Dave, All work has to be approved by the state preservation officer, which can by the way, come visit at any time and of course the coast guard can come anytime to serve the light. Basically you can't make any real changes to the lighthouse. The new owner is NOT required to open the lighthouse to the public, of course I hope they will. (This was the info in the bid package).

I think that Wolf Trap and Smith Point are the better lighthouses because the house part is brick, the other two are metal.

As far as distance I recently saw all four from the shore and to me there isn't a big difference in distance for a boat trip out.

I had wanted to bid on Wolf Trap and open it for tours but did not have a lot of money to put to the project, the bids are far above what I could invest especially with all the restrictions and the fact I am here in Orlando.