Today's New York Times reports that any proposed ferry service from NY City to Sag Harbor (the "Hamptons") is "dead in the water because the Townships really do not want the increased traffic during summer months. Nevertheless of interest, in the well written article, was a hyperlink to a report that the Coast Guard has increased the average passage weight from 165 to 185 pounds for stability purposes and that such a calculation reduces the number of passengers a ferry or vessels of any kind can safely carry and that the cost of building a ferry is more than a bus. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/12/30/coast-guard-passenger-limit-rule-reflects-americans-weight-gain/

Ok, so why is this of interest?

Do you remember a horrific accident when a tour boat overturned in up State NY a few years ago? A number of aged people died. Discussed in a really detained legal decision when someone brought a suit, was whether the operator who had modified the craft was in compliance with regulations and inspected. It turned out, the corporation may have been compliant, but that the regulations were grandfathered in to standards no longer relevant to modern day realities. The Coast Guard modified its certification as a direct result of this suit. My point being that lawsuits, have a way of advancing societal interests, win, lose or draw (boats are better built or not certified for more than xx passengers) and the discussion down below, concerning sudden turn off of sat service, is illustrative of that.