Today (9th September), marks the anniversary of the end of an infamous America's Cup match when Stars and Stripes, a wing powered catamaran representing the San Diego Yacht Club won the second race of the 27th Match off San Diego by 21 minutes and 10 seconds to defeat the 90' monohull yacht New Zealand representing the Mercury Bay Yacht Club. The "mis-match" as it was labeled  was characterised by bitter legal proceedings, accusatory press releases and a lack of the friendly competition the Deed calls for.  While Stars and Stripes won the Cup that day, the Cup would afterwards "change hands" twice in the course of subsequent legal proceedings. 

The background to the disputes was the San Diego Yacht Club had delayed announcing arrangements for the 27th America's Cup after Dennis Conner won the Cup in Fremantle, Western Australia. Unknown to the frustrated prospective challengers, there was infighting between the Club and its representative Sail America over the next match venue. The later preferring Hawaii due to financial incentives being offered and naturally the Club sought a hometown match. Frustrated challenger Michael Fay decided to force the issue and filed a Deed challenge on behalf of the Mercury Bay Boating Club Incorporated, based in Whitianga, on the scenic Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. The Club then conducted many of it's yacht races from an old Ford Zephyr packed in the beach, but it met the Deed qualifications for challengers. The challenger's yacht would be the largest single mast yacht permitted under the Deed - 90 feet load waterline, reminiscent of pre-war challengers and defenders.

The San Diego Yacht Club rejected the challenge and filed proceedings in the New York Supreme Court to amend the Deed. Mercury Bay launched proceedings to enforce it's challenge. The Court upheld the validity of the challenge and rejected the Deed amendments as being unjustified. The San Diego Yacht Club did not appeal the ruling, but instead announced it would defend the Cup in a catamaran, beginning a new round of legal proceedings. The Court insisted the competitors go and sailing and come back with any complaints after. They did. The match result was predictable, as was the return to court. 

The issue at stake boiled down to whether a defender is required to sail the match with a similar yacht to the challengers to make it a match? The New York Supreme Court answered 'yes" and awarded the Cup to Mercury Bay Boating Club. The San Diego Yacht Club appealed and won the next two appeals so that the match was only finally resolved in early 1990 by majority decision of the New York Court of Appeals. The only sailor on the Court of Appeals, Judge Hancock wrote a dissenting minority judgment that many legal commentators later thought was more convincing judgment than that of the majority. 

The mis-match signalled an end to Cup racing in the 12-meter class of yacht which had served the America's Cup well since 1958. A new modernised version of the class was developed, the International America's Cup Class which serviced well until the next Deed match in 2010.   

The other change introduced by the match was advertising on the competing yachts. Stars and Stripes unfurled a Diet Pepsi gennaker   during the first race after rounding the weather mark to become the first America's Cup competitor yacht to display commercial advertising. The door was openen to greater commercial sponsorship of competitors to help fund their increasingly more expensive America's Cup campaigns. 

The last word of the mis-match, demonstrating a political dimension to the New York court decisions, should be left to one of the appellate judges who later said in a filmed interview of the trial court judge, Ciparick J, who awarded the Cup to Mercury Bay :

"It [Cirparick's J decision] was a breathe of fresh air, as if any American would rule against an American team in favour of a foreign team, ...  made it even more extraordinary."