Port Huron Float Down endures on St. Clair River, despite pushback
Everyone knows it's coming, but nobody controls what happens at the Port Huron Float Down.
This Sunday, hundreds of people will likely show up at Lighthouse Beach in Port Huron, Mich., before floating more than 10 kilometres down the St. Clair River in a convoy to Chrysler Beach in Marysville, Mich.
Erik Kimball, the owner of the Float Down website, said the people can simply go online to find the exact details of what will happen.
That's because the event has no sponsors and nobody is responsible for its operation. And thus there is no official website.
"The biggest problem nowadays is liability and the concerns of having insurance and sponsors and things of that nature," he told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning in a telephone interview on Thursday. "So, due to that fact, there's been nobody that's wanted to step forward to take on the issue of liability of the event."
Kimball said the people taking part are doing so because they want to.
The Float Down website provides safety tips for those planning to take part in the event.
Because there are risks for those who take part and Kimball said the message is for people to have the proper equipment with them.
"We've preached safety, but you still can't make everybody do what is right," he said.
While shipping groups have been critical of the Float Down over its safety implications and its impact on their operations, Kimball said it's a long-running tension between the industry and the event.
The U.S. Coast Guard warns that the Float Down event "poses significant and unusual hazards," which include the fact that there is a fast-moving current and that many people are involved.
The coast guard said that it was involved in assisting 119 people at last year's event, who ran into trouble or were in danger of drowning.
But even with those efforts, one person did drown.
The coast guard says it has established a temporary regulation requiring all people under 18 to be wearing life jackets at the event.