This is an editorial written by Mary Wells, Publisher/Editor of Catamaran Sailor Magazine. She is actually being far too nice and kind. This whole thing is still another way for the Government to fleece us our our hard-earned money. They tax everything we own, the work we do, the things we buy and sell, our estates, and now even our playgrounds.

Be sure to write these people and tell them to drop the whole thing. Why should anyone pay any tax -- be it the Boat Shows or whatever? Sure! The Boat Shows are seemingly rich. But, any tax on them is ultimately a tax on us.

Please write, call or whatever it takes to stop this whole thing in its tracks.

Contact: Call 850-921-9899, or fax 850-488-6579, or email
<HEATHCOCK_A@dep.state.fl.us>.

EDITORIAL:

Thanks to adverse publicity and quick responses from many boaters, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Submerged Lands and Environmental Resources, has backpedaled a bit on its proposed new regulation that would originally have required boat races to get a “Consent of Use” at a cost of $200 and also obtain permission from all property owners whose riparian lines might encompass part of the race course.
Following a workshop February 27, the committee drafting this regulation came up with a revised version that still characterizes boat races as being “special events” for the purposes of the regulation, but now they will not have to get a “Consent of Use” unless they need a Coast Guard permit and don’t get it.
A whole new category was created to cover boat races, and it says:
(g) Special Event Authorizations
1. Class I consent of use for special events, such as boat races which do not involve the construction or reconfiguration of structures and for which any preemption of sovereignty submerged lands is necessary to protect public safety and navigation during the event. Such events may or may not be revenue generating/income related. Such events may be required to obtain a permit from the U.S. Coast Guard per section 327.48 F.S. When such events do not require a permit from the U.S. Coast Guard or require and have obtained a permit from the U.S. Coast Guard, then these events shall be exempted from any requirement to make application for consent of use, and such consent of use is herein granted by the Board.
This proposed DEP regulation is still troubling in the mere fact that it includes boat races at all. The original intent of the regulation was just to govern and extract fees for boat shows that have to put in temporary docks. In the original draft of the amendment, examples of special events were: “...boat shows and exhibitions, movie productions, boat regattas, boat races, marine parades, and boating tournaments.” The revised amendment draft only says “Examples of special events may include boat shows and boat races, when such activities exclude the public from traditional uses of defined areas of sovereignty submerged lands.”
The word is that the only reason boat races are in there at all is because certain people on the committee drafting this rule are concerned about protecting manatees and are opposed to powerboat races because they think they are dangerous to manatees.
The new draft of the regulation does not distinguish between sailboat races and powerboat races, and that is as it should be. Powerboat races don’t use the “submerged lands” any more than sailboat races do. But the fact that “boat races” is mentioned prominently in the regulation leaves us open to a future amendment that could easily make that Class I Consent of Use have additional requirements.
These people seem to have lost sight completely of their mission, which is to protect the SUBMERGED LAND -- not the waters above and not the manatees. (And now it is not even a matter of protecting anything; it’s a matter of “You can do it if we can figure out a way to make you pay us.”) But what on earth does this have to do with boat races -- races are, in fact, NOT on earth -- they are on the water, and there are already plenty of agencies regulating what we can and cannot do on the water.
Supposedly, if you are blocking off a portion of the water, you are also preventing the public from using all that state land that is down UNDER the water.
If lots of people are hiking and biking down there on all that “public” land under the water (As if there are lots of people hiking and biking underwater), destroying the grasses that manatees eat, maybe THOSE are the activities that should be regulated by this particular government agency.