It was never in the hands of the Americans--it was held by the NY Yacht Club, which is hardly representative of what we would consider America. If you asked the doorman at their clubhouse nicely, he'd take you inside and let you have a quick look at it in its glass case, when the big mucky mucks weren't there. For many years, they shaded the rules in their favor to screw the British and then the Aussies. Finally, the Aussies beat them at their own game by designing a superior keel. DC won it back for the San Diego Yacht Club once, and then they lost it in its next defense. When it wound up in the hands of a yacht club from land-locked Switzerland, I think the remaining 100 Americans with any interest in it finally gave up on following it.
My favorite America Cup moment was when Ted Turner defended it, got blind drunk when they were towing his boat back to Newport, and then put on a performance for the ages in front of all of those stuffed shirt bluebloods at the award ceremony.
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