Herhold's Hold
9/25/2006 1:04:01 PM by Sandy Lindsey
As the executive director of the Marine Industries of South Florida (MIASF), Frank Herhold has his finger on the pulse of some of the world's best boating.
Photo courtesy of MIASF
With 300 miles of waterway in the Fort Lauderdale area alone, the marine industry is one of the largest in the country with a $10 billion economic impact, providing approximately 134,000 jobs. As proponents of the marine industry, the MIASF not only pursues issues of importance to boat builders, marina owners, boat repair facilities, and more, but also keeps the concerns of the recreational boat owner in mind.
"We're advocates of family recreational boating," says Frank Herhold, MIASF executive director. "Rarely do you see people going out boating by themselves. Golfers may go golfing alone, without their wives and kids, but boaters take everyone along. We like to see young people get their feet wet."
One area in which they are making a difference for the average boater is by making sure that, in this day and age of high waterfront property values and continual waterfront condominium development, the local marine master plan keeps in mind waterfront set aside for marine businesses and services, as well as ramp and other water access for individual boaters.
One popular event organized by the MIASF is the annual Waterway Cleanup. Last year the event got countless boaters out on the water to clean up 58 tons of trash and raise public awareness of keeping waterways clean year round. As a thanks for all the hard-working volunteers, the MIASF sponsors hosted the well-attended Trash Bash party afterwards.
Herhold owns an Edgewater 225 center console boat that he takes out as often as possible. "There's plenty to do on the water around here," he says. "For example, Fort Lauderdale has about 70 restaurants that can be accessed by water. I enjoy cruising and fishing. Though I mainly freshwater fish, I like to go offshore as well." He says one particular favorite for relaxing is to go to John Lloyd Park in Dania. "We pull up in Whiskey Creek and combine beach time with boat time by climbing over the sand dunes to the ocean."
Back in his younger days, the waters weren't always so calm. "I was about 18 years old at the time, staying with my family on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin," Herhold reminisces of his most adventurous, albeit unintentionally, moment on the water. "Lake Winnebago is about 22 miles long, 11 miles wide, and about 20 feet at its deepest point. A buddy and I borrowed a friend's boat one night and decided to boat over to Fond du Lac. Suddenly, about halfway there, the engine quits," he says. The boat had no paddles aboard, nor a flare gun. "A big storm came up suddenly and we were in the midst of it. The only way we could figure out how to signal anyone was to pour gasoline on some of the PFDs aboard and set them alight to act as bonfires."
The makeshift emergency flares were seen from shore and rescue boats were dispatched. This should have been the end of the story, but?
"We see the lights of the rescue boats coming toward us, then we watch them turn around as the water has turned too rough for them to stay out in," he continues. The two teens were now on their own in what had become a life-threatening situation. "We didn't have an anchor on board, but we knew we had to keep the bow into the wind or we'd broach. So we looked around for the heaviest object on board. It turned out to be the boat battery. We tied a line to it as securely as we could and heaved it overboard as our sea anchor and then began paddling madly with a pair of waterskis we'd found on board."
How well these makeshift measures would have held up throughout the lengthy storm we'll thankfully never know. "Our floundering boat was almost caught in the net that a passing fishing boat was dragging as it made its way back to shore," concludes Herhold. The fishermen rescued the two stranded boaters and now Herhold says he can't go into a West Marine without buying a piece of safety equipment."
Other lessons learned include letting someone ashore know the boating plans and timetables so if the boat doesn't arrive it will be missed which was not the case on Lake Winnebago and carrying a full complement of current safety gear on board, including a means of VHF communication. It's a lesson that Herhold passes on to new boaters, both to make the best of his harrowing experience and because of his position at the helm of the MIASF in their capacity as "stewards of the marine ecosystem."