Anchoring restrictions imposed by Florida’s legislators have been increasing for years with legislators pressured by wealthy landowners to remove all visiting vessels. Wally Moran is an experienced and outspoken cruiser who has been involved in the fight to protect boaters’ rights. See AGLCA Confronts More Anchor Restrictions in Florida.

In 2016, cruisers lost their right to anchor in Sunset Lake and parts of the Venetian Causeway in Miami Beach, and in Middle River, Fort Lauderdale. At the time, we were assured by the legislators that this “temporary” restriction would not be kept in place following the FWC recommendations in 2017.
That was a lie. We were screwed. I outlined what happened in my blog post, https://bloggingtheicw.blogspot.com/2017/06/florida-anchoring-sneak-playwe-were.html if you’d like the history of this.
Furthermore, it was a lie that the people supposed to be looking out for our interests should have stood up to. That didn’t happen.
At the time, I said that our loss of these anchorages would come back to bite us, and so it has, with the Florida legislature this year looking at adding six further areas – Lake Sylvia in Fort Lauderdale being the major one – to the restricted list.
Speaking as the president of the Cruisers Rights Network of North America, we stand against this proposed legislation. Should it pass, God forbid, we will challenge it in court.
I get that there are significant issues to be dealt with, mostly involving derelict, wet stored boats. There are laws in place to deal with this issue, laws that are not being enforced. That action – enforcing current laws – is the very FIRST step that the legislature should be looking at – not creating more laws that will not solve the problem and that will further restrict our right to anchor.
If we don’t stop this now, what will next year’s legislative calendar bring us? What other anchorages will we be losing?
What can the CRNNA do? Just ask the city of Gulfport FL and the communities on Boca Ciega Bay in western Florida. Gulfport and other communities were enforcing their illegal anchoring ordinances last spring. Singlehandedly, the CRNNA put a stop to that, including getting an agreement from the Pinellas County Sheriffs Department to stop enforcing illegal local ordinances. We also supported a Gulfport boater who had received a ticket, hiring a lawyer for him, and forced the city of Gulfport to back down on its illegal enforcement.
If you’d like more information, if you’d like to support the CRNNA with your time and knowledge, we can be found at www.CRNNA.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/savefloridasanchorages

Wally Moran