As our Editor/Captain Bob Armstrong writes in Your First Powerboat: “There are many advantages to keeping a trailerable boat on a trailer. Perhaps the greatest is that you can use your boat anywhere! All you need is a waterway you can get to by highway that has a launch ramp or two to permit water access. You can go boating on salt water, fresh water, lakes, rivers, bays or ocean; places close to home and also on those that are so far away that reaching them via water alone would be unrealistic, if not downright impossible, for the boat you have — as it would be in so many cases.” This is especially true here in Florida, where our range and variety of waterways is so vast in both geographical distance and type. Fortunately, we also have a plenitude of launch ramps.
While some of these ramps are privately maintained, most are in the care of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), which also provides a list of their locations on its Web site. For your convenience, and to assure the greatest timeliness and accuracy, we provide these direct links to the FWC’s Boat Ramp Listings:
The Boat Ramp Finder provides descriptive information, maps and photographs for hundreds of public boat ramps throughout Florida. The Find-A-Boat-Ramp menu on the left side of the Boat Ramp Finder page provides several options to search for the particular type of boat ramp you want to visit.
The Boat Ramp Finder provides information about both publicly-maintained and commercially-maintained boat ramps. Some of these boat ramps might require a user fee.
