The legislative restrictions on anchoring recently enacted by Florida’s politicians is causing much anxiety among cruising boaters. All coastal states may well be affected by the Florida legislation restricting anchoring.

May 11, 2016 Richard Herman raised this question concerning the PAC:

I’m confused. Are the SSCA Cruiser’s Rights Fund and the Boater’s Heritage Freedom PAC one and the same organization, or are they different? Are their goals the same? Does a financial contribution to one benefit both?
Could you please clarify for me? Perhaps there are others who feel the same way.
Sincerely,
Richard Hermann
m/v Avocet – Great Harbour N37

And Phillip Werndli responded:

Richard,
Good question. The two funds are linked to the anchoring rights issue, but have very different purposes. The GoFundMe campaign was established by SSCA to fund cost for lobbying including expenses for the lead volunteer and a professional lobbyist. That fund was endorsed by MTOA and AGLCA. The Boarer’s Heritage Freedom PAC was established by the above three organizations to provide funds for political campaign contributions to favorable legislators. We need funds for both, they work hand in hand.
Phil

April 28, 2016
The passage of the anchoring bans in five anchorages in South Florida is only the tip of the iceberg that cruisers are headed for in Florida. The passage of this bill is the result of frustrated residents in Broward and Dade counties who have been waiting for legislators to enact a method for local communities to regulate anchoring since 2009. Why is this just the tip?

There are over 80 cities and counties in Florida that presently have some form of ordinance to restrict anchoring. These range from a complete ban to comprehensive mooring/anchoring regulations. All of these ordinances were invalidated in the 2009 Anchoring Pilot Program legislation, except for the five pilot areas. That program will end in June 2017. The repeal of only one small section of law will allow all of these ordinances to go back into effect. You can bet that all of these communities will be lobbying their legislators to allow them to restore their ordinances ending up with a patchwork of regulations that no boater will be able to know.

Seven Seas Cruising Association, Marine Trawler’s Owner’s Association and the American Great Loop Cruiser’s Association formed the Boater’s Heritage Freedom PAC to raise funds to contribute to legislators who are friendly to our cause of preserving anchoring rights. The time is now for you to dig into your pocket.

All Florida legislators are running for election this fall and the campaigns are in full swing. We need to support our legislative supporters with our pocketbooks so please act now. When the election is over, it will be too late.

Click on the PayPal button below to contribute. If you are a Florida resident, you can also help by attending local candidate forums to urge them to support boater’s rights. This is most important. There will be a strong fight this next session and we need the members to know we are a force. So contribute now.
Phillip Werndli, Chairman
Boater’s Heritage Freedom PAC
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=KUAECXWUYWYFS