The new rules :

The RYS Minutes of 9 May 1851 record the decision to hold a race on Friday 22nd August, during the club's Regatta, which would be open to yachts of clubs of all nations. This first such race was arranged so that America could take part if she came to England. Squadron races were normally open only to their own yachts.

The start

The start does not seem to have inspired many painters, perhaps because the schooner America was not shown to advantage, so here is a picture of the the castle of and the Cowes start line traditional of all the races of the Royal yacht Squadron.

The debate is open

Many paintings exist representative the £100 Cup. Some depict a specific time of the race that can be situed approximately in time and space through the respective positions of ships, their appearance, the landscape and sometimes indications of their author. Some times shown below are questionable. The debate is open.

HOW THE PILGRIM WILL LOOK

WILMINGTON, Dek, May 8, 1893.- The mantle of secrecy has been quite as carefully thrown around the Boston syndicate cup defender Pilgrim, now building at the yard or Pusey & Jones, at this place, as around any of the Herreshoff productions, and really very little has been known about her except that she was a fin keel of extreme draught.

The  "Wizard of Bristol"

Nathanael Greene Herreshoff (March 18, 1848 – June 2, 1938), is a descendant of Frederick Herreshoff, a Prussian engineer who settled in Rhode Island in 1790, marrying Sarah Brown, daughter of John Brown, the leading shipbuilder in that state. Among their children was Frederick, born in 1808, ...

Artist Franklyn Bassford came naturally to marine art, and was a prominent participant with the famous lithography house of Currier & Ives, painting original works of racing yachts. One of his first known canvases for this company was a scene of the classic America’s Cup 1885 match of PURITAN and GENESTA, his initial year with the firm.

Stewart Joyce is a British painter.
Numerous works by the artist have been sold at auction, including 'White Heather at full pelt off Old Castle Point, Cowes' sold at Christie's South Kensington 'Maritime' in 2007.