Admision. Everyone here is admitting that Cat's are faster. They are certainly more exciting to watch when they race. For whatever reason, tradition, etc., the monohulls have been the staple of the wine glass clinking, caviar eating crowd forever. Let's be real. If you are going to race, you should use a race car. You will get far more interest in what you are doing. Monohulls have far more wetted surface and will always be slower. It sounds me like these boats should be raced as an exercise in historical reenactment. Which is fine. By the way, if history and culture is you main motivator, multihulls also have a history and culture too... Race a Trimirran or a Catamaran, they are faster, more fun to watch, and are far more of a race car. Don't race a station wagon.

[@thomasedwardking7286]

It actually amazes me that it took practically 20 years more before everyone finally got together and thought "heyyy, these cats are fast and fun! Surely this will grow the sport". Sadly, for SailGP this is true but for the AC, there seems to be less and less teams each regatta. I really hope they find a way to reverse this trend.

[@garyritchie3556]

Does America always need to be involved in the 'Cup'. I mean like, could it be between say, NZ and the Aussies if they had the two fastest yachts and qualified?

[@FastForwardSailing]

It's a common question. The answer is no, America don't need to be in the Cup. They often are but several times including in the last Cup they didn't qualify. Because of the name of the cup people often think that America must be involved but actually the Cup isn't named after the country but the first yacht to win the trophy. Check out this video for how the cup came to be- kzbin.info/www/bejne/nquQkqCkrcugn6s

[@garyritchie3556]

@@FastForwardSailing Thanks for that. I gotta say though I lost interest since the cats came in. I was in California when we, Oz, won the cup in 83. Also in Perth for 87. Fantastic times for both.

[@FastForwardSailing]

@@garyritchie3556 Yeah there's certainly a big divide between fans which like and the cats and those that don't. It's not cats anymore but still foiling. Must have been great being an Oz fan at that time!

[@garyritchie3556]

@@FastForwardSailing Oh don't get me wrong, I love watching those foil cats race, amazing stuff. But the AC has lost the importance, besides I never know when it's on. Yes it was free drinks everywhere in 83 in Canada and US, and the party atmosphere in Perth in 87 was euphoric. When the racing was on in 87, with the number of boats on the water, you could literally walk across to Rottenest Island, 19km away. Loved it all.

[@FastForwardSailing]

@@garyritchie3556 Sounds awesome!

[@WinWindowS.K.Julian]

This Dennis guy is making my blood boil...

[@garyritchie3556]

And everyone else's, certainly at the time.

[@DogFish-NZ]

Was this the last time Dennis won anything? He got smoked in 95 😂

[@FastForwardSailing]

At least anything America's Cup related. Buddy Melges helmed the US victory in 92

[@thomasedwardking7286]

Yes, Connor actually used the Young America boat which he'd beaten in the qualifiers as he felt it was the better boat to challenge Black Magic.

[@saitohshihomi5649]

Aloha unto All FttW Seasoned-Veterans, fans and Supporters, Suggestion: hana hou, again mono vs cat, AC75- GP F-50; May we let them Race? for the purpose, and "Grande_Experiment" to Create the future "Laboratory-(text-book)-On-The-Water"; Let the Flying/Gliding Mono & Multi Concepts-n-Configurations compare notes for future 100 footers-plus Machines/Tools/Toys- (Never Ever, endorsed as WEAPONS!!!) Faster-than-the-Wind (FttW) Future mini-"Equal-Valued" Fleets and Flotillas with the Reality of, both Mono & Multi AI assist Aloha_Service_Ships of the Future. Keep Pulling The Apparent, and Enjoy da "Glide".

[@paulharper362]

Turns out San Diego Yatch Club were even bigger cheats than the NY Yatch Club. Who would have thought?? 🤣😂

[@shawnstangeland3011]

I wish the Stars and Stripes would have just sailed circles around the whiners instead of sand bagging

[@Alloutconcrete]

Go USA!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@Orga50]

way to go America, next time show up with motor speed boat

[@FastForwardSailing]

It would actually be interesting to know if they could have brought along a speed boat. The deed of gift design rules seem so lax that it might have even been possible ("no design requirements other than that the boat was to be 90 feet (27 m) or less at the waterline if it had one mast").

[@DMWayne-ke7fl]

Play stupid games, lose stupid prizes. The kiwis should've followed the rules.

[@outtolunch88]

The yanks out of desperation to win tore up the "rulebook". A cat is not a yacht. As a consequence, it's become an open class and they've only held the cup 40% of the time since then.

[@DogFish-NZ]

And new Zealands percentage?

[@DogFish-NZ]

Poke the bear

[@pioneer_1148]

This was a complete mismatch, anyone with even a vague ideal of boat design knows that a catamaran always is going to be way, way faster than a comparable monohull. Everyone involved knew that and it was utterly ridiculous for the American team to pretend otherwise. The kiwi's built a great monhull, the US should have built a comparable boat to challenge

[@DMWayne-ke7fl]

We could have, in three years. But the salty Kiwis had to break tradition and go to court over it. So, the Americans gave the Kiwis a taste of their own medicine.

[@JohnFrumFromAmerica]

no the Kiwis should have built a cat. not a slow monohull

[@tomburton8239]

Just such an excruciatingly embarrassing episode. How can a great nation like the USA argue legalities when the substance is so different. Is this the greatest weakness of the USA? That it’s beholden to lawyers, regardless of fundamental truths. Trump is doing this right now, and making the USA look foolish.

[@dap777754]

You're not understanding, methinks. Fay lodged the challenge 3 years premature, and had a challenge boat already designed when he submitted the challenge. This put the SDYC at a complete time disadvantage since they were being forced to play catch up. The USA response, though maybe surly, was utterly appropriate under the Deed of Gift. Fay just was outsmarted and got what he deserved. Fay was always first in line looking for a judge before whom to argue legalities, not USA. The embarrassment was his (Fay's). As to your Trump comment, I could not agree more.

[@ThatSB]

@@dap777754 it wasnt premature. There was no set amount of time.

[@dap777754]

@@ThatSB Fay demanded to race immediately, by next summer. Why do that if "there was no set amount of time (per you)?" And there was no set class of boat specified, either in the Deed of Gift or by letter agreement between the two clubs. So that's how we got a fair mismatch. Tell us how it is that you know "the intention of the Cup?"

[@DMWayne-ke7fl]

@@ThatSB and there was no rule against multi-hulls.

[@ThatSB]

@@dap777754 what do you mean why do that? Because they had a boat and wanted to race

[@MilesCobbett]

The race boats in the 70s n early 80's were the best. Modern day Multihull race boats are just not the same. I Quit watching

[@noelmckeown7161]

I'm a lawyer and a sailor. My wife and I have owned and sailed a number of boats, the last being a 40 ft. Tartan sloop that we cruised on Lake Erie for 28 years, but never got into racing - just liked to sail our toy well! I have enjoyed watching the America's Cup matches for years, but completely agree that Michael Fay's premature challenge and the catamaran response were the bottom of the barrel so far as a competition was concerned. Then again, brother Fay had his legal team reading the Rules before he made his challenge - fair fight, UGLY & DISGUSTING but fair! I'm glad we seem to have gotten past that poor excuse for sportsmanship. As for Donald Trump, I am delighted to say that I do not know of him having anything to do with sailing. I will say that my wife and I are long time Republicans who NEVER voted for him and have no intention of doing so!

[@dap777754]

Here, here.

[@ThatSB]

It was not a premature challenge. There is no set amount of years. The cat was clearly against the intention of the cup though, and ruined it ever since

[@noelmckeown7161]

@@ThatSB By "premature" I meant only that Fay's challenge was made much earlier than the traditionally observed interval between successive Cup challenges, not that it was made earlier than the rules permitted. The use of a catamaran to defend the challenge was no more or less compliant with the expressed the spirit or "intention of the cup" (rules or competition) than a challenge that specified a vessel and time frame that denied the recipient of the challenge any reasonable time to design and to test a totally new defending vessel that Mr. Fay already had in place. Two wrongs still don't make a right, and you are certainly correct that the cup challenges have not been the same ever since!

[@ablejack3]

The San Diego boat did not honor the America's Cup charter. Therefore New Zealand won the Cup in the courts, but much later than anyone would have preferred. The multihull was an unsporting, embarrassing and eventually proved wrongful response to NZ's unusual but acceptable challenge. The USA could have requested more time to develop a similar maxi-yacht or argued that it was not an economically feasible undertaking for any builder/sponsor. As it was, the American debacle was pathetic to watch. The spirit of "matching" the Challenge is to provide competition between the sailors and the sailing. The Cup would have been better served had the sides simply agreed to race an established and identical "one-design" (I think the J40 was around back then) with the Skippers and crew of their choice. The USA could have agreed to match the NZ boat next time giving the world time to produce a suitable dignified regatta. /btw: I think the AC45s and AC75s were fine for the Challenge. Easily transportable, similarly performing and not prohibitively expensive for campaigns around the globe.

[@momosworld7312]

The Kiwis have always been good whiners…

[@brotherloops]

Winners*