I just couldn't bear to bring this other topic closer to the top of the forum pile:
https://www.hobie.com/forums/viewtopic. ... 8&start=15Marty's comment hit me in the gut, though...
HobieMarty wrote:
I went to the beach a couple of weeks ago to Okaloosa Island/Ft Walton Beach/Destin, Fl. It was very sad to see that the beaches now are so regulated with so many rules, can't do this and can't do that. I didnt take my H16 with me this time because I was only going to be there for one full day and the weather was really unpredictable, really wishing that I had taken it though because it was hard to sit there in the rental chair under the umbrella and not visualize my Cat skimming through the emerald water. I didnt see any beachcats whatsoever and didnt see any any sailboats at all while I was down there. It's very sad to see that now, the condos all have this beach service where you rent chairs and umbrellas and if you bring your own canopies, they have to be set up behind the rows and rows of rental crap. The beach is supposed to be a free space and now it is so regulated that it really isn't all that enjoyable to me anymore. The condos now seem to think they own the beach all the way down to the waterline. If I had taken my H16 down with me, I would not have had a place to beach the thing where I was because of the rows of rental chairs and that would've been a huge problem. I remember seeing rows of Hobie Cats for rent that used to line the beaches around the Florida panhandle and now you dont see any beachcats at all. I'm not saying its completely dead, but there has been a shift to other things. Oh well, I'll keep sailing my cat and the next time I go to the beach she will be going with me. I dont care about all the regulations and rules at the beach, I'll do what I want and sail my Hobie where it was meant to be sailed, off the beach, rental companies be damned!!!
I have been to the beach a few times lately... and there are few beach cats in site (and I have yet to sneak a trailer hitch onto the girlfriend's Cadillac) to get mine there! Beach regulations are rarely posted and kinda hard to find definitively online... and the lifeguards in the tower didn't much want to talk, understandably, they have a job to do. The default seems to be if there's a posted lifeguard, you can't beach your boat (and block their view).
What are the rules by you?
I can 'beach' at inland reservoirs, but that's generally not sand, and isn't the easiest on the bottom of the boat (ah well, it's just a bottom-job). I have an anchor but dislike bringing it along... still working on a padded case to make it 'softer' on the tramp.
Randii