Problems in Florida

[salty]

The following article link shows what cruising and anchoring in Florida is coming to. Please take a moment to read the link. If you have a solution, please let us know.

http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/ma_ea...860731,00.html

This is happening all over Florida. Anywhere folks purchase water front property, the problems begin. Many of these folks have never encountered crusing before. The prejudice and ignorance are difficult to overcome.

[CSY Man]

"Howard Homan says the boaters overstay their welcome, and unfairly take advantage of a view he has to pay for. "

He-he, the guy is an idiot.
He thinks boaters don't pay any taxes and that they get a "free view".

Little does he know about boat ownership.

He moves into waterfront property and complains becuase there is boats in the water.
Just like sombody moving to Alaska and complains about the temperature.

Water and boats have gone hand in hand for quite a few thousand years. But nobody told Mr.Howard Homan..
Pity

[Pa La O La]

Hey,

What an Idiot! But there are worse people out there. I think that would be the small municipalities and burgs who want to charge you for anchoring in “their” waters. Politicians looking for anyway to grab a buck. There was a disturbing article in Boat US magazine a few issues ago about this subject. Scary !

Gary

[irwinsailor]

The more that I read about Florida and where and what you can do there with a boat the more confused I get. Is there a guide book or something that tells about all of the Florida regulations?

[exposure]

There is more information than you could ever want to read at myflorida.com. But, here is a start...

http://myfwc.com/law/boatsafe/

Generally speaking the methodology is that "we can tell what the right way is to do things, but we'll gladly tell you when you do something wrong".

[exposure]

While I don’t know anything about this situation other than what this reporter wrote, (while perhaps trying to create a name for himself and sales for the paper), I do think that the laws are too liberal with respect to derelict vessels. It doesn't take much for the uninformed public to see a couple of poor examples and develop opinions about the rest of us.

I think it is important for us, as boaters working through organizations, to take a proactive approach in dealing with the abandon vessel issue. I know that if someone abandoned an old rusted Chevy Vega at the curb in front of my house, I would not be too pleased. And I would probably get pretty upset if local agencies said it had to stay there for a year or two while they tried to locate an owner. And then the tax payers get stuck with the owner search, towing and disposal bill.

While I don't like Mr. Homan's comments, I think the disgrace here is the writer. I see this too often. A writer goes to a site and just prints a bunch of inflammatory quotes from an individual. When he prints them he does nothing to check the validity. The uninformed public reads them and takes them as fact. What he should have done was investigate the three boats that were tied up and see if the cats were abandoned. He should have looked into the statement of the boaters not paying taxes (I can verify that is false ). Really, it looks like the writer was just being lazy, or following the guidance of the editor and sacrificing good journalism for a quick inflammatory story. When a topic takes hold it usually results in several back and forth letters to the editor that, in the end, succeed in selling more papers and advertising. Their ultimate goal.