We experienced a crackdown on BUI during our recent Seafair celebration
in Seattle.

It might be interesting to know how much, or how little drinking others
allow on a boat and under what circumstances.....

I find that as I get older (but surely no wiser) I drink less than
before. While I never drank much at all when underway, I'm down to
virtually zero these days unless the boat is anchored or moored.


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Should anybody care to read a long amplification of my opinion....

Seafair Arrests a Sobering Reminder


According to Officer Rob Sharpe of the Washington State Patrol (quoted
in the "Mercer Island Reporter") approximately 200 arrests were
made at Seattle's Seafair celebration in early August. Among those
arrested, almost 2/3 (131) were hauled in for "Boating Under the
Influence" offenses- a dramatic increase from the 49 arrests for the
same offense in 2005 and the 12 BUI arrests in 2004. State Patrol Lt.
Jeffrey R. Sass remarked, "We don't believe that there are more
intoxicated boaters on the water, but that these arrests resulted from
a combined effort by law enforcement."

The Seafair crackdown on legally impaired boat operators was no random
accident. During the year between the 2005 and 2006 events, law
enforcement agencies upgraded the mobile testing and processing
facility from an antiquated ambulance with a single breathalyzer
machine to a new 30-foot motor home with additional breathalyzers and
two holding cells. The new paddy wagon allows arrested suspects to be
tested with less waiting time than in previous years, and those
"blowing" 0.08% BAC (blood alcohol content) or more can be booked
into a holding cell without diverting any officers from patrol duties
to drive suspects to county jail. The newly upgraded mobile
headquarters, combined with an obvious emphasis on water patrols,
indicates that the sudden attention to drinking while boating can be
considered a foreshadowing of enforcement priorities in future years.

There really shouldn't be any arrests for boating under the
influence. That statement isn't intended to mean that the State
Patrol or local law enforcement agencies should turn a blind eye to
dangerous or illegal behavior. Every boat should have a sober and
responsible operator in charge at all times. Seafair, Fourth of July,
and Opening Day are enormous water-party days in this region. For
perhaps a majority of adults, it's tough to imagine much of a party
that doesn't involve intoxicants of some type. The dramatic increase
in Seafair arrests will, hopefully, serve to remind anyone tempted to
relax normal safety standards afloat that safety is the skipper's
responsibility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without regard to whether
there's a community celebration going on.

Consider Seattle's Opening Day. Boats begin tying off the log booms
and anchoring in the Montlake Reach days prior to the Saturday crew
races and parade. It's probably not realistic to expect that the
owners of these secured and stationary boats will refrain from enjoying
a few beers, a little wine, or a couple of cocktails with friends and
family that may be aboard, but even this situation can get as mixed up
as a Margarita. If the visitors need to be taken to shore in a dinghy-
the skipper needs to be sober. Somebody aboard every boat should always
be sober enough to take command and make rational decisions in case of
fire, MOB, flooding, or other emergency- and that is by definition the
skipper's responsibility.

The "designated driver" assumption that only one person needs to be
sober enough to pass a blood alcohol test and everybody else aboard can
be absolutely on his or her lips doesn't withstand scrutiny from a
boating perspective, either. According to a December 18, 2001 article
in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" researchers
led by Dr. Gordon Smith of Johns Hopkins University studied 221 boating
related fatalities that occurred in Maryland and North Carolina between
1990 and 1998. About 80% of the deaths were the result of drowning, and
of the boaters that were killed 55% had a positive blood alcohol
content. Researchers were able to determine that with a "still
legal" BAC of 0.05, (roughly equal to the consumption of 3 beers by a
160-pound person) the risk of death to both operators and passengers of
boats was nearly four times as high as the risk endured by an entirely
sober boater. Extremely intoxicated boaters (0.25 BAC) were deemed 52
times as likely to die on the water. Not only does the consumption of
alcohol increase the risk that a boater will fall into the water, it
decreases the chances of successful and timely rescue.

It is no secret that the local press disdains boating and boaters. One
of the Seattle newspapers crowed that Seattle had been "stripped of
its sozzled boaters" during Seafair weekend, and another ran an
editorial headlined "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor?" The
consequences of such attention by the media could easily be a push for
unworkable or impractical legislation designed to make laws against
"boating while intoxicated" exactly like laws against "driving
while intoxicated"; a very simplistic solution likely to sound
attractive to state lawmakers.

The use of the same 0.08 blood alcohol standard that is used for
"dwi" arrests is certainly appropriate for boaters. Some of the
other aspects of the automobile oriented dwi law (such as "no open
containers") are less appropriate when applied to a boat. It's in
everybody's best and safest interest if a sober operator additionally
prevents his or her guests from becoming severely intoxicated, but it
would seem wrong to arrest a vessel's sober operator or impound a
boat because one of the guests sitting on the flybridge has an open
bottle of beer.

What's a boater to do? Abstinence prior to getting underway and while
underway (as well as conscientious moderation at anchor) would seem to
be the only foolproof policies. Attached to the privilege of owning and
operating a boat is the responsibility to do so safely as well as to
insure the safety of passengers and guests. It's a reality that there
is alcohol stowed and consumed aboard a probable majority of boats, but
the Seafair arrests should serve as a sobering reminder that a mixture
of alcohol and water can prove to be a very disastrous concoction that
needs to be handled with extreme caution.