Dear Sir,

Again I’m writing, hoping you will allow me to express my gratitude to all those wonderful individuals involved in making the America’s Cup the success it was.

I’m sure I can speak for the many thousands of people here in Bermuda that witnessed this spectacle over the duration of the America’s Cup series.

It was truly a magical time for everyone, the racing unbelievable by all competitors. From the very first race to the final race of the America’s Cup. With the trophy going to Emirates Team New Zealand, this will be on people’s tongues for a very long time.

Each person will have something to add to my letter for sure. But, ultimately, they will all give rave reviews about how this event was handled in and around the America’s Cup Village at Dockyard.

An even bigger task was controlling the many local watercraft — big and small, commercially operated tour boats, visitor yachts and superyachts as well.

Everyone was well behaved during these races, which I’m sure was quite a job for anyone to handle and oversee. This was handled very well by our local marine police patrols, along with the Royal Bermuda Regiment marine boat section working together to keep everyone safe while the races were taking place. They all did a great job.

The overseas coverage for the duration of the America’s Cup was fantastic. The whole world was receiving the races first-hand, along with the many pictures of the various locations of interest around Bermuda, such as our beaches, both Hamilton and St George’s, and the various stands inside the America’s Cup Village. All the people on display showed beaming smiles of pride for our island and, of course, for their choice of whom to support.

The very sad bit was the collision in Hamilton Harbour that claimed the life of a lady from New Zealand. Her husband and she, both very experienced boat people, were in Bermuda to give Team New Zealand support. Bermuda should stand tall; we all did the necessary to make this event go down in our history books. It was the biggest gamble we have ever made.

Our local youth team, racing the smaller version of the America’s Cup catamarans, were very excited to participate during the America’s Cup series. In fact, they won a race to which our local fans were elated beyond words, especially the families of the Bermuda crew. Well done, guys. We are very proud of you. Each of you can apply this experience to all your future endeavours.

I must not end this letter without mention of the many tall ships that stopped in Bermuda on their way across the Atlantic, before heading on to Boston. It just added a plus to the America’s Cup venue.

Also the magical J Class yachts; they were absolutely beautiful under sail.

Finally, a big thank you to our beautiful island of Bermuda, and to our many residents who gave of their time as volunteers throughout the event. They certainly gave our many visitors and locals their time while visiting the Village. Along with our many local musicians, who had everyone dancing, laughing and having a good old time.

I am hoping Bermuda can host something such as this again in the future. We certainly have proven we can handle it. I’m sure they found areas that might need fine tuning to make an event of this size perfect in the future. All in all, we did a tremendous job.

Let’s do it again.

H.G. GIBBONS

Paget