Great Lakes cargo numbers rallied in May after a slow start. Shipping officials have some cautious optimism about the coming season, though the forecasting is based on a lot of “ifs.”

This year's slow start was blamed on winter making an extended stay, with snow storms and late ice clogging shipping traffic.

In a three-day series at the Chicago Match Race Center that featured everything from light shifty breeze to big wind and waves, Chicago-based Jennifer Wilson and her team of Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.), Katherine Pettibone (Sacramento, Calif.), Krista Paxton (Royal Oak, Mich.), and Sandi Svoboda (Grosse Pointe Park, Mich.) have won the Allegra Knapp Mertz Trophy for the 2013 U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship. After defeating Sandy Hayes in a 2-0 Semi-Final, Wilson and team went on to defeat Stephanie Roble and her team in a 3-1 Final.

For the ninth consecutive year, Officine Panerai is sponsoring the largest international circuit of regattas reserved for classic yachts: the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge 2013.

The east coast of the United States will be the venue for the North American Circuit, which features stages in Marblehead, Nantucket and Newport.

The Army Corps of Engineers says Lake Erie is about five inches above where it was last month and Lake Ontario is about 2.5 inches where it was in May.

That's good for recreational boaters and cargo ships making deliveries that traditionally have had to navigate low water levels in the lakes.

The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), today announced that recreational boating in the U.S. has an annual economic value of $121 billion. The industry’s rising tide supports 964,000 American jobs and 34,833 businesses, generates $40 billion in annual labor income and drives $83 billion in annual spending.