With a history dating back to 1851, the America's Cup is often called the oldest active trophy in sport.
A look back at the long history of sailing's Blue Riband
With a history dating back to 1851, the America's Cup is often called the oldest trophy in sport - indeed, it predates the modern Olympic Games by some 45 years.
The event is a challenge-based sailing competition where the winning yacht club makes the rules and hosts the following edition.
Throughout almost 160 years of racing, America's Cup boats have undergone various construction changes, with legal challenges having been waged over design elements as controlled by the original and amended Deed of Gift.
The Deed of Gift is the primary tool that governs the rules and regulations required of a team to make a valid challenge for the America's Cup and also sets out the rules of racing.
However, almost all races have involved monohull sailboats of equivalent size and general design, although the 2010 edition - the 33rd in the event's history - will see two multihull vessels going head-to-head.
The very first race of the historic series took place on August 22, 1851 when the New York Yacht Club accepted a challenge and crossed the Atlantic to take on the best that a British fleet had to offer.
The Americans' 90-ft schooner "America" - which was built at a cost of $45,000 - easily emerged triumphant as it saw off no fewer than 14 English challengers in a race around Isle of Wight.
A trophy was subsequently commissioned and spent the next six years travelling around the United States before, in 1857, it was given to the New York Yacht Club and named the America's Cup after the inaugural winning boat.
The first official challenge for newly-named trophy came in 1870 in New York where Britain attempted to restore pride for their defeat nearly 20 years earlier.
England's Royal Thames Yacht Club raced the ill-fated 'Cambria' against 18 American competitors, but ended well-beaten with Magic ensuring the Cup remained in the possession of America.
From the third defence of the trophy in 1876 through to the twentieth in 1967, there was always one challenger and one defender - although the New York Yacht Club ran a selection series to pick the yacht they would ultimately use in the match.
England mounted no fewer than 24 unsuccessful challenges for the America's Cup over the next 113 years but to no avail as the hosts remained unbeatable in races first in New York and then in Newport.
In 1983, Australia finally ended America's 132 years of domination in the event as the 'Australia II' boat fought back from 3-1 down against the Americans in Newport to force a deciding seventh race.
In that, the Australians prevailed by 25 seconds in an exciting encounter to finally snap the longest winning streak in modern sports history.
America's 'Stars and Stripes' reclaimed the trophy at the first time of asking four years later as they defeated 'Kookaburra III' in Fremantle and it would remain in American hands until 1995 when 'Black Magic' emerged triumphant for New Zealand in San Diego.
New Zealand became the first country other than America to retain the crown as they swept Italian challenger Luna Rossa in 2000.
However, they lost their grip on the trophy in 2003 when Switzerland's Alinghi challenger brought the Cup back to Europe for the very first time and they defended their crown in Valencia four years later.
America will now look to reclaim it once again in 2010 as BMW Oracle Racing team take on Alingi, in Valencia once more, with the action getting underway on February 6.
The 2010 contest will again involve multihulls, a trimaran (BMW Oracle) challenging a catamaran (Alinghi) - the first race of its kind in the long history of the Cup.
