Florida Anchoring Law Victory...

[Trekka]

(Reposted with permission)

JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF MARCO ISLAND CRUISERS!

MARCO ISLAND ANCHORAGE REGULATIONS RULED
"INCONSISTENT WITH FLORIDA STATE LAW"
HUGE VICTORY FOR THE ENTIRE CRUISING COMMUNITY!!!!

Hello Fellow Cruisers:

We have just received word of an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT LEGAL RULING WHICH WILL AFFECT ALL CRUISERS WHO ANCHOR, OR PLAN TO ANCHOR, ON FLORIDIAN WATERS!!!!! As you can see from the headlines above, Collier County Judge Rob Crown, has struck down the much discussed Marco Island local anchorage regulations!

We have just posted a full story about this IMPORTANT news on the special "Marco Island Mess" page of the Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net. I urge ALL CRUISERS ON THIS ALERT LIST to check out this story without delay,. And, PLEASE help us get the word out about this story to other members of the cruising community who are not members of this Alert List. Those of you who are members of MTOA, SSCA, the AGLCA and the GL (Great Loop) mailing lists, please reproduce this e-mail on your lists. Members of yacht clubs and US Power Squadrons will also want to get this important word out to their members. And, before someone asks, this story is a bit too lengthy to simply include in this e-mail. That's why everyone is being referred to the Salty Southeast Cruisers' Net.

So, to read about this great victory for the entire cruising community, go without delay to http://www.CruisersNet.net. Peruse the navigational buttons along the left side of the page, and find the "Cruising News From" section. Click on the "Marco Island Mess" link/button and you're off and running!

Good luck and good cruising!

Claiborne S. Young
CruisingWriter@CruisersNet.net
http://www.CruisersNet.net

[xort]

Hopefully there will be huge raftup scheduled soon for Marco!

[camaraderie]

Great News for all. Kudos to Claiborne and all who fought this battle.

[sailingdog]

Hopefully, this precedent will help in other states as well.

[ebs001]

Great news. The cruisers net suggests sending a congratulatory email to CruisingWriter@CruisersNet.net which I have done and encourage all cruisers to do.

[PBzeer]

Hopefully, this won't be appealed and overturned by a more government friendly judge.

[sailaway21]

Hopefully it will be appealed to a higher court, and sustained, resulting in a state-wide, versus county-wide, precedent.

[hellosailor]

Claiborne I appluade the news--but suggest no one touch the champagne yet. A state county judge is one of the most "inferior" courts in the land, and his ruling is precendent probably only in his county--most states would not require it to be honored anywhere else. Other states would not accept it as binding precedent at all.

So unless there are no appeals, and the case is allowed to remain unchallenged, and Florida *requires* it to be held as binding precendent in other counties...it doesn't mean anything more than "OK, you can anchor at Marcos Island this way."

Still, every small victory against the bastards counts!

[camaraderie]

HS...agreed that things could be overturned...but the real meaning of this case is that other counties with restrictions that contravene the recently enacted state law will now have to think twice about their likelihood of success if they try to ignore the law and pass and defend illegal local ordinances.
I agree that it has no impact outside of Florida, but FL is the state I've found to have the most restrictive ordinances.
For anyone anchoring in Florida...remember if asked that you are FULL TIME CRUISERS...not LIVEABOARDS as this will protect you under the law.