Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed a new anchoring law that balances the needs of cruising boat owners, including many snowbirds, with the needs of local areas to remove derelict or “at-risk” boats (see the picture above).
The bill had passed the Florida Senate by a vote of 39 to 0, and the House by 116 to 1.
The new bill protects the ability of active cruisers to access shoreside services and amenities, while letting counties establish anchoring limitation areas next to urban areas that have lots of boating traffic and residential docking facilities. It grandfathers in any areas already designated as anchoring limitation zones by Florida laws.
For cruising boat owners, the important part of the new law stipulates that active cruisers or other vessel operators can access high-demand anchoring areas for up to 45 consecutive days in a six-month period. Florida has been challenged with a number of abandoned or derelict vessels that have remained anchored for much longer periods.
“This law gives responsible active cruisers traveling Florida’s waters the ability to stay in an anchorage limitation area for 45 days, which we believe meets the needs of most cruisers,” said David Kennedy, the manager of government affairs for BoatUS. “By limiting a stay to a little more than six weeks, it also opens up more access to fellow cruisers while balancing the needs of municipalities struggling with at-risk vessels, which can be poorly maintained, may not follow sanitation requirements, or are left unattended and often end up as liabilities to counties when they are abandoned or wash ashore in storm events.”
The law grandfathers in the current anchoring prohibitions in six busy waterways in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. It also provides accommodations for vessels experiencing mechanical failure or problems with weather conditions.
The new law does place a limit on what counties can do. The aggregate total of anchorage limitation areas in a county for example, cannot exceed ten percent of the county’s “navigable-in-fact” waterways.” It also requires counties to notify the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and to publish a public notice at least 30 days before introducing a new anchoring ordinance. Read more:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/billsummaries/2021/html/2333
https://www.boatus.com/news-room/release/with-passage-of-florida-anchoring-bill-boatus
