Help 100 Live Aboard Sailors Keep Their Homes By Offering Feedback on Mooring Field

[SailingPug]

We are asking for the support of the boating community. The City of Miami Beach is planning a mooring field WITHOUT ANY CONSIDERATION for the 100+ sailors living aboard their vessels. Worse is that they want to permit the entire area without any guarantees that the mooring field will be built. We are a group of 100 live aboards who have been living in Miami Beach for many years. We have jobs, families, and ties to Miami. There are better ways to address the real issues with a minority of derelict boats than to simply kick everyone out. The issue is that they are not willing to work with us on the Mooring Field - we are willing to pay a market rate for a long term mooring that would allow live aboards. Only a minority (10%) of the boats out here are derelicts and we want to help them address those issues as well.

The City of Miami Beach has engaged in a coordinated harassment campaign against us - removing a public dock, cutting off access to shore, food, water, and basic supplies, installing 100s of no docking signs and cameras pointing at us, spreading false information about us on social media, and basically treating us like criminals for living on the water. See the link below for local news coverage on the issue:

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2...ach-officials/

We need your help to write some public feedback about this mooring field that they must permit the area in phases (not the entire area), they must allow long term live aboards, they must grandfather the current sailors with an affordable rate, and they must provide basic services including a dinghy dock, pump out station, and water.

If you can please take 5 minutes, go to the link below, scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see a form to submit your feedback, which becomes part of the public record. Thank you for your time and consideration.


https://www.miamibeachfl.gov/residen...mooring-field/

[mvweebles]

Thanks for the link but I'll be sending comments in support, not against. I have more problems using anchorages because they are clogged with derelects and liveaboards, not ultra wealthy to use your words.

I have zero compassion for people who live on boats on public watereays that either cannot or will not move periodically, then raise holy hell when taxpayers make reasonable rules.

Good luck and I hope you find peace.

[SailingPug]

Thanks @Mvweebles. Sad to see that 100+ folks being displaced doesn't bother you at all. Whether or not they have moved does not justify the way they are being treated by the City of Miami Beach. Just because they have chosen to live on the water does not justify cutting off access to shore and basic essentials like food, water, and other supplies.

If you actually read my post, we are not against the mooring field. We just want to make sure they work with us so that lawful boaters can move into the mooring field and they give us a chance to be grandfathered into it.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by SailingPug

Just because they have chosen to live on the water does not justify cutting off access to shore and basic essentials like food, water, and other supplies.

If its good enough for Gaza...

[Cheyne]

We spend several months each year in South Florida. We stopped going to Miami Beach. Way to many derlict boats. It is the only place I have actively locked up my boat. Put my support in for the mooring field. I know we will use it if completed. Hopefully they will make it all transit and not allow long term rentals.

Cheyne

[sailorboy1]

I have never been through the anchorage location in question. But in the 7 years I have been cruising Florida the boat "problem" is really caused by the boats. All one has to do is go to Boot Key and see the difference between the mooring field, the anchorage next to it, and the anchorage by the bridge with trailer trash on boats to understand.

I would bet that for the State to agree to this mooring field project they would in fact have to put in the mooring field and it have to include shore access etc. That is how every mooring field in FL is.

Of course what also happens is that the trouble boats end up on the edges of the mooring field.

I will check the link

[Pete7]

Please don't flood the forums with identical posts.

Peter

Modrator

[SailingPug]

Hi Peter,

Sorry about that. Could you help me delete my previous post? I was going to edit it, but it did not allow me to. Thanks for your help.

Captain Andy

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by SailingPug

. Just because they have chosen to live on the water does not justify cutting off access to shore and basic essentials like food, water, and other supplies.

If you actually read my post, we are not against the mooring field. We just want to make sure they work with us so that lawful boaters can move into the mooring field and they give us a chance to be grandfathered into it.

If you have really cruised FL you would understand that most locations don't have access to the shore unless you stay in a marina. The reason is pretty much 100% due to the anchor out liveaboard boats who have ruined it for all of us.

[Smokeys Kitchen]

Something similar occurred on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound (Seattle WA area) several years ago. It actually turned out fairly successful. I don’t have any direct links to the results discussions but a little internet sleuthing should turn up some good info

[Secondshift]

Originally Posted by Cheyne

We spend several months each year in South Florida. We stopped going to Miami Beach. Way to many derlict boats. It is the only place I have actively locked up my boat. Put my support in for the mooring field. I know we will use it if completed. Hopefully they will make it all transit and not allow long term rentals.

Cheyne

The mooring field will be filled with giant multihulls that don’t want to pay marina fees.
We’ve lost our areas best anchorages to pay moorings.
The county and the state do not have the resources to enforce derelict boating rules.
Mooring fields have proven their best method to eliminating Nate unwanted boaters.

[NorthCoastJoe]

Question? If there are no docks or pump outs... where do you unload your waste and used food ( the head filling product ) ?

We have the problem locally with floating dumpsters that people live in being removed at taxpayer expense.

You're in Florida and can't find a cheap piece of land? Buy some cheap swamp land dig a hole in and park your boat there, in your own pond?

You can live on your boat and pay property taxes too. I guess you still need a pump out or your moat will smell bad.

Sorry I was a bit rough, but I want to visit and have a place to stay for a week and move on. That is why we bought a boat.

[Cheyne]

Originally Posted by Secondshift

The mooring field will be filled with giant multihulls that don’t want to pay marina fees.
We’ve lost our areas best anchorages to pay moorings.
The county and the state do not have the resources to enforce derelict boating rules.
Mooring fields have proven their best method to eliminating Nate unwanted boaters.

Like mine.

Cheyne

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by SailingPug

Thanks @Mvweebles. Sad to see that 100+ folks being displaced doesn't bother you at all. Whether or not they have moved does not justify the way they are being treated by the City of Miami Beach. Just because they have chosen to live on the water does not justify cutting off access to shore and basic essentials like food, water, and other supplies.

If you actually read my post, we are not against the mooring field. We just want to make sure they work with us so that lawful boaters can move into the mooring field and they give us a chance to be grandfathered into it.

I understand the difficulty. But please try to see it from the other side which I perhaps represent. In many cities, public libraries cannot be used because homeless people have moved in. Likewise the parks in the middle of many cities are no longer safe for the general public due to homeless and drug use. In some cities, derelect RVs and tents infest public walkways and streets. Under your thinking, they all deserve to be grandfathered in. To my thinking I'm paying taxes for public resources that have been rendered unusable by vagrants who take much and contribute little if anything.

If you want to cruise your boat on a shoestring budget you have my support 100%. But the fact is you want a free place to park a boat and never move it. What's ironic is it's folks like this who have pushed the tipping point because they took too much and finally are being forced out. As other responses have said, you've ruined it for those who want to cruise. Sorry, you get no sympathy. Glad to see you go. It has sucked with derelict boats clogging anchorages. Happy to take my chances with mega yachts if that's what will be replacing the deselects.

Please try to see it from the point of view of an average taxpayer.

[Shanachie]

As a Florida cruising sailor, I have to add my voice in support of the mooring field and doing away with the anchorage for derelict boats.


You are not a sailor or a boater if your vessel has not moved for a year or more, you dump sewage into environmentally sensitive water, you have two inches of barnacles on the bottom and you create an eyesore for those living on land.


You are a homeless person.


You have a right to live that way as long as you're not infringing on other people's rights. Sadly, that it is not the case. You're anchored off some of the most valuable property in the United States.


If I owned a $5-10 million waterfront home in Miami Beach, I would be raising holy hell if a bunch of people anchored neglected boats several hundred feet off my yard and created a homeless camp.


It's not a scenic view when people are hanging their butts off the stern to do their business, throwing beer parties at all hours of the night and discarding garbage into the water.



Don't blame the government for not enforcing the rules. Blame yourselves for ignoring them. No one owes you anything. No one is weeping when you say your boats will be replaced with nice vessels that actually travel places.



I'm normally liberal, sometimes close to libertarian. But here, I'll sound like my late father. If you can't afford a marina and can't maintain your boat, you need to get a job so you can. Don't be a burden on other people.


If you have a job and still can't afford it, you need to rethink how you live your life.