Many New Comments on Florida Anchoring Rights Flip Flop
I read something in the news that made me sit up straight and think, “OMG it’s time to flip flop on the anchoring rights issue.”
The news item said that entrepreneurs in the Miami-Lauderdale area were buying up old boats, anchoring them, and then renting them out to all comers as a very affordable kind of apartment. Considering the high rents for apartments in those areas, those apartment yachts should be very popular.
Today, the apartment yacht story is merely an amusement. But then I thought back to the 2004/2005 hurricanes in Florida. Those storms left behind tens of thousands of damaged vessels that the insurance companies were in a hurry to declare totaled. Many could still float fine, and could be bought as salvage for pennies on the dollar.
I envision the years following the next big Florida hurricane when these apartment yachts by the thousands fill up all available spaces in all our favorite anchorages. (Where would they land their dinghies? The landlord may become wealthy enough to provide a launch service for his tenants.) If that happens, then I expect that it is we boaters who will be leading the charge for legal restrictions on anchoring. If we are smart, we’ll start now before the fact.
Of all the things I’ve read, one proposal seems to address the anchoring problem while making the least intrusion on cruisers. That is simply restricting the time a vessel can be anchored in one place to one week. Starting now, I am going to begin supporting that proposal.
Dick Mills
Comments from Cruisers (2)
” Buying a boat” could mean you are purchasing Trump’s old yacht for several million or fixing up an old trawler or sailboat for cheap and anywhere in between. Having a condo might mean you have a slip or not. We need more info to actually help. Suggest you hang out on some of the forums and get to know a good surveyor of the type of boats you are interested in. The surveyor we used stayed with us on each boat we looked at electronically via smartphone and was a lifesaver. We looked at over 50 boats before we found one, talked to 70 or so brokers and only met one we could trust (not the one we bought from) The pictures on yacht world and all are a fair place to start but you can’t smell cat pee on a picture. We have been aboard 17 years on sailboat and then 5 years on our trawler. we don’t own anything on land. See our blog for more info http://ontheofficewautoteacher.blogspot.com/
I suggest you review the many videos on YOUTUBE. They are very informative and pretty much answer all your questions, even some you probably didn’t or wouldn’t think of. SAIL LIFE, WICKED SALTY, SAILING UMA, LATITUDE ADJUSTMENT are just a few to get you started.