2013 America's Cup

34th America's Cup

Team New Zealand leading Oracle Racing in the first race
Defender  United States
Defender club:	Golden Gate Yacht Club
Yacht:	Oracle Team USA 17
Challenger  New Zealand
Challenger club:	Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
Yacht:	Aotearoa
Competition
Location:	San Francisco, California
Dates:	September 2013
Rule:	AC72
Winner:	Golden Gate Yacht Club
Score:	9 8

The 34th America's Cup was a series of boat races held on San Francisco Bay between the defender Oracle Team USA representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Oracle Team USA defended the America's Cup by a score of 9 to 8. Oracle had to win the last eight races to come from behind and once again win the oldest trophy in international sport. Team New Zealand won the right to challenge for the cup by winning the 2013 Louis Vuitton Cup. The 34th America's Cup was the longest ever cup by both number of days and races, and the first since the 25th America's Cup to feature a winner-take-all final race.

The Golden Gate Yacht Club beat Société Nautique de Genève in the 2010 America's Cup to become the Defenders of the America's Cup. The first Challenger of Record for the 34th Cup was Club Nautico di Roma and a joint press conference was held on May 6, 2010, to plan for the event. The planning process was to include: definition of new rules, an independent management team, definition of a new class of boats created in conjunction with all teams, regular racing in multiple venues and provision for much increased television and online coverage.

The Protocol for the 34th America's Cup was published on September 13, 2010. The America's Cup regatta took place in September 2013.

Two new classes of boat were announced. AC72 wing-sail catamarans are being used for the America's Cup races and the AC45 class, a scaled-down one-design version of the AC72, was used for the preliminary training and racing until boats built to the AC72 rules became available. The amended AC72 Class Rule version 1.1 was published on February 22, 2011.