Your Right to Anchor in Florida Is Once Again in Jeopardy

As the Florida Legislative Session begins, we are once again expecting a slew of bills to be filed that call for banning overnight anchoring in specific areas in Florida.  This has been an on-going issue for several years, and SSCA, as part of a coalition formed to protect Boaters’ Rights, has been successful in keeping most anchorages open for our members.  Please read on for the history of this issue, the expectations for the upcoming legislative session, and what we need from our members to continue the fight.  PLEASE NOTE:  SSCA DOES NOT USE DUES MONEY FOR THIS FIGHT — ONLY BOATER CONTRIBUTIONS.

For several years, anchorages have been under attack in Florida, sometimes by waterfront home owners who prefer not to have boats anchored in the waterways outside their homes. More often, however, responsible boaters are caught up in the “derelict vessels” issue, which is a serious problem in Florida.   By working with their state legislative delegations to pass restrictions on anchoring in their waterways, municipalities think they’ll have an easier time ridding their area of abandoned boats and/or those anchored with no intention (nor ability, in many cases) of ever moving.

In 2015 a bill was filed to ban anchoring within 200 feet of developed waterfront property in Florida.  Cruisers were successful in defeating that bill.  Thinking our efforts were over, the boating community did not actively participate in the process in Tallahassee in 2016, and a bill passed that closed four anchorages in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area to overnight anchoring.  

Because of the failure in 2016, our coalition re-engaged in 2017 and was successful in keeping the power to regulate anchoring with the state GOVERNMENT, rather than municipalities, which was important in preventing a patchwork of laws from being passed by various municipalities and counties.  Further, no new anchorages were added to the list of those where overnight anchoring is restricted. In 2018, an amendment was filed to restrict overnight anchoring in two more anchorages, and we were successful in getting the amendment withdrawn from the bill before a vote was taken.
 

We are expecting the legislative delegates from several additional municipalities, to once again try to amend the existing statute to add their anchorages to the list of those that are closed to any overnight anchoring.  We must remain vigilant or we face losing the right to anchor in additional areas, and the Florida gateway route to the Bahamas and Caribbean will see new hurdles for boaters.

The most successful way to have our voices heard and to get results has been representation by a lobbyist who knows the ins-and-outs of the legislative process in Florida.  The lobbyist that has represented your interests in the past has been very successful.  But, of course, there is a cost associated with that.  We hope that once again those costs can be shared among our full coalition, which includes Marine Trawler Owners Association (MTOA), America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association (AGLCA), Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA), and the DeFever Cruisers.