Anchoring Laws

Seems like we get into anchoring laws all the time... what the Feds say and what States and local municipalities say.


There's a few threads over on the AGLCA and MTOA dealing with the latest "rules" set up by my local Madeira Beach community, that doesn't know a rats behind about boats.



For the most part, most of us are on Federal waters, the ICW, which "should" be governed federally, but isn't.


A few questions.....


Where does the federal goverment (most likely the Army Corps of Engineeers) delegate the laws of anchoring to the states? And while this seems inconsistent with a good way to govern the waterways, why do they do that?


Shouldn't the Fed control the ICW?


And would it be worth a movement to push this responsibilty back to the Feds?



It's really a PITA for us boaters to look up each states laws and statutes.



Thoughts?

Greetings,
Mr. S. I think a conclusive argument can be made that the "government" doesn't know a rat's behind about governing. In the very rare case that someone in a position of authority DOES know what's going on, their days in that position are numbered and it was probably a mistake that they were appointed/elected to that position in the first place.



As is the case 99.9% of the time "Follow the money".

what specific laws about anchoring are referring to?

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. S. I think a conclusive argument can be made that the "government" doesn't know a rat's behind about governing. In the very rare case that someone in a position of authority DOES know what's going on, their days in that position are numbered and it was probably a mistake that they were appointed/elected to that position in the first place.



As is the case 99.9% of the time "Follow the money".

Click to expand...

That about sums that up!:lol:

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. S. I think a conclusive argument can be made that the "government" doesn't know a rat's behind about governing. In the very rare case that someone in a position of authority DOES know what's going on, their days in that position are numbered and it was probably a mistake that they were appointed/elected to that position in the first place....

Click to expand...

In Australia, it`s very clear that, in their own opinion, our journalists could do a far better job of governing the country.

The problem is, that the only real penalty for a city or country (or even a state) passing an unconstitutional law, or law that impedes on federal authority, is that they can be forced to void that law through a lengthy court process (and sometimes pay court costs that are almost always inconsequential to most jurisdictions).

That's not much of an incentive for governments to not overreach with unlawful laws.

Imagine if the only penalty for theft, was that you had to give back the property you stole. That's what we have with anchoring laws, and why it keeps happening over and over again.

Seevee said:

Shouldn't the Fed control the ICW?


And would it be worth a movement to push this responsibilty back to the Feds?



It's really a PITA for us boaters to look up each states laws and statutes.



Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I can provide you a list of thousands of things that are a pain having to deal with state laws and statutes instead of one rule for all states. What about highway laws? Insurance? Licensing, personal and business? Taxes? Education?

However, states and people living in states aren't about to give up the power and seeing how poorly the Federal Government does with those things it does control, I cannot make a compelling argument to give it more.