Wooden plaque, 20 x 7 inches, with a model of a racing boat. The plates read: 'Nippon Challenge, America's Cup, 1991', and 'Honorable Maureen O'Connor, Mayor of San Diego'. Nippon Challenge, a Japanese syndicate, took up residence in San Diego in the Spring of 1991 to train for the Jan. 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series for the May 1992 America's Cup. Their JPN-26 reached the semifinals of the LVC with skipper Chris Dickson and co-skipper Makoto Namba.