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Who agrees, City maintained mooring fields are better than no oversight?

Beaufort South Carolina no longer a free anchor

25K views 203 replies 40 participants last post by  Multihullgirl 
#1 ·
The city will be Installing 16 professionally-managed moorings for transient boats in a 300 year old mooring field in the Beaufort River. The new moorings will replace the approximately 12 randomly placed anchoring and also will involve removal of what they call, dilapidated boats, which will "improve water quality" they say. This mooring field that has belonged to local citizens for over 300 years will be confiscated by the city as a means of revenue. Visiting sailors cruisers and yachtsmen of all type, will no longer be able to visit the city of Beaufort from the water without paying for a mooring. In years past as many as 500 to 1000 visitors come to the fine city of Beaufort South Carolina. They come for the charm of a small seaside village and the simplicity. They come because its quaint and has that non-commercial touristy cost feel of days gone by. they don't want to come were there are high cost usually associated with most waterside cities like Hilton head, Daytona, and Panama City Beach. They clam “This grant will help make our marina, and downtown Beaufort, a better choice for boaters as they travel the Intracoastal Waterway. If you have been following the new rules down in Florida then you will know how the boating community really feels about having to pay for city mandated "for your own good" improvements that the end user have to pay for.. The want an option to use your equipment and pay your fees, not a mandate. Us, sailors and cruisers are a tight-knit community and word spreads fast about marinas with good, or bad, service. It, like the parking meters in the downtown area of Beaufort, will show the City its mistakes by nickel and dime-ing the public to the point of going elsewhere, all in the name of profit generation. Great job guys. For the rest of you reading this, If you want to save the city from the hands of capitalist revenue mongers. Now is the time.
 
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#165 ·
Actually I have cruised the ICW and I found anchorages in plenty. The thing that really sucks about the ICW is the rudeness of other boaters. I would never care to ICW again.

again… what is the difference, please… I would honestly like to have a real answer, and so far I'm not getting one.
 
#166 · (Edited)
The Northeast is full of moorings, most run by marinas, that cost $50+/night. Yet we can still find places to anchor at if we want. You guys need to get over your Chicken Little and The Gov't is out to get me issues.
 
#167 ·
if I anchor for the weekend am I "squatting "?
if I stay in the park for a weekend am I squatting?
if I sleep in my car/truck/van at the curb for the weekend am I squatting?
if I do this for a week?
what about for a month??
what if I'm parked in a public lot in a camper?
I think it is quite different being in a vessel particularly a sailing vessel.
A vessel at anchor is definitely different than a box under a bridge, or sleeping in the park or living in a car if there were no difference I'd have skipped buying the boat!
 
#169 · (Edited)
I have good anchoring gear with an oversized Manson Supreme and 350' of chain. But I don't feel it will ever be more secure than a properly sized, installed, and inspected mooring. My boat has ridden storms at its' mooring where my boat took the whole system with a 5,000 pound mooring block for a ride, but the boat didn't go far. I don't believe my anchor would have been better.
 
#174 ·
Of course, but if you are going to start down this road as an excuse for a mooring owned by either a marinia or City where there are requirements for inspections and chain replacements then you now are just on a fear of The Man rant.

On the other side of the question is the size and condition of ground tackle on the unknown low cost cruiser anchored in front you during a blow.
 
#194 ·
I don't think anyone here is saying anything about anchoring during a storm, there are still area's that you can do that. Now are you squatting after 5 days, no certainly not, 30 days perhaps. I think as long as you are actively on the boat it is not an issue, but if you are just using it as a free place to permanently moor your boat, yes it is squatting. Anchoring areas are for everyone and if someone comes in and leaves there boat permanently then it they are making it essentially there private mooring area, so as to prevent others from using it.
 
#175 · (Edited)
The best thing is to hold boaters responsible for their boats. Governments do best at summons and ticketing. They have historically failed at fixing civil problems.
Again we still need to divide this thread into 2 sections. one for derelict vessels and the other is Government mandated mooring fields threw waterway confrontation.
 
#176 ·
the pro-mooring advocates cannot justify the mooring fields unless they first blur the topic with talk of the big bad derelict vessel and msd smoke screen.
the choice to use anchor or mooring should remain a choice.
if mooring fields are to be installed, why can't the mooring fields be put where the anchorage isn't?
why must the best or most desirable anchoring locations always be where the moorings need to be?
 
#178 ·
So the only difference between these types of squatting, for that's what it is, is that one is land-based and one water-based?

If you have a nice, fancy, high-dollar, well-kept camper rig and park it in a public park, you'll get run out in short order. So take your nice camper rig and spend a bit and go to a state or national park campground. It's a nominal fee, and limited duration, and it's public land. I'm assuming that, based on the lack of complaint, everyone is OK with that.

So maybe if you view the mooring fields in the same light, you get my take on it. I'm damned if I can see any difference.

It's a public waterway, moorings installed and controlled by a public entity, for a nominal fee, with limited duration. Just like a state or national park campground.

In any case, one never sees commercial boats (fishermen or the like) just randomly anchoring, as cruisers do. Would the commercial boats be asked to leave the anchorage, or do they just not want to anchor for free?
 
#187 · (Edited)
So, here we have 180+ posts about a teeny harbor in a very nice southern town that has a marina with space for 50 boats at long-dock slips (@$1.80/ft), a harbor that has low density anchoring crowding out the harbor, and a proposed paltry 30 moorings to make the density of boats not at slips more efficient.
We've discussed the rights of the proletariate, the absolute unabridged greed of capitalism and cronyism of the municipal government, the "tyranny of the commons", and the thuggery of water cops with radar guns vs. boaters (ending in ~2009).

On the otherside of the alternative universe, Beaufort SC is a wonderful town, filled with extremely polite and friendly people (for the most part) ... unlike some places to the 'north', the folks in Beaufort will look you in the eye and sincerely wish you Good Morning, etc.; has some very good 'down home' restaurants and shops, etc.; is 'safe'; and is welcoming; plus, the cost of a night's tie up is quite reasonable.
I suggest you actually stop off at Beaufort for a day or two before you complain about something that in total effect may simply be 'trivial'.

More moorings, .... I say great!!!! Maybe I can pick one up when the municipal marina is at full capacity. I havent seen a water cop-thug looking for easy bust money / 'wakes' from transient boater prey-species since 2009 ... although its a physical impossibility to NOT have a wake when moving 'anything' through the water at ANY speed above ZERO; and as I did one time very carefully explain to the local justice of the peace, who fully agreed with me.

If on the AICW - Beaufort, SC ... not to be missed, even if you have to anchor behind Ladies Island and 'dinghy yourself' to town.

;-)
 
#189 ·
So, here we have 180+ posts about a teeny harbor in a very nice southern town that has a marina with space for 50 boats at long-dock slips (@$1.80/ft), a harbor that has low density anchoring crowding out the harbor, and a proposed 30 moorings to make the density of boats not at slips more efficient.
We've discussed the rights of the proletariate, the absolute unabridged greed of capitalism and cronyism of the municipal government, the tyranny of the commons, and the thuggery of water cops with radar guns vs. boaters (ending in ~2009).

On the otherside of the alternative universe, Beaufort SC is a wonderful town, filled with extremely polite and friendly people (for the most part) ... unlike some places to the 'north', the folks in Beaufort will look you in the eye and sincerely wish you Good Morning, etc.; has some very good 'down home' restaurants and shops, etc.; is 'safe'; and is welcoming; plus, the cost of night's tie up is quite reasonable.
I suggest you actually stop off at Beaufort for a day or two before you complain about something that in total effect may simply be 'trivial'.

More moorings, .... I say great!!!! Maybe I can pick one up when the municipal marina is at full capacity. I havent seen a water cop-thug looking for easy bust money / 'wakes' from transient boater prey-species since 2009 ... although its a physical impossibility to NOT have a wake when moving 'anything' through the water at ANY speed above ZERO; and as I did one time very carefully explain to the local justice of the peace, who fully agreed with me.

If on the AICW - Beaufort, SC ... not to be missed, even if you have to anchor behind Ladies Island and 'dinghy yourself' to town.

;-)
Good post, Rich... As I've said previously, I very rarely wind up stopping in Beaufort, but it has always been a pleasure doing so, it's a very nice town...

I'd recommend to anyone doing so, make a stop in Hemingway's Bistro, a very cruiser-friendly hangout... Not certain if they're still doing it, but they used to have a great Thanksgiving dinner for any snowbirds who happened to wind up in Beaufort for Turkey Day...

Herringways Bistro

Introduce yourself to the proprietor, Andina Foster, who also is the inventor of the original Battery Combiner, and runs the marine electrical business Yandina Marine Electronics... No vendor in the marine industry stands behind their products better than Yandina, wonderful people to deal with, and their website is a great source of information and advice, their 'Projects' page is well worth a look for any Do-It-Yourselfer...

Yandina Marine Electronics

I've never done it, but one spot I'd be tempted to anchor off Beaufort is in that slue that bisects the large marsh south of town, across the channel from the marina... I passed thru there once with a trawler at high tide, it's a bit shoal at the top end, but there's plenty of water thru the rest of it, and you'd be by yourself and out of the river traffic in there, and closer to town than being over in Factory Creek - which I suspect is gonna become a pretty tight/crowded anchorage once the mooring field is in place....

I still think there will be plenty of room on the outside of the bend in the river to the west of the mooring field, but the spot I'm referring to is right near the bottom of the image below, directly underneath the "Surfaced Ramp" notation...

 
#190 · (Edited)
Thanks Group9. I now see where the laws differ.

In our instance (mooring fields) it would take a pretty good lawyer to argue that navigation is impeded as in the example of the OS/BLX bridge. That is to say, in a historic anchorage whereat navigation was really already impeded, yes? And of course Trinity could afford good lawyers. I've not yet seen anything come out of the Trinity yard which challenges anything near that bridge height :) only a couple of gin palaces, ha ha

It appears, ltgoshen, that Group9 has offered your answer. Got lawyer?
 
#195 ·
My recollection is that at the time, they had some orders for some boats that were going to be taller than 75 feet. Trinity was also in the process of moving their New Orleans operations to Gulfport. But, the big thing, that I remember, was that the Coast Guard joined the lawsuit and agreed the bridge height affected navigable waters.

I used to work for the state attorney general and it was always amusing when government officials would write for an opinion on whether they could do "A" and we would tell them they couldn't. And, then they would go and do it anyway, and then come to us wanting us to represent them when they were sued for doing what we told them they couldn't do.

Amazing, but it happened a lot. :)
 
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#192 ·
Well Rich, I wish I had better things to do than adding my two cents worth to some of these posts. I'm sitting here in the mountains of NC some 6 hour drive away from the boat thinking of all the work that needs to be done. Plan to use that Preval sprayer for some gel coat repair that we discussed some time ago. Always good to read your posts.
 
#198 · (Edited)
One can only wonder whether a 'cruising boat' burning up yesterday in the Miami Beach anchorage might renew the pressure for more 'regulation' of the popular anchorage south of the Venetian causeway...

Fire Destroys Sailboat, Kills Pet Near Monument Island « CBS Miami

This is one of my favorite anchorages in S Florida, it's a great staging spot for crossing to the Bahamas. Very convenient to a large Publix market, drug, hardware & liquor stores, Post Office, you name it. Close to Lincoln Road, and all the attractions of Miami Beach, and the setting is spectacular, as metropolitan anchorages go. Endless parade of watercraft, one's girl-watching glasses will get a good workout around here... :)

The spot most choose to anchor is in the lee of the high-rise condos, close to shore. I generally choose to anchor much further out, near Monument Island, where I'm always by myself.



There are a few drawbacks to the more popular anchorage, the primary one being some weird tidal current swirls in that area. Boat traffic generally passes close aboard, so you can see a lot of wakes there, it's noisier, and being so close to those high rises, I always feel my cockpit might be subject to some 'prying eyes' from some balcony 18 stories up :) My wind generator produces more amps anchored out in the open... And finally, I'd prefer to distance myself from some of the other 'cruisers' who inhabit the anchorage closer in...

I've always been surprised by some of the boats in there, given their proximity to some very high-dollar real estate... There has been one large, very unsightly rusting steel-hulled boat with no mast that has been anchored there for years, and a smattering of other boats that appear to be teetering on the verge of derelict status...

The report is that the owner of the boat that burned yesterday had "multiple boats" anchored there... Also, that his dogs "barked all the time"... Yeah, I'm familiar with the type, hence my preference for anchoring off more by myself... :)

This incident cannot be good news for cruisers, given the uneasy truce that has been established between the city of Miami Beach and the cruising community in recent years. Miami Beach had one of the most restrictive anchoring ordinances/policies prior to the Florida Supreme Court ruling on anchoring several years ago that struck down such local laws, but an incident like this will only provide more ammunition for the local residents to 'clean up' the anchorage, and rid the area of some of their 'less desirable' neighbors...

Sadly, we only have 'one of our own' to thank for whatever closer scrutiny or regulation is likely to come...
 
#199 ·
Sadly, we only have 'one of our own' to thank for whatever closer scrutiny or regulation is likely to come...
That is almost always the case. But you should have turned around and taken a picture from behind, for that would show the ugly pile of cruise ships and rows of gantry cranes along the Causeway and Dodge Island behind you. Not really much of a view, wouldn't you say?
 
#201 · (Edited)
ha ha, I guess my point was more to say that even if there's some derelicts in your anchorage there, the Condo Commandos have far uglier things to see when they look out the window. You're luckier to be lower to the water so those high-dollar homes on the little isles there will obscure your view of the 'industrial' port things :)

The last time we passed through, we had a north wind so we could anchor between Fisher Island and Virginia Key. One of my best Miami anchorage experiences: quiet (we were by ourselves); and a great shot of the night skyline. I have to agree, Miami's night skyline is the prettiest I've seen.
 
#202 ·
The last time we passed through, we had a north wind so we could anchor between Fisher Island and Virginia Key. One of my best Miami anchorage experiences: quiet (we were by ourselves); and a great shot of the night skyline. I have to agree, Miami's night skyline is the prettiest I've seen.
Just curious, how long did you linger off Fisher Island? I've had a look in there, but never stayed, but it would definitely be the most convenient if you just wanted to pop into Government Cut for the night... The downside of that location, of course, is convenient shore access...

Yours is a fine looking boat, so I would imagine the folks at Fisher Island would 'tolerate' your presence there for at least a while... that guy whose boat burned up the other day however, with dogs that were barking incessantly, well... I would imagine the powers that be at Fisher Island would soon find a way to 'encourage' him to move on... :)

 
#204 ·
We just overnighted. We were just about where in your picture, in the lower right corner, the seagrass ends as you move from lower right to upper right of the picture. We were arguably closer to Virginia Key. There is, though, an enclosed area if you were to continue along out of the photograph right and top. A little embayment at Virginia Key, apparently there used to be a bar there or something. The satellite pics show boats anchored up in there. We found the spot we were in via ActiveCaptain, and yes, we popped in there late after a sunset entry to Government Cut. Elsewhere here at SN I've put up a picture of the sunrise we saw anchored here.

This anchorage, as I'm sure y'all know, it is open from what I would think is the typical fetch in the area (southeast) so I wouldn't think anyone in their right mind would want to anchor there unless the conditions were just so. I should think that, and the lack of access, would limit anchoring as much as po-po from Fisher Island
 
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