As most have already heard, this years race went from the Battle on the Bay to War on the Shore! At this point to tell the whole story would be enough info to write a book. Long and short of it our race has become a political pawn, and people are trying to stop it. The documentation needed to hold the race is submitted to the Coast guard for approval. The one they sent in was not accepted and the Coast Guard did not issue the permit. We have spoken to the Coast Guard and we are going to resubmit the document for there review. We have done this successfully for 4 years and we a confident it will be approved. Friends of offshore that are posting Local news info should realize that 99% of what they write is inaccurate and slanted towards our opponents. If there are questions please ask me before posting.
We have by no means given up, we are doing everything we can.
Thanks Louie

Thanks Louie for all your efforts! Is there anything we can do to help? When will you know if the re-submitted application is accepted?
Thanks,
Bob G 606 Lock'd Up Bandit

Go Louie go! We are all behind you. Thanks for your efforts so we can go out and have fun. Looking forward to a great event.

Joker Powerboats 611

Good luck uncle louie we have your back hope to see you friday.
you guys need a award for what you are trying to make happen.

Keep up the Hard work Louie We all know you and your cew have spent countless hours and $$$$ putting this together and we are all behind you.

Mike O
531 WHOZ YOUR DADDY

Go get e'm Louie!! Keep the faith, see you on Friday!!

Do we need to send Augie to visit the mayor? I see a few black Caddy's showing up in front of city hall, just so we can have a talk. You know how that goes...

I know Louie and his crew has worked endlessly on this event, but there is still one answer we need answered, is the race on? I know they might not be able to answer this right now, but we would all like to know from someone other the Newsday, OSO, etc. This answer is very important for everyone traveling to this event. I hope its on and I can't wait to see everyone this weekend,
Chris

To answer the question the best I can right now is that the event is on. 1) Friday night boats on main street , Sayville. 2) Saturday race village is open for viewing the boats and meeting the teams, Antique boats and cars, live music and Grucci fireworks. 3) Sunday is race day, here's were it gets tricky, the news papers say the organizers have failed to submit a suitable Incident Action Plan. the issue here is that we the organizers do not write the action plan, but we do provide information towards the plan, which we have done flawlessly just like we have in the past 4 years and the C.G. disapproved it. Well this doesn't seem too fair to us and we have contacted the commander at the C.G. and she has agreed to let us repair the IAP We probably wont have an answer till later in the week. We will keep everyone informed as quickly as we can.
My 1st race with the OPA was in Camden N.J. the morning we were leaving it was raining 2 inches an hour with no sign of letting up. I rallied up a few Long Island teams and though they were reluctant to go due to the rain, I told them, " the worse thing that can happen is we drive on down there and if its still pouring we hang out under the tent eating burgers and dogs down a few beers and tell boat stories" well the rain stopped we raced and took 1st place! that's kinda hard to top but if the rain didn't stop I think we would have still had a great time. I have raced every OPA race since, never missed one. I'm not gonna miss this one either. thanks for the back up, Louie

Go Louie Go!!!

For the guys that race and don't have the (honor just doesn't seem like the right word) burdon of putting on a boat race, we never get the signed CG Approval until the week of the race. This type of last minute BS has happened before, usually doesn't make the papers, but somehow we always manage to pull it off. This time, it's just being done in public.

Get the boats ready boyz, OPA is going to Strong Island this weekend for another party at Louie's house.