What is the alcohol policy on your boat?

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.

** 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.

db

Guest may not have alcohol either. If they don't like it, tough $h!t. I'm not babysitting a bunch of drunks. There are enough of them on the lake as it is, I don't need them in the boat with me.

Easily.

Or the long answer, by using one's intelligence to develop one's language skills such that communicating ideas, events, stories, or jokes, can be done with a minimum of extraneous verbiage and no distractions.

Or to put the same concept into the current vernacular... If you gave a cigar to a turnip, would that make it a better story teller?

DSK

And they have plenty of conservation officers partoling the lake to find whose been tanking it.

About every weekend, somebody gets hauled in.

Joey916 wrote:

Eisboch

And those are perfect examples of my point.

Eisboch

If it is strictly for emphasis, he can also pull one of these out of his pocket and end up getting a lot of attention (especially from the woman and the guys always wanting folks to have 'spectacular' days). ;-)

http://tinyurl.com/f3b8l

My boat - my rules. :>)

Besides, I generally don't smoke when out with the wife or others - some find it annoying and that's fine - I'll comply.

Keeps the stress levels WAY down.

http://tinyurl.com/gt7c3

Or one of these when you have your socialist mandated annual physical.

http://tinyurl.com/6ulgz

(All in good fun)

I am now seeing my doctor 2/year (with blood tests) just to make sure everything is still working OK. ;-)

I do, however, exercise 5 times/week by walking for 30 minutes and consider myself in fairly good health. My stress test this year shows that my heart is equal to that of a 45 year old......I am 10 years older. ;-)

As to cancer, cigarettes have been known as Cancer sticks since the 1920's. No one makes you smoke them. Warning on every pack.

My boats are another matter.

As is my office - fair game.

"Calling Phillip Morrrrrris"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altria_Group

How the hell can you tell any decent story telling without a good cigar to emphasis?

My personal policy is no alchohol before, or while, underway. Guests are free to do as they wish within reason.

I'm curious to know whether the Seattle sobriety checks were done on boats at anchor, or only those who were under way.

Eisboch

Well, two icy cold Coronas over the course of a day on the water is enough beer for me. Usually, I just have one. And the day has to be ferociously hot for me to even have one beer.

Zero - no alcohol allowed aboard.

If clients want a couple of beers after to talk about the days fishing, I allow that at the dock and have a locked cooler for their use where they can keep their beer or other alcohol. If we're using the Ranger, we'll stop on the way back for a quick one at several places I know at the ramps I normally use.

Soft drinks are the only drinks allowed onboard - period, no exceptions.

And to answer the inimitable questions:

1 - Yes, I have terminated a trip where somebody put liquor into juice bottles.

2 - Yes, I have refused to take somebody along who I felt wasn't sober.

3 - It's my policy and it's strictly enforced - if you don't like it, tough.

Chuck Gould wrote:

I wasn't always so responsible. In my younger days I was an idiot sometimes, but changed my tune as I got older.

Eisboch

none of my family drinks.

Chuck Gould wrote: