Five half-submerged vessels lie abandoned across the waters in the Bradenton Beach anchorage. They were deserted after high winds and rough waters from a June 6 tropical storm passing 300 miles west in the Gulf of Mexico sent them either crashing into the Historic Bridge Street Pier or sunk them in the waters surrounding the city pier in Sarasota Bay.
The damaged boats — some occupied by renters — were abandoned. And some boats in the anchorage were considered derelict boats — no power or non-operational — before the storm. Now the city is waiting on government funds to remove them.
“We don’t have any money to get rid of them,” Bradenton Beach Police Lt. John Cosby said. “Each boat costs about $5,000 to remove and we used up all our funds clearing away the boats from the day dock.”
During Tropical Storm Colin’s path through the Gulf of Mexico, 10 boats broke free of their anchors and lines. Several sank, four crashed into the pier and another crashed into the Cortez Bridge.
Mayor Bill Shearon said the Florida Department of Transportation is concerned the bridge was damaged during the crash.
A houseboat also broke apart and parts of it floated or sank throughout the anchorage. The city is still looking for all the parts. “The houseboat’s going to cost more to remove because of the pieces,” Cosby said.
Pelicans are currently using the houseboat’s half-submerged hull as a roost.
The boats along the pier and in the travel lanes were cleared away, leaving the city with an empty wallet.
Cosby said the city could seek funds from West Coast Inland Navigational District, but that money won’t be available until Oct. 1, the start of the next budget cycle. He also said he’s trying to petition Manatee County for funds.
“We’re just prolonging the inevitable,” Shearon said. “Every time there’s a strong storm, more boats break free.”
Shearon said the June 6 event was the fourth time he remembers boats breaking free and damaging the pier.
The anchorage is unregulated. Cosby called it “open state waters” because it’s in the city’s jurisdiction, but the city can’t do much to enforce regulations.
Bradenton Beach Police Chief Sam Speciale had been working toward converting the anchorage to a monitored mooring field, but he failed when he asked for funding to proceed with a study that would be required by the state.
City commissioners voted 3-2 June 16 to halt an $11,988 study by Scheda Ecological Associates to determine the viability of a regulated mooring field.
Arguments from Commissioners Jack Spooner and Jan Vosburgh convinced Commissioner Ralph Cole to vote against the study. They claimed regulating the anchorage would push unregulated boaters further away into another unregulated area.
“More boaters are starting to anchor near Cortez and Palmetto,” Cosby said. “It’s cheap housing, why wouldn’t they do it?”
Anchoring in a regulated mooring field would require boaters to pay a fee, but that fee would pay for a harbor master, a boat for sewage pumping service, clean water and other amenities.
A harbor master could ensure the boats anchored have adequate anchors and lines so when the next storm comes no one breaks free.
Right now anchoring a boat in the “unregulated state waters” near Bridge Street is free, but no amenities are provided.
Public showers were available on the Historic Bridge Street Pier, but are currently being used as storage by the AMOB restaurant.
“There’s not much we can do until the commission decides otherwise,” Shearon said, adding the pier remains vulnerable to future storms.
