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Gulfport tires of lingering liveaboards

Police begin cracking down on boaters who drop anchor for more than three days in the bay.

By SHADI RAHIMI
Published April 12, 2006

In the city's latest attempt to discourage people from living on boats anchored in Boca Ciega Bay, police this month began enforcing a 1986 law that limits occupied boats to a three-day stay.

The recent enforcement has led many in the tightknit community of liveaboards to re-evaluate the waters they have called home for months, sometimes years.

"Once my boat is fixed up, I'm heading out," said Jay Dean, 35, whose boat has been anchored offshore for about two months.

The law is being enforced now in response to numerous complaints from onshore residents, said Lt. Ken Dodge, the patrol commander.

For months, police officers have been placing notices on anchored boats informing liveaboards of the law, Dodge said.

"We've given them an opportunity to be aware before even beginning enforcement," he said. "We don't want them scared; we just want them not violating the law."

Officers issued the first $88 ticket for violation of the 72-hour limit to John Schneider on April 1.

Schneider, a vocal critic of ordinance amendments aimed at liveaboards, said he plans to contest the ticket in court this month.

"I've been hit by lightning and I've ridden out three hurricanes," he said. "It's a fight I don't want to fight, but if I have to, I will."

Schneider has lived on a white 41-foot trimaran with his wife, Pat, off Gulfport Beach for about two years. He said he was singled out because he has been taking other liveaboards by dinghy to the dock at the end of the Gulfport Casino so they can go to work.

He began doing so in December after an ordinance amendment created a "swim zone" between the Gulfport Casino and Williams Pier. It prohibits boaters from using the beach to anchor and from tying dinghies to signs and other public property.

Since January, dinghies that have been left at the dock beyond the posted hours of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., or that appear abandoned, have been ticketed and impounded, said Lt. Robert Vincent, a police spokesman.

But enforcement of the 72-hour liveaboard limit has been more difficult because the marine unit operates only part time, Dodge said.

"If you get a boating violation in Gulfport, chances are you either really have bad luck or you've made it a point of bringing it to our attention," he said.

Several boaters have left for other waters, while others have had to cut back on their visits to town, upsetting some local businesses.

"They can have dinner but they can't stay for drinks because they can't leave their boats," said Jennisa Ebert, a bartender at H.T. Kane's restaurant. "It hits our business."

[Last modified April 12, 2006, 07:27:59]