Long time readers may remember the post from my now archived forum which went spectacularly over the top in view count at 30,708. The title was. “I’ll Never Go To Florida Again.”
http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=148671&#post990210
(BTW the archived forum of my previous adventures, resorted into chronological order for easier reading, can be bound here: http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142. Numerous pictures have disappeared but I hope to get the links restored someday.)
Now that I have crew and can consider doing much of the coast offshore, going to Florida seems more attractive. Dreameagle is also more interested than I am in getting to warmer waters and, as we all know, it isn’t a happy ship if the crew isn’t happy.
My problem is that I am a resident of Maine which does not independently register vessels with Federal Documentation. For an excellent rundown on the issue, see this article by my friend John Kettelwell who many may know from his excellent ICW chartbook.
http://www.oceannavigator.com/May-June-2013/A-fog-of-regulation/
I called the tax office in Nassau, the ICW gateway county for the state, and was told that I could bring my vessel into Florida for up to 90 days as long as I had a valid Coast Guard Certificate of Documentation on board, even if not also state registered. I asked about getting the Sojourner’s Permit, essentially a temporary FL registration and referred to by responders to the post linked above as the solution to my operating legally in Florida. I was told that, since I didn’t need the permit unless I was in the state for more than 90 days, they didn’t want to issue it. I should cruise until shortly before the period was up and then obtain the permit at the nearest county tax office if I needed it. This is completely at odds with Kettelwell’s article so I got back to him. As he has reported on Cruisersnet.net, he contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC), the lead agency for on-the-water law enforcement in Florida, and wrote:
Many, and probably most, FL cruisers from Maine, Massachusetts, North and South Carolina, the states that do not register documented vessels, have not experienced problems. However, in view of the heavy handed law enforcement and frequent boardings reported in the state, I would like to be fully legal there, especially after my experience with the same issue in Maryland reported here:
http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=161267&#post1107210
I think I got out of that one as easily as I did only because they realized that I was a guest of a major institution in town which is also the landlord for the slips in which they keep their patrol vessels. If I had just been passing through, who knows?
The Florida state department in charge of enforcing laws on the water says I can’t bring my boat without a piece of paper that the office charged with issuing it says I don’t need and is reluctant to give me, crazy. I have another inquiry into the FL FWC to see if anything has changed. I’ll let you know.
http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=148671&#post990210
(BTW the archived forum of my previous adventures, resorted into chronological order for easier reading, can be bound here: http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142. Numerous pictures have disappeared but I hope to get the links restored someday.)
Now that I have crew and can consider doing much of the coast offshore, going to Florida seems more attractive. Dreameagle is also more interested than I am in getting to warmer waters and, as we all know, it isn’t a happy ship if the crew isn’t happy.
My problem is that I am a resident of Maine which does not independently register vessels with Federal Documentation. For an excellent rundown on the issue, see this article by my friend John Kettelwell who many may know from his excellent ICW chartbook.
http://www.oceannavigator.com/May-June-2013/A-fog-of-regulation/
I called the tax office in Nassau, the ICW gateway county for the state, and was told that I could bring my vessel into Florida for up to 90 days as long as I had a valid Coast Guard Certificate of Documentation on board, even if not also state registered. I asked about getting the Sojourner’s Permit, essentially a temporary FL registration and referred to by responders to the post linked above as the solution to my operating legally in Florida. I was told that, since I didn’t need the permit unless I was in the state for more than 90 days, they didn’t want to issue it. I should cruise until shortly before the period was up and then obtain the permit at the nearest county tax office if I needed it. This is completely at odds with Kettelwell’s article so I got back to him. As he has reported on Cruisersnet.net, he contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC), the lead agency for on-the-water law enforcement in Florida, and wrote:
So, as is all too often the case with state agencies, the left hand doesn’t know what the right middle finger is doing.To confirm this I recently contacted Captain Tom Shipp of the FWC, Department of Law Enforcement, Boating and Waterways, and he reinforced this interpretation of the law with the following statement: "A vessel, federally documented or not, that is not covered by a registration from another state or by the U.S.C.G. in a state without a federally approved numbering system, is not provided that 90 day reciprocity time and would need to register with DHSMV."
Many, and probably most, FL cruisers from Maine, Massachusetts, North and South Carolina, the states that do not register documented vessels, have not experienced problems. However, in view of the heavy handed law enforcement and frequent boardings reported in the state, I would like to be fully legal there, especially after my experience with the same issue in Maryland reported here:
http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=161267&#post1107210
I think I got out of that one as easily as I did only because they realized that I was a guest of a major institution in town which is also the landlord for the slips in which they keep their patrol vessels. If I had just been passing through, who knows?
The Florida state department in charge of enforcing laws on the water says I can’t bring my boat without a piece of paper that the office charged with issuing it says I don’t need and is reluctant to give me, crazy. I have another inquiry into the FL FWC to see if anything has changed. I’ll let you know.