Editing America's Cup (section)

== Rules for issuing challenge ==
All challenges for the America's Cup are made under the [[Deed of Gift of the America's Cup]], which outlines who can challenge for the cup, and what information a challenge must provide to the defender. The deed then allows for most of the arrangements for the match to be made by negotiation and mutual consent, but provides a backstop in the event agreement is not reached. The first valid challenge that is made must be accepted by the defender or it must forfeit the cup to that valid challenger or negotiate other terms.<ref>{{Cite web |date=29 March 1989 |title=The America's Cup Controversy: America's Cup Chronology |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-03-29-sp-626-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref>

To be eligible, a challenging club must be "an organized yacht Club" of a country other than the defender’s, which is "incorporated, patented, or licensed by the legislature, admiralty or other executive department". The club must hold an "annual regatta [on] an ocean water course on the sea, or on an arm of the sea, or one which combines both".<ref name="Deed of Gift[1&#93">{{Cite web |title=Deed of Gift&#91;1&#93; |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Deed_of_Gift}}</ref> The [[New York Supreme Court]] and the [[New York Court of Appeals]] have held that this means the challenging club must in fact "have held at least one qualifying annual regatta before it submits its Notice of Challenge to a Defender and demonstrate that it will continue to have qualifying annual regattas on an ongoing basis" and not merely intend to hold its first annual regatta before the envisaged America's Cup match.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FindLaw's Court of Appeals of New York case and opinions. |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ny-court-of-appeals/1418851.html |access-date=21 March 2023 |website=Findlaw}}</ref> The New York Supreme Court has also found that the [[Great Lakes]] between the United States and Canada are arms of the sea, allowing clubs with regattas on those lakes to be challengers.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chicago's Salts Covet America's Cup – The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/11/01/chicagos-salts-covet-americas-cup/ceb70546-6cb7-4bce-9e8b-deedde43d6e9/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>

The challenge document must give dates for the proposed races, which must be no less than 10 months from the date the challenge is made, and within date ranges specified for both the northern and southern hemispheres. The challenge document must also provide information on the yacht, including length on load water line; beam at load water line, and extreme beam; and draught of water. If the yacht has one mast, it must be between {{Convert|44 and 90|ft|m}} on the load water line. If it has more than one mast, it must be between {{Convert|80 and 115|ft|m}} on the load water line. These dimensions may not be exceeded by either challenger or defender. The yachts must be propelled by sails only and be constructed in the country to which the challenging and defending clubs belong. Centreboard or sliding keel vessels are allowed with no restrictions nor limitations, and neither the centre-board nor sliding keel is considered a part of the vessel for any purposes of measurement.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schuyler |first=George Lee |title=Deed of Gift[1] |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Deed_of_Gift#Interpretive_decisions_regarding_the_Deed_of_Gift |access-date=21 March 2023 |via=Wikisource}}</ref> As long as these rules are met, the New York Court of Appeals has ruled that the defender may use a boat of a different category to the challenger, such as meeting a challenge in a monohull with a catamaran.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Mercury Bay Boating Club Inc., Appellant, V. San Diego Yacht Club, Respondent, Et Al., Defendant, New York Yacht Club, Intervenor. / (And Another Proceeding.) |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/I90_0103.htm}}</ref>

Under the deed, the defender and challenger "may by mutual consent make any arrangement satisfactory to both as to the dates, courses, number of trials, rules and sailing regulations, and any and all other conditions of the match, in which case also the ten months' notice may be waived".<ref name="Deed of Gift[1&#93" /> Since 1958, the practice has usually been for the defender and challenger to agree that the challenger shall be a Challenger of Record, which then arranges a Challenger Series involving a number of other yacht clubs from countries other than that of the defender.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 July 2014 |title=Explaining the Challenger of Record Concept >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News |url=https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2014/07/30/explaining-challenger-record-concept/}}</ref> The yacht that wins the Challenger Series wins the [[Herbert Pell Cup]] and also an associated sponsored cup such as the [[Prada Cup]] in 2021 or the [[Louis Vuitton Cup]] from 1983 to 2017, and again in 2024.

However, if the challenger and defender cannot agree, the deed provides a backstop, requiring a first-to-two match on ocean courses defined in the deed, at a venue selected by the defender, under its rules and sailing regulations so far as they do not conflict with the provisions of the deed, on the dates submitted by the challenger and in yachts meeting the terms of the deed and the challenge notice.<ref name="Deed of Gift[1&#93" />