Sz vs nwz

[Unimog Bob]

Originally Posted by linhster

I am not completely understanding the following:

-Swimming buoy restrictions.
-No wake restrictions.

Is there any swimming allow in a no wake zone? I thought wakes are created by vessels. And if there are vessels, usually swimming will be prohibited. ???

Thanks for the clarification...

To my knowledge, boats are not allowed to come inside any buoys out from the beach (about 80 yards) along most beaches in St. Pete. In other words, if you see buoys, boats are not allowed inside of them.

The wording on this stuff is getting in the way imo.
Also, imo, the concept of distance from fellow beach-goers should be independent of buoys anyway. However, buoys exist from much/most of the way from John's Pass south to Pass-a-Grille and boats are not allowed inside of them. This becomes more obvious in the summer, when you see NO boats anchored inside of them or on the beach (the whole point to them being there). Surely, if legal to motor (or even float) inside of them, people would motor their boats at .5 knots to get to the beach if possible. You won't ever see this though. You will see people anchor just outside of them, then swim into the UnderTow and other beach bars.

We have been calling them "swim zones" b/c the goal is to keep swimmer's safe. In my mind, they are actually "no vessel zones".

If anyone disagrees with my take on their purpose or laws enforced within them, just go out and throw anchor inside one of them and see what happens.

In keeping with the spirit of the rules of these areas, I am glad to see that race organizers decided that buzzing through them with 70 kiters at top speed seems like a really bad idea.