Florida Senate - 2021 SB By Senator Wright 14-00622-21 2021578__ CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. A bill to be entitled

An act relating to marina evacuations; amending s. 2 327.59, F.S.; prohibiting vessels under a specified weight from remaining in certain marinas that have been deemed unsuitable for refuge during a hurricane after the issuance of a hurricane watch; requiring a marina owner, operator, employee, or agent to remove specified vessels under certain circumstances; 8 providing that such owner, operator, employee, or agent may charge the vessel owner a reasonable fee for such removal and may not be held liable for any damages as a result of such removal; providing construction; providing that the owners or operators of certain vessels may be subject to a fine that the deepwater seaport issuing an evacuation order is required to impose and collect; providing an effective date. 17

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 19

Section 1. Subsection (1) of

section 327.59, Florida Statutes, is amended, and subsection (5) is added to that section, to read: 23 327.59 Marina evacuations.— 24

(1) Except as provided in this

section After June 1, 1994, 25 marinas may not adopt, maintain, or enforce policies pertaining to evacuation of vessels which require vessels to be removed from marinas following the issuance of a hurricane watch or warning, in order to ensure that protecting the lives and safety Florida Senate - 2021 SB 578 14-00622-21 2021578__ CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. of vessel owners is placed before interests of protecting property. 31

(5) Upon the issuance of a hurricane watch affecting the waters of marinas located in a deepwater seaport, vessels under 33 gross tons may not remain in the waters of such marinas that have been deemed not suitable for refuge during a hurricane. 35 Vessel owners shall promptly remove their vessels from the waterways upon issuance of an evacuation order by the deepwater seaport.

If the United States Coast Guard captain of the port sets the port condition to “Yankee” and a vessel owner has failed to remove a vessel from the waterway, the marina owner, 40 operator, employee, or agent, regardless of any existing contractual provisions between the marina owner and the vessel owner, shall remove the vessel, or cause the vessel to be removed, if reasonable, from its slip and may charge the vessel owner a reasonable fee for any such services rendered.

A marina owner, operator, employee, or agent may not be held liable for any damage incurred to a vessel from a hurricane and is held harmless as a result of such actions to remove the vessel from the waterways. Nothing in this

section may be construed to provide immunity to a marina owner, operator, employee, or agent for any damage caused by intentional acts or negligence when removing a vessel pursuant to this section.

After the hurricane watch has been issued, the owner or operator of any vessel that has not been removed from the waterway of the marina, pursuant to an order from the deepwater seaport, may be subject to a fine, which must be imposed and collected by the deepwater seaport that issued the evacuation order if assessed, in an amount not exceeding three times the cost associated with Florida Senate - 2021 SB 578 14-00622-21 2021578__ CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. removing the vessel from the waterway. 59

Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021. 60