Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

I understand that it is against maritime law to restrict or prohibit
waterway access. Anyone know if this is true and/or what the law
actually says, and where it may be found?

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."

Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

Matrimony ... yeah yer waters cut off all right ... oops ... maritime ...
hmm ... I dunno. But ... there's lots of private property on rivers, lakes
etc up here ... and there are also access roads that are not to be blocked
.... helps the rural fire trucks to fill up for one thing.

"Larry Weiss" wrote in message
...
I understand that it is against maritime law to restrict or prohibit
waterway access. Anyone know if this is true and/or what the law
actually says, and where it may be found?

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."

Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

And there are laws against extending property out into a waterways by land
filling if that's what you mean.
"bowgus" wrote in message
. cable.rogers.com...
Matrimony ... yeah yer waters cut off all right ... oops ... maritime ...
hmm ... I dunno. But ... there's lots of private property on rivers, lakes
etc up here ... and there are also access roads that are not to be blocked
... helps the rural fire trucks to fill up for one thing.

"Larry Weiss" wrote in message
...
I understand that it is against maritime law to restrict or prohibit
waterway access. Anyone know if this is true and/or what the law
actually says, and where it may be found?

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."

Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

x-no-archive:yes


Larry Weiss wrote:

I understand that it is against maritime law to restrict or prohibit
waterway access. Anyone know if this is true and/or what the law
actually says, and where it may be found?

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."

I think this depends a lot on where it is you are talking about. For
one thing, what country? And why would you think maritime law had
jurisdiction? I would have thought that ordinary laws applied in most
inland or near coastal waters.

I don't think maritime law applies to an ordinary creek or lake or
something like that. No one has to allow someone else to cross their
property to launch a boat for instance, or to allow people to come
ashore by dinghy and party on the beach that they own. But there is
some law in Annapolis (Maryland) that says something to the effect
that any street that ends in the water has to allow dinghies to land.
I think that is far from usual though.

I think in many cases, beaches are public from the high tide mark
seaward. And in some cases, all of the beach part is public.

In some cases, the Coast Guard has jurisdiction, like in the ICW. I
walked up on the Boot Key Harbor bridge today, and the bridge tender
came out and talked a bit. He said the Coast Guard had jurisdiction -
that the channel was part of the ICW (I'm not sure that he's right
about that) and that they said the bridge had to be manned 24 hours a
day 7 days a week so that access could be maintained. I asked him why
not leave the bridge open at night, and he said that if they did that
the emergency people couldn't get to the radio tower on Boot Key.






grandma Rosalie

Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
x-no-archive:yes


I think in many cases, beaches are public from the high tide mark
seaward. And in some cases, all of the beach part is public.


I've lived in Rhode Is (beach property), Calif. and Washington state. The
laws of beach rights vary according to state laws.. In RI and Calif. the
public has rights to the beach up to the high water line (or something like
that) but can't cross private property.. In Washington state, a lot of the
beaches property owners own or have lease rights to the beach out to low
water (or something like that).

It has never been made clear to me how these leases work but I think it has
something to do with the the shell fish beds. The property owner will have
jurisdiction over the sea bottom but not the water..

I have heard some lease holder complain about boat anchoring near shore
because of their oyster beds.. I could understand that, especially if they
are paying for the lease rights.

I think it is all very complicated and verys from region to region..

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

"Rosalie B." wrote:

x-no-archive:yes

Larry Weiss wrote:

I understand that it is against maritime law to restrict or prohibit
waterway access. Anyone know if this is true and/or what the law
actually says, and where it may be found?

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."

I think this depends a lot on where it is you are talking about. For
one thing, what country? And why would you think maritime law had
jurisdiction? I would have thought that ordinary laws applied in most
inland or near coastal waters.

We are talking about the US of A, New York State in particular, and
maritime law only because that's where my poor memory recalls it may have
existed.

Basically we are talking about a local town public park and marina on the
waterfront. The park is supposed to be for use by town residents only
(the park land was donated to the town in 1942 by descendants of Teddy
Roosevelt and that strict covenant is in the deed). Over the last few
years, the town has stopped enforcing this restriction. Officials claim
it is because of a law, which they are unable to cite, which states that
they can not restrict access to the water. I believe they may be
misinterpreting a law meant to prohibit restricting a boat's access to
waterways from the water (which I recall hearing about somewhere), rather
than a person's access to the water from land. Nobody on either side
seems to be able to cite any law from either perspective. I'm just
looking for something official to cite, one way or the other.

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."

Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

We are talking about the US of A, New York State in particular,
..........................lots of snip...................
Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."

Larry: In Canada, the "Navigable Waterways" are under Federal Jurisdiction.
I don't know about NY State, but , why don't you write to your State
Attorney General Office, and find out the full story? It may be that the
Town has the rights to the park land but not the water. That's the way it
is here.

Jim Carter
"The Boat"
Bayfield

Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

In South Carolina, the public has rights to the beach 100 ft inland of
the high water mark, letting us use the beach at high tide without
stepping on some rich guys domain.

To counter this right, the "cities", gated waterfront communities like
Kiawah Island, Seabrook Island, Hilton Head Island, bought their way
into another state law letting the municipalities have domain over the
public's water out ONE MILE from that beach. So, they simply write an
ordinance preventing the public from getting to the beach in their
boats or some such nonsense.

I haven't seen any city gunboats protecting the billionaires from the
commoners, yet, but that is just a matter of time.

State law says if I want to take the jetboat into the beach at Kiawah,
I must do so in a no-wake condition. So, we went. Someone from the
beach houses came out screaming and yelling at us, threatening to call
the Kiawah Kops. I told him I'd be glad to explain to a cooler head
South Carolina law. The cops came, in force! I had violated their
"space". The cops threatened to arrest me if I didn't get in my boat
and get off "their beach". I pressed for an arrest, but seeing the
threat tactic wasn't going anywhere and not wanting to test state law,
they got back in their pickup truck and drove away. We stayed on OUR
beach for a couple of hours with the jetboat anchored off the sand
before going elsewhere.

Property owners think just because their property BORDERS on the
public's beach, the beach becomes their property. It's not true in
SC....(c;

I'm still here......



On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 21:57:46 -0800, "Steve" wrote:


"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .
x-no-archive:yes


I think in many cases, beaches are public from the high tide mark
seaward. And in some cases, all of the beach part is public.


I've lived in Rhode Is (beach property), Calif. and Washington state. The
laws of beach rights vary according to state laws.. In RI and Calif. the
public has rights to the beach up to the high water line (or something like
that) but can't cross private property.. In Washington state, a lot of the
beaches property owners own or have lease rights to the beach out to low
water (or something like that).

It has never been made clear to me how these leases work but I think it has
something to do with the the shell fish beds. The property owner will have
jurisdiction over the sea bottom but not the water..

I have heard some lease holder complain about boat anchoring near shore
because of their oyster beds.. I could understand that, especially if they
are paying for the lease rights.

I think it is all very complicated and verys from region to region..

Steve
s/v Good Intentions




Larry W4CSC

No, no, Scotty! I said, "Beam me a wrench.", not a WENCH!
Kirk Out.....

Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

I just remembered what one lady down in Beaufort, SC, said to the
newspaper when they were discussing a new marina going into a creek
near her home. She was opposed to them installing "a floating trailer
park" in the creek to spoil her view. That's what property owners
think of your boats......"floating trailer parks".



Larry W4CSC

No, no, Scotty! I said, "Beam me a wrench.", not a WENCH!
Kirk Out.....

Anyone familiar with maritime law?
 

On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 13:57:11 GMT, "Jim Carter"
wrote:

We are talking about the US of A, New York State in particular,
.........................lots of snip...................
Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."

Larry: In Canada, the "Navigable Waterways" are under Federal Jurisdiction.
I don't know about NY State, but , why don't you write to your State
Attorney General Office, and find out the full story? It may be that the
Town has the rights to the park land but not the water. That's the way it
is here.

The town could simply condemn the land for public use.....like they'll
do to your house if some politician owns the acreage next door and the
politician wants to sell it to the state for that new road the
politician wants.

Government can take your land any ol' time they want, actually.



Larry W4CSC

No, no, Scotty! I said, "Beam me a wrench.", not a WENCH!
Kirk Out.....