SAIL - April 2015

12

APRIL 2015

Perhaps it was the fresh perspective afforded by the ever-growing snowbanks and depressing gray clouds

back home, but Florida’s clear blue skies and sparkling waters had never seemed more alluring, and the

juxtaposition of land and water around Biscayne Bay looked like a perfect urban cruising ground. Turquoise

water dotted with anchored boats and fringed with manicured lawns and well-tended apartment blocks; it

seemed peaceful and harmonious, a fine place for a cruising crew to rest body and boat for a few days before

heading off to the Bahamas or the Keys. It was sad to think that the freedom to anchor in some of these

waterways could become a thing of the past.

Anyone who sails in Florida or has cruised there knows that anchoring is a hot topic in those parts. Lining

up on one side are owners of waterfront residences (and, I’m guessing, developers of waterfront property) who

don’t want their views polluted by anchored boats, and on the other side are the owners of said anchored boats,

along with many other Florida residents who do not believe there should be anchoring restrictions in what

are, after all, public waterways. A few months ago, Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) posted a

survey online to gauge the public’s feelings on a number of issues, chief among them the concept of a minimum

anchoring distance from the shoreline—a “setback.” More than half the respondents opted for a setback of 150

feet from residential waterfront property. This, as many people have already pointed out, would effectively close

off many protected anchorages around Florida.

The survey questions were rather blatantly skewed towards this desired result, but its purpose has been

achieved. At the time of writing, the survey was in front of the state legislature and the door is open for Florida

politicians, their campaign funds no doubt bolstered by hefty donations from vested interests, to once again

allow local authorities to set their own anchoring and mooring regulations. The inevitable result, should

this happen? At least in some areas, cruisers will be herded into marinas and mooring fields where, equally

inevitably, they will be gouged mercilessly because they have nowhere else to go.

At a time when the marine industry is clamoring for more participants to whom they can sell more boats,

the question of retaining and ensuring public access to the water seems to have slipped out of its collective

consciousness. Boatyards bulldozed and condo-ized, marinas turned into dockominiums, cities not renewing

yacht club leases; our industry bodies are oddly silent on these trends, which are manifest all around the

Florida coastline (but, alas, not restricted to it), leaving good old Boat U.S. to fight the good fight on our behalf.

Nowhere to anchor, perhaps nowhere to keep your boat at all; now that’s the way to grow boating. s

B

ack in February I was fortunate enough to escape

the New England Snowmageddon for a few days

to check out the Strictly Sail show in Miami. It’s an

annual excursion, and if you live in the Northeast you’ll

know why I’m so keen to attend that show every year.

Anchoring

Blues

Peter Nielsen

FROM THE EDITOR