From the standpoint of 'storm duration', 2007 has indeed been a rather quiet year. If you have 20 named storms in any given year, but each one only lasts a day or two, that is not a 'busy' year in terms of total storm 'days'. Here is another way to look at it:

Exclusive of TWOs and RECON messages, the NHC issued:
1,692 messages in 2004
3,074 messages in 2005
1,125 messages in 2006 and
959 messages so far in 2007.

If Noel hangs on for another 5 days, you can add about another 100 messages or so to the 2007 total.

The 2007 total will still be below that of 2006, i.e., when based on total storm duration, 2007 will not be as 'busy' a year as 2006 was - even though 2007 had a greater number of named storms.
ED