APRIL FOOLS: Reverse-toll weekend puts financial bridge burden on boaters

The 30-foot Wellcraft loomed larger and larger as it rapidly approached the drawbridge at New Pass, altering its course slightly as it blasted through Sarasota Bay toward the Gulf of Mexico.

Low enough to slip easily below the span between St. Armands Key and Longboat Key, the craft still slowed and fell in line behind two sailboats and a cabin cruiser bobbing slowly toward a uniformed man in a Florida Marine Patrol boat immediately in the bridge’s shadow.

Welcome to the first day of Florida’s reverse-toll bridge weekends, the first of 12 such two-day stretches during which boat operators, not drivers, pay tolls to pass under the 4,000 state-maintained drawbridges in Florida.

The pilot program, designed to draw revenue from “the other half of the bridge equation,’’ was a bit of a surprise when enacted on the third weekend in March. A small provision, written into the 72nd paragraph of a bill otherwise pertaining to barber and hairdresser licensing, wasn’t noticed until after Gov. Rick Scott signed it into law.

“I was too  busy figuring out how Daylight Saving Time would affect my charters. I guess we’ll have to start carrying some change aboard,’’ said Willy Gilligan, a boat captain heading out on a three-hour tour.

Gilligan will need more than a simple handful of change, though.

State regulations require a toll of 10 cents per horsepower, which means a small sailboat with a 5-horsepower backup motor will owe 50 cents. The owner of that 30-foot Wellcraft, powered by twin 350 horsepower motors, will owe $70 for each pass under a drawbridge.

Transportation officials in Tallahassee said an attempt to use the state’s SunPass electronic road-toll-paying system proved unworkable, but early versions of the new SailPass devices are being tried in some spots around the state. The transponders retail for $125 each, plus a $10 service fee.

Drivers were hoping for smoother sailing across the drawbridges, noting that most boaters had nearly every spare penny tied up in fuel, insurance, repairs, maintenance and accessories and might have a hard time coming up with the necessary cash to pay the under-bridge tolls.

“I think we solved at least one weekend’s worth of traffic backups on Longboat,’’ said Ima Nostopp while waiting for a family of nine from Westchester to clear a crosswalk on Gulf of Mexico Drive.