As we countdown to the 35th America’s Cup The Royal Gazette will bring you one fun fact a day about the boats, the sailors, the crew, or the history of this illustrious competition. There are now 37 days until the month-long sporting spectacle gets under way.

The King Edward VII Gold Cup is the oldest match-racing trophy in the world for competition involving one-design yachts. It was given at the Tri-Centenary Regatta at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1907 by King Edward VII in commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of the first permanent settlement in America. C. Sherman Hoyt won the regatta and was the first to accept the now historic cup.

In 1937, after three decades of holding the Cup, Mr. Hoyt gave it to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and proposed a regular one-on-one match-race series in six-metre yachts. In his letter he expressed the propriety of “my returning a British Royal trophy to the custody of your club, with its long record of clean sportsmanship and keenly contested races between your Bermuda yachts and ours of Long Island Sound, and elsewhere...”

The first winner of the Cup in its new format was the celebrated Briggs Cunningham, who was also the first skipper to win the America’s Cup in a 12-metre.

The King Edward VII Gold Cup has been won by America’s Cup skippers Sir Russell Coutts— a record seven times (1990-92-93-96-98-2000-04)— and Land Rover BAR’s Ben Ainslie twice (2009-10), Oracle Team USA’s Jimmy Spithill once (2005), plus Peter Gilmour (1995-97-03), John Kolius (1988), Chris Dickson (1989).