2017 America's Cup

        In our house, we have a lot of passion about sport, particularly when New Zealand is competing overseas. We love to see New Zealand winning, jumping out of our seats and cheering as they do. As can be expected, we quickly caught 'Americas Cup Fever' and were closely following each race. I just loved those boats, (or were they low flying aircraft), the way the foiled across the water. Would love to ride in one. Would be an amazing experience.
        Now before the owner of this blog gets on my case I better mention something about stamps. Yes, Allan, I did notice the six stamps on this miniature sheet. There is not much more we can say about the stamps other than that they show the Team NZ boat in action. The main photo in the centre shows the presentation for the cup to our team.

The America's Cup sheet, with six $2.70 stamps, was issued on the 3rd of July 2017. No first-day covers were produced.


The 12 Stamps.
Various views of the New Zealanders in action.








The Americas Cup.
         The America’s Cup, affectionately known as the Auld Mug, is the oldest active trophy in international sport. First contested in 1851, it predates the modern Olympics by 45 years.
         The competition for this prestigious Cup began when a schooner named America won a race around the Isle of Wight against a fleet of Britain’s finest boats. In 1857 the owners of America donated the Cup to the New York Yacht Club (NYCC). The Cup was to become a ‘challenge trophy’ for ‘friendly competition between foreign countries’. And so began America’s 132-year winning-streak and domination of the sport.
          America successfully defended the cup 24 times until in 1983 they met their match when they failed to beat Australia. The longest winning streak in history was finally broken.
The America’s Cup is notoriously difficult to win. Since the first race over 150 years ago, only four nations have been able to join the extremely exclusive winners' circle, New Zealand being one of them.
         1995 was New Zealand’s year for victory. Team New Zealand sailed to glory in their superior craft and The America’s Cup was welcomed with open arms back to the southern hemisphere. However, this was short-lived and despite having been successfully defending the Cup in 2000, we lost and farewelled the Cup in 2003.
         2017 was a milestone for Team New Zealand when after so many attempts, once again the cup came back to New Zealand. It will stay here until the next cup races when other teams will arrive here to challenge for the Americas Cup.


Technical information.

Date of issue3 July 2017.
Number of stampsSix gummed stamps.
Denominations6 x $2.70.
Stamps designed byJonathon Gray, New Zealand Post, Wellington, New Zealand.
Printer and processCollectables and Solutions Centre, New Zealand Post, Whanganui, New Zealand.
Number of coloursFour process colours.
Stamp size and format40mm x 30mm (horizontal).
Paper typeTullis Russell 104 gsm gummed stamp paper.
Number of stamps per sheet6.
Perforation gauge13.33 x 13.6.
Period of sale: These stamps remained on sale until 2 July 2018.


Some of the images in this post were used with permission from the illustrated catalogue of StampsNZ
You can visit their website and Online Catalogue at, http://stampsnz.com/

Information for this post came from.