What's With All The Wrecks In Florida?

[SomeGuyInaShirt]

Been looking at Florida on Navionics and seeing a ton of wrecks on the charts....what's up with that? Is there something especially dangerous about the area or is it just full of crummy boats with inadequate ground tackle that don't survive heavy winds? Never sailed there so I can only guess (and hope) it's hurricane related.

[MicHughV]

You might be confusing " wrecks" with boats purposely sunk to form artificial reefs. There are many of those off the coast of Florida...

Check the water depths of the " wrecks" you see on Navionics to see how far underwater they are...

[Mickeyrouse]

Couple reasons for that. Florida has been a heavily traveled, heavily fished, heavily cruised area for longer than any place in North America. In five hundred years, things start to accumulate. Besides, wreck symbols tend to accumulate on charts. Once there, it takes a survey to determine “ED” (existence doubtful), and I imagine the cartographers would rather be safe than sorry. No bureaucrat wants the responsibility of saying it ain’t there, only to find…
Many wrecks show on charts that are well below the maximum draft of any vessel likely to be in the neighborhood. But you wouldn’t want your anchor or shrimp net to foul it just the same.
While it’s possible, I doubt many wreck symbols denote crummy boats. Those usually sink in marinas or anchorages.