If there is perhaps one reason above all why sailing's Gold Cup is going ahead this year, after the majority of Bermuda's International One Design (IOD) Gold Cup fleet were badly damaged during Hurricane Fabian, it comes in the form of veteran boat builder Bruce Dyson.

With the fleet in tatters and amid fears that sailing's premier regatta would have to be cancelled, event organisers put in an emergency call to Dyson, one of the few men within striking distance of Bermuda with the technical expertise to restore the boats to match racing conditions.

The American, who resides in Marblehead, Massachusetts, was on the Island for just under three weeks, working in excess of ten hour days with the help of many local Bermudians, to ensure that the Gold Cup fleet would be ready for action come October 18.

Although Dyson admitted that he had worked extremely hard during his time in Bermuda, he was very keen to acknowledge the contribution of many others, without whom his efforts would have proved futile.

"I have to admit I was exhausted when I got home," he said.

"Days started at 7.30 a.m. and I was lucky if I got away by half past five. I cannot possibly take all the credit for the effort though.

"I was more like the sparkplug to the whole operation and I received a lot of local help from people like Peter Rego, the guys down at Mills Creek boatyard and many of the people involved with the fleet."

He confirmed also that in many cases the damage had been much more than cosmetic.

"Most of the boats in the Gold Cup fleet were in trouble. Of the 11 or 12 boats that take part in the race, about seven of these were badly damaged, two mildly so and the others got off scot-free," he said.

"There was obviously cosmetic damage to all the vessels but boats such as Privateer, Impulse and Bounty all had serious structural problems and bows had been knocked off to varying degrees."

"Most of them however were all very fixable," he continued," apart from a boat called Peppercorn, which was so badly damaged we did not even start on it."

Dyson said he was "delighted" that the event was going ahead and paid tribute to the "enormous effort on the part of a lot of people" in extremely trying circumstances.

"After a hurricane the size of Fabian I would have expected the event to have been cancelled.

"But it hasn't been and although I will not be there to see it, I'm sure it will now be a success and the boats will look as good as new."