A recent report in The Duluth News Tribune seems to offer at least a little hope. In April, Superior’s level rose six inches, double the normal increase for the month, and on May 1 the lake stood ten inches higher than at the same time in 2007. Still 8 inches below its long term average, but compared to the 22 inches measured early in 2007, current levels are seen as a cause for optimism.

According to the International Lake Superior Board of Control, after three dry months, April rain and snowfall over the Superior basin were well above normal, leading to the surge in water levels and continuing an upswing that began last fall. Still, it’s unclear whether the current increase is part of a long-term return to normal or a hitch before low water levels re-assert themselves. While the science is far from conclusive on either side of the matter, the most commonly advanced theory is that that warmer winters will contribute to decreased snow melts and reduced seasonal ice cover which increases the potential for evaporation - resulting in continued low water.

The International Joint Commission (IJC), controversial controlling agency of the St Lawrence Seaway, is in the midst of a $15 million study designed to determine if human intervention is required to help stabilize water levels in the upper lakes. Of the five great lakes, Lake Ontario, smallest in area and furthest downstream, is the only one in which water levels can be controlled, and the IJC has regulated it since 1958.

Regardless of future developments, current Lake Superior levels are cause for optimism because all that water is on its way downstream. Environmental advocates say the lakes have always fluctuated in this manner. Its part of the way things work in the ecosystem, and this rebound is nothing more than nature continuing a cycle thousands of generations old. As if to add an exclamation point to this conclusion, a great deal of the criticism the IJC has received of it’s handling of Lake Ontario over the past few years has been centered around its refusal to allow Ontario to fluctuate in the same way the other lakes do. As environmentalists say, low levels reduce cattail populations and allow the boundary layer between lake and shore to develop and retain more diversity, which has been demonstrated to lead to a healthier environment for both aquatic and nearshore landlocked creatures.

Ironically, lakefront property owners in Michigan are begging the IJC to recommend the exact kind of regulation property owners on Lake Ontario have loudly rejected via their support of IJC Plan B+, which would require the IJC to artificially create the same kind of fluctuations that benefit wildlife to the potential detriment of the interests of property owners and boaters. Seems like it’s all a matter of perspective. Those who don’t have enough water, want more; those who’ve got it, can often have way too much. Regulation of levels might be just what's needed to keep everyone only a little bit unhappy.  

While seeming to lament the fact that small boats exist by the million and are not nationally regulated, the Bush administration is considering creating a federal licensing program that would change all that. Coast Guard and Homeland Security representatives have toured the country over the past year, testing the waters to see how much resistance such a program would encounter.

The latest step toward regulation, effective April 28, asks states to develop safety standards for recreational boaters, and once again asks boaters to look for and report suspicious behavior on the water (the Coast Guard has had it's "waterways watch" program going four years now). Of course, no state is likely to implement such a plan. It would first need to establish a regulatory infrastructure (read expensive) which in a weak economy simply doesn't seem likely to happen. This would open the door to a federal program. The spin the administration is trying to give this thinly disguised first step toward federal regulation is that it would be much like a neighborhood watch program.

According to the government’s long range plan, the strategy is to create a layered defense based on radiological and nuclear detection equipment deployed with harbor patrols and police departments, and in addition to the above “suspicious behavior watch,” would include national federal standards to operate a small boat. The Coast Guard will be detailed to work with states in establishing minimum safety standards and to enforce the new laws. This could include requiring boat operators to have a current safety certificate on board with them, and a piece of identification that links to the certificate.

Among the suspicious behaviors detailed are boaters taking photos of a bridge or measurements of a dam, a boat lingering near a piece of critical infrastructure, people who seem strangely unfamiliar with boats, any person or watercraft that appears to be loitering or has no specific reason to be in the area, unattended vessels in odd locations, unusual night operations, lights flashing between boats, or anyone recovering or tossing items into waterways or onto shorelines.

Hey, I just realized the suspicious actor is me. In the last year, I have committed most of the above suspicious acts.

Combined with the other measures implemented by the Department of Homeland Security; the hostile new attitude of the Coast Guard, the fencing in of government structures and facilities, this new program has further ominous overtones. It sure feels like in the name of “security,” big brother is standing a lot closer to our backs than ever before. Almost close enough to reach around and eat our lunch for us. And you know what? If we let him know he can, he’s almost certain to go ahead and eat.

What did they say?

 "Riveting...Rhapsodic...Accomplished"

 Read the full review below.

 ForeWord Magazine

 Art Tirrell

The bridge on Sunday, April 13

To date, the traffic plan devised by state and local authorities has been working well. The plan diverts local traffic to the Utica Street bridge (a half mile south). Delays have been short and confined to the busier morning and afternoon drive times.

Not without a certain amount of tongue in cheek, local observers say that because local police officers stationed at either end of the Utica Street bridge haven’t tried to help too much, they’ve made major contributions to smooth traffic flow. The officers will step in and direct traffic to expedite things for emergency vehicles, but otherwise they haven’t interfered.

This is a variation on the long-time local joke that has its origins in the huge annual traffic snarls that follow the Harborfest fireworks display each summer. With an officer ignoring the traffic control signals and directing traffic at every important intersection, it seems as if essentially, you can’t get where you’re going from where you are for at least an hour after the fireworks end. If police would only stop trying to help, things would go a heck of a lot better.

Progress update: 

It appears that whole sections of the old bridge will be lifted out one by one. Today, the crew is using a Komatsu Shovel to pick out the guard fence and crews are jackhammering through the concrete sidewalks over each bridge support.

A Kobatsu PC2000 Shovel plucks a section of guard rail. What a machine: 430,000 lbs and can grab 14.4 Cu yds with one bite.

The red steel underneath the spans was put in position last fall, mostly at night. It appears to be the framework for the lifting slings. We're looking forward to seeing the actual lifting of the spans.

“Wind, waves, and current would quickly dissipate normal dyes,” said Rhea L. Ziel, official spokesperson. “Fortunately, our two-year $66 million study identified a group of long chain polymers that will allow the dye to remain substantially in place for a minimum of one hour before sinking. This 'hang time', as we call it, will permit an hourly schedule of over-flights to maintain the presence of the line.”

An example of what the line will look like from space. Helicopters will be based in Watertown and Buffalo.

The plan is seen as a response to vocal criticism of the recent DHS announcement that it intended to begin enforcing passport reporting requirements for charter fishing vessels operating out of New York State.

Ziel defended the need to strictly enforce Border policy. “If we let US citizens go out and come back in without reporting, how can we expect foreigners not to think they can do the same,” she said. “We do have monitoring satellites in place over the lake, but until we're fully deployed in 2015, it will be impossible to observe every boat all the time. For all we know, the fishing derbies they hold might be little more than cover schemes for Canadian fishermen to collude with Americans and smuggle in cheap Chinese laborers while sending tax free cigarettes to Canada. Why do you think they call those boxes on their boats “live” wells, anyway?”

Under the new rules, charter operators will be required to:

1. One hour before they leave shore, fax in passenger’s personal information – name, date of birth, and government ID # - to Customs and Border Protection office. The names will be run against an anti-terrorist watch list.
2. Make sure passengers carry either a passport or a government ID and a proof-of-citizenship document.
3. Send the passengers to a local border protection reporting station after landing, so they can call in on a videophone.

A cadre of 3,500 new Customs officers will be required when the plan is fully implemented. They will use newly purchased patrol boats and government aircraft to spot check and back up satellite feeds. Suspicious behavior would be any two boats approaching within five feet, individuals in the water (swimmers), the presence of personal watercraft, semi-submerged objects, suspicious buoys or markers, and people urinating over the side, among others.

“Our concerns are anything from terrorists and terrorist weapons to polluters, drugs and undocumented aliens,” said Ziel.

Charter captain Randy Randell, who fishes out of Oswego, NY, could only shake his head. "This proves that the only thing worse than a zealot is a zealous bureaucrat," he said. "So what if we stray over the line? There's no way they'll be able to keep track of everyone.”

"That's what he thinks," said Ziel. "We didn't spend $66 million on nothing. The new dyes have special molecules designed to be absorbed by fiberglass. Any boat that passes through the line will be dyed pink. The pink dyes also function as reflectors, which the satellites are programmed to home in on."

Customs officials will patrol dock areas, looking for pink boats. Chemicals required to remove the dye will be available exclusively at Customs offices. The introductory price will be $49.95 per ounce and will be sold only in 12 oz bottles.

Ziel did not think the price excessive. “Pink is now the official DHS color. It will be illegal to paint an entire boat pink to circumvent the dye. We mean business. As of next month, we’re putting a stop to all illegal activities out there. The data will show very quickly if we’re successful or not.”

Ziel would not reveal the number of charter fishing customers arrested over the last five years, but said the number exceeded ten, with public urination a prominent offense. When asked how the dye will affect the habitat, she said, “Environmental impact fades to insignificance when compared to the very strong and visible benefits. For the first time ever, we'll have a clearly visible border on the surface of the lake. Before, it was very difficult to establish whether a boat was in American or Canadian waters. Now, it no longer will. Just think, we will now be able to identify everyone who illegally leaves the country. We see that as a major advance toward the future security of all our citizens.”

The govenrment of Canada was quick to respond. Prime Minister Sue Yu issued a terse statement. "We fully support and endorse the actions of the US Government in its attempt to secure its borders. However, we strongly object to the red and white striped colours of the proposed line. Red and white are our national colours. Any government with the resources to establish a line in the first place should be capable of adding a third colour, blue, to make the line distinct from the line we will no doubt be establishing ourselves in near future."

If the Lake Ontario deployment is a success DHS plans to immediately expand the program to include the other three great lakes sharing borders with Canada.

Note:

This has been an April fool’s story. The dye line is a fabrication, but the new reporting information is not. Rules go into effect in May.

"Seven with one blow"

Taking a page from the classic Grimm Brothers fairy tale, the International Joint Commission (IJC), which oversees the St. Lawrence Seaway and controls Lake Ontario water levels, has proposed the adoption of new discharge management plan D+(as revised) to become effective next year. In doing so, the commission promised that in two years environmental groups and recreational boaters could have the plan they favored (plan B+), but only if they first successfully complete three rather daunting tasks.

The tasks are mitigation measures IJC says will be needed if B+ is implemented:

1 - Create and implement shoreline protection (high water) for all at-risk areas, and demonstrate that the measures are in place and working as designed. Among these measures are breakwaters, beach nourishment and other habitat restoration measures.

2 - Deepen channels that would be at risk during low water conditions by dredging and other measures.

3 - Convince federal, state, provincial and local governments to act as follows: public acquisition of properties that can not be otherwise protected from high water; low interest loans where at-risk properties can be protected; institute stricter floodplain and land use programs; zoning changes.

Both plans D+ and B+ are descended from a five-year $20 million study commissioned by the IJC and completed in 2005. The study recommended three possible plans of action; plans A, B, and D. All three represented a distinct departure from the plan then in effect (plan 1958DD).

The study clearly stated any of the new plans could be implemented without the prior implementation of mitigatory measures.

The commission did accept the final report, but promptly appointed another group to review it and suggest better alternatives. This second very distinguished group of scientists and researchers produced revisions; plans A+, B+, and D+, all of which came closer to the IJC’s plan (1958DD) and were thus more acceptable to the commission – but apparently not yet close enough to be totally so.

Additional study and consideration commenced, resulting in last week’s March 28 introduction of proposed “Plan 2007.” Although nominally a derivative of plan D+, plan 2007 is virtually identical to plan 1958DD. This is not surprising as both were developed with the interests of commercial shipping and power generation in mind. It appears the commission – from the tone of its documents reluctant to undertake the study process in the first place – has managed for the most part to deflect change.

Plan B+ is favored by environmentalists and boaters because it results in both higher and lower extreme water levels than the other plans. Plan B+ would favorably impact wetland areas adjacent to Lake Ontario proper by narrowing the transition line from submerged to upland plant species, thus improving spawning habitat and the diversity of marshlands. Specifically, occasional very low water levels would dry out marshes and reduce the dominance of cattails that crowd out aquatic grasses and other plants. Boaters supported this concept, even though the same low water conditions could make things difficult for them.

Last week’s decision was not unexpected. The Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 established an order of precedence in the IJC’s management of its assets: uses for sanitary and domestic purposes; uses for navigation; and uses for power generation, and the commission is bound to uphold its responsibilities under the treaty. This it has done, stating that it is now the responsibility of the governments of New York State, the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, the joint federal governments, and the governments of waterfront cities and counties to implement whatever mitigation processes they please.

Like the little tailor in Grimm’s fable, who after having miraculously swatted seven flies with one blow, cried “I killed seven with one blow” - just as the king asked who in his kingdom could kill the two giants - environmentalists, boaters, and shoreline communities stood up and were counted when invited, only to be handed the task of slaying the giants. Is it possible? Yes, but not only have no sources of funding been identified, no organization seems ready to step forward. Even if funds were available immediately, it might take two years just to compile a list of potential impact sites. IJC has to know this as well as anyone. For an international organization to establish such a set of conditions in the face of the recommendations of its own study, which categorically stated no remediation actions were needed, seems cynical indeed. 

The IJC - left to right: Jack Blaney; Irene Brooks; Herb Gray- chair; Allen Olson

The new fence guarding the empty west side wharf

It’s downright unfriendly. THAT’S what.

Blame it on Washington's "stealth" economic stimulus package, otherwise known as the Department of Homeland Security. Since 911, millions of new federal, state and local jobs have been created in security and security related industries. The list is so long and the flow of money so broad it could be rightly claimed that security is our newest social program, and further, that the scale is so broad it could by itself be responsible for the positive economic numbers we’ve seen for the last seven years.

That might be speculation, but the best lies always have strong elements of truth. Speculation is no different. I don’t know that much about the national picture, but let me give you a snapshot of my own town. I live on the southern shore of Lake Ontario – which makes my small city a border town. Despite this fact, it’s nearly thirty miles by water to the nearest point of land in Canada and more than three times that overland. If you knew the nature of Lake Ontario, you wouldn’t call either route the easiest for aliens entering the country, and in recent memory none have been apprehended trying. This has not prevented the construction of a large new Border Patrol facility here. Add to that a huge new Army Reserve structure; a suddenly hostile Coast Guard attitude to go along with their brand new stainless steel cutters; and finally, an aggressive new Port of Oswego Authority emphasis on security.

It's this last that is most bothersome to many. The federal activities can be tolerated, if only because there's nothing anyone can do about them. The port authority, however, controls most of the waterfront, and this makes its actions particularly visible.

Shortly after 911, fences were erected around the east side terminal, and guards positioned at the gate. After decades of open access (a period by-the-way devoid of incidents of theft, vandalism, mayhem or mischief upon port facilities), drive-in access is now denied.

Next came the turn of the port’s west side wharf, former site of the now-demolished grain elevators. The wharf has grown a highly visible, very ugly and forbidding fence; a fence destined most of the time to protect empty space. This is the same wharf on which the Port of Oswego Authority recently granted a 1500 linear foot easement to the city of Oswego in order to allow for completion of the Oswego Harbor Trail Project. How the fence, which sports some pretty threatening signs, will contribute to the comfort level of visitors accessing the public corridor is a bit hard to visualize at the moment.

Despite the port's generosity in granting an easement, if the visitor access corridor passed to the left of this sign. Would YOU chance passing it?

What anal fixation has suddenly seized our nation? Exactly what are we trying to guard against? In Oswego's case, it can’t be terrorism. A ten year old could gain access to Oswego's Port Authority property.

                                            This fence might stop someone in a wheelchair, but not much else.

If not terrorism, what? The unwashed public - folks who like to visit the port, enjoy a few hours on the rip rap with a fishing pole and a cold soda, or maybe just cruise through as part of an occasional waterfront tour? For ages, the public has been able to do this without interfering with port operations. The Port might be state owned, but we’ve always thought of it as an open and friendly operation.

Of course, there must be a federal mandate behind these measures. The port stores potash, among other chemicals. Whatever! Who’s going to steal the stuff in broad daylight? Suddenly barring the gates and completely barring access is, well, it’s not only impolite, it's downright unfriendly.

With the introduction of the Amazon Kindle, e-books are finally about to arrive in quantity. Why should writers and publishers be happy? For the first time since the advent of the internet, newly released books will not be immediately available in used form. In fact, new books in electronic form will NEVER be available to resellers. This is an important development because on-line resellers absolutley slam sales of new print copies. If paper books go away, so will this very serious problem.

When a publisher lays out $20-50,000 to acquire and produce a book, there should be a period during which they have exclusive ability to market the product. Unitl the net, this used to be true. Today, every book shares its page with its worst enemy, the resellers, and must compete with essentially the same product offered for as little as one cent plus shipping and handling. Go to any book's Amazon page. You will find links to resellers offering used copies. Author and publisher earn only when a new copy sells. If used books comprise half of all sales of books in print, selling through a first printing becomes 100% less likely. As witnessed by the number of resellers lining up, it’s clear the problem has reached epidemic proportion. We may have reached the point where it’s entirely possible for a book to be a best seller without the author or publisher knowing.

Trade in used books is perfectly legal, but with the advent of the internet the character of the business turned on traditional publishers. Used book stores specialize in rare, unusual and out of print volumes that often sell for many multiples of the original cover price. Today, they've added a new element to the mix. Your book is sold at no profit and the shipping and handling fee produces the $4-5 margin for the seller. Not much, but better than a kick in the knee on a day when nothing rare or unusual is sold.

Here’s why writers and publishers should rejoice at the arrival of Kindle. When Kindle becomes universal, the supply of used books is bound to dwindle. This will push the price of paper books up, and the trade in used books will retreat to its former role. True, the corrected balance will be artificial and dependent on the whim of the folks at Amazon, a force so huge as to be beyond most of us. An additional long overdue benefit; authors and publishers will finally be paid each and every time a copy of their work is downloaded, because there is no way to buy or sell the electronic data inside a Kindle.

Will the Kindle live up to its promise? E-novels have been around quite a while, more than long enough for the gloss of low cost and easy accessibility to wear off. Despite being hailed in the beginning, and a rash of colorful startups, e-books have so far failed to capture the reading public’s imagination. Adults who’ve learned to do their reading while seated in a comfortable chair or curled up on a sofa, find it awkward to sit at a desk, or in the case of laptops, balance the device somehow in reading position. Add to this awkwardness the fact that reading on a CRT can be unusually fatiguing, and you have a formula for failure.

Although it was recognized early on that e-publishing as an industry could not thrive in the absence of affordable  “readers”, devices small and light enough to permit easy handling, storage, and operation, no worthy product found its way to the market. Many prototypes have been announced, but up to now none have proven viable in the marketplace.

All that changed with the 2007 introduction of “Kindle.” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos went out and bought the best of the competition and addressed each and every one of the stumbling blocks others stumbled over:

COST : a Kindle sells for $399 delivered. At first, this seems high, but the price includes permanent unlimited access from virtually anywhere. There is no monthly fee. One price, and it’s yours to use forever. Compare this with your monthly cell phone bill. That $399 just shrunk a whole lot, didn’t it. By comparison, the Kindle is inexpensive.

READER FATIGUE: Kindle readers have a screen that simulates paper and ink. Readers vow that within a few pages they forget they are not reading the real thing.

DIFFICULT TO HANDLE: weight – 10 oz. About the same as the average paperback.

TITLE SELECTION: Amazon is the world’s biggest bookstore. Every NY Times Bestseller is available as well as nearly 100,000 current titles, not to mention newspapers, blogs, magazines. You get access to it all. Of course, periodicals will bill your credit card for access, just as you need to pay for the reading material you choose.

PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE: I had to wait four weeks for my Kindle. When they’re selling faster than they can be produced, you know something good is on its way to happening.

If this sounds like a commercial for the Kindle, let me assure you it’s not. Authors and publishers have been waiting a long time for the chance to earn a royalty each time their book is sold. From my vantage point, it looks like that time has finally come. You can bet your house that by the end of 2008, there will be 1,000,000 Kindles in use, and as many titles waiting to be downloaded. I sincerely hope mine will be among them.

Art Tirrell is the author of 2007's best adventure novel, The Secret Ever Keeps.

“Simply put…the best underwater scenes I’ve ever read.”

Go to the above web page. Then come back and read on.

How did that make you feel? If you've followed America's Cup sailing in the past, you probably got a bit emotional. It's a perfectly natural response called Nationalism. We're proud to be who we are. And that is what's wrong with today's America's Cup regattas. The sense of nationalism is gone.

The America’s Cup has always been a game for the rich and powerful. Indeed, in the age of wooden yachts, only millionaires and royalty could afford such an expensive hobby. The average person couldn’t afford to take part. For most of its 132 year residence in the trophy case at The New York Yacht Club, most Americans had no idea such a Cup existed.

In the late 1950’s, television and radio as well as the introduction of fiberglass as a boatbuilding material, led to a boom in boat construction and greatly expanded the accessibility of the sport. Concurrent with the arrival of the first inexpensive fiberglass yachts, a community of enthusiastic new sailors appeared. Cup matches began to attract a wider audience. In the US, nationalist fervor peaked in 1987, when Dennis Conner – who in 1983 became the first man to lose the cup – made his way down under and by sheer force of will won it back. All over America, sailors braved the wee hours of the morning to watch Conner and his team sail to victory. It was a truly American effort. The boat, sailors, sails and most of the equipment were American, as rules then required.

Things changed in 1988 when Conner, forced to abandon Stars and Stripes which had just finished repatriating the cup, sailed out to the starting line in a 60 foot catamaran to meet Kiwi Michael Fay’s 120 foot ultra-light-displacement monohull New Zealand. The match was a disaster for the Cup’s reputation. Months and months of acrimonious litigation followed by a lopsided match on the water killed off a great deal of interest among sailors.

It didn't seem like things couldn’t get worse, but they did. The arrival of big name sponsors and the resulting crossing of national boundaries by competitors upended 150 years of tradition. Where in the beginning the owners were mere multi-millionaires, today the top sailors are the millionaires and any owner with less than a billion or two can forget winning the Cup. Sailors aren't stupid, they follow the money. If that means a Kiwi steers a Swiss boat, hey, we all have families to feed. Today’s America’s Cup competitions no longer have a national flavor and that’s the element that's missing. The Cup has become a playground for mega-corporations which do not recognize national borders. 

I say it’s time to bring back national teams. BMW Oracle Racing might be based in San Francisco and owned by an

The author and crew calling the pin end of the start line

American, but it isn’t an American team. Helmsman Russell Coutts is from New Zealand. The crew are from everywhere but the US. No wonder yesterday's announcement was met with virtual silence. No one cares. BMW Oracle isn't us.

Give me a truly American team, and I’ll pay attention again. Require the skipper and 90% of all team members to be US citizens. Make sure the boat and its equipment is conceived, designed, and built in the US. Require all sails to be designed and built by lofts that do not share technology. And what’s with this catamaran crap? Less than one half of one percent of all sailboats are catamarans. They might be straight line fast, but the rest of the time they’re unwieldy space hogs that tack slower than a tractor trailer rig doing a u-turn. Make the boat a hundred feet long if you want, but get back to monohull competitions.

According to the Deed of Gift, the challenger may decide what size and type of boat will be used. Larry Ellison, prime mover at Golden Gate YC and owner of the BMW Oracle Racing team has declared that BMW Oracle will sail a catamaran. Catamarans are twin hulled boats and much faster than their single hulled counterparts.

Thus, as has happened in the past, the current holders of the cup will be unable to use the yacht with which they successfully defended it less than a year earlier. This is an old tactic in America's Cup competitions - most recently employed in the 1988 cup match. That year, Dennis Conner and San Diego YC had only recently repatriated the cup when Michael Fay, who in the 1987 AC campaigned “Kiwi Magic” a fiberglass 12 meter yacht, filed a new challenge and named an already completed 90 footer as the challenger of record. With its winning yacht sure to be defeated by Fay’s 90 foot entry, and with only 8 months to design and build a challenger, San Diego YC opted to enter a multi-hull. The rules did not prohibit this, and Conner went on to soundly defeat “ New Zealand ” in a notable mismatch.

With precedent firmly in place, Ellison made his new challenge and predictably, the courts again ruled in favor of the challenger. Yesterday’s ruling orders the current holder of the cup, Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG), and the Alinghi syndicate to meet Ellison and his BMW Oracle catamaran head to head in a winner take all showdown. Regardless of the fact that it is undisputedly the fastest IACC yacht in existence, Alinghi, a monohull, will have no chance against a catamaran, and thus, like the San Diego YC before them, SNG will need to start from scratch.

Lucien Masmejan, SNG lead counsel, issued a biting response to the ruling: “Following today’s court order, Larry Ellison has eliminated the competition and gained access to the America’s Cup Match, a feat BMW Oracle Racing has never been able to achieve on the water.”

Tom Ehman, Golden Gate YC spokesman, said: “We are very pleased with this decision. The court has ruled that our challenge complied fully with the Cup’s Deed of Gift, and we are now keen to keep moving forward towards the next regatta.”

Due to the fact that there will only be two competitors in the regatta; defender Alinghi and challenger BMW Oracle, the Louis Vuitton Cup, an elimination series for challengers, will not be held. French fashion designer Vuitton had sponsored the challenger regatta since 1983.

This is not the “auld mug’s” first visit to the New York courts. There have been many. In that 1988 challenge, the court ruled in favor of challenger Fay. Since 1958, the regatta had been sailed in 12 meters (65-75 feet in length). Fay previously sponsored “Kiwi Magic”, dubbed the “Plastic Fantastic” by sailors after skipper Chris Dixon swept his way undefeated into the final match of the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cup – only to lose to Dennis Connor in “Stars and Stripes,” which later went on to reclaim the cup.

The 1987 regatta became the high point of national interest in the cup. Millions of Americans stayed up late to watch Conner and Stars and Stripes bring the cup home. When the legal turmoil of 1988 began and sailors began to cross national boundaries, the lines blurred and interest in the cup declined.

Today, the battle lines have been drawn for the 33^rd and possibly last time. To add to the confusion, dates are not yet set. The match could take place as early as this summer, although BMW Oracle prefers October 2008, and Alinghi has proposed a date of July 2009. Whatever happens, the months of litigation have once again damaged the America's Cup image and its future is now questionable. With the latest ruling, several teams are on the verge of dissolving, while others have lost sponsors and will not likely be seen again if there should be another large regatta in 2011.