IL drinking on boat.....
 

Is is legal to drink on a boat with a little cuddy up front with bed.Say u and the wife both drunk with anchor down and going to not drive and stay the night?
ty

maybe take the key out off the ignition to just to prove your not going to drive anywhere.

i hope so if not this country is going to hell faster than I thought!

i would think that on the water if u r not moving thay cant get ya cuddy or not .

It shouldn't matter if your anchored, keys out of ignition. There is no law I know of that says you can't get completely piss drunk on your own boat. We do it all the time... :eekdrop::whistle:

When I took my course it was legal for the person running the boat to have a small amount of alcohol and be legal, I think that may have changed... but not sure..

Perfectly legal, you can drink while driving the boat as long as your under .08 and anchored with the key out of the ignition you can get as drunk as u want

As long as the engine isn't running they can't do a thing.keys mean nothing.you're allowed .08 like a vehicle.only difference between a car and boat is you're passengers can drink.the operator just can't while underway.

ty guys :-)

99.99% sure operator can not have an open container while underway. Although the conservation are pretty easy going around me.I've never even been stopped

Check your local regs.

To remain legal in fl, one person capable of operating must be sober. Keys, no keys.....one sober capable operator.

We are a zero tolerance state...meaning simply, they have the authority (not that they always do) to take the vessel or car or home or whatever you are in and own at the time they discover a felony infraction.

BUI is a felony here.

Also, when under way, alcohol cannot be within reach of the operator...but if stopped (anchored, drifting, tied to a dock) all can drink.....but may have to prove there is one under limit operator on board.....even if they are asleep at the time of inspection.

I'm pretty sure you're under way if you're drifting.

better take that back..... or u will be f-ed this year geting stoped every weekend......:party-smiley-004:

In my class they said you could, that was difference between car and boats..

wasn't there a thread last year about a guy at loto getting hauled away for being drunk with the anchor down and no intention of leaving for the night? Boat cops are my least favorite people in the world.

A vessel drifting with no one in command at the helm with or without power is classified by USCG as NOC

Not Under Command

And yes, I am a uscg captain.

But....local regs can be more stringent....

Look at our gun laws as opposed to Il:poopoo:

MNo offense to you but my buddy is a water sheriff in MI. You can pretty much do whatever if your not driving...

please send your buddy over to this side of the state. The sheriff's over here are out of control. I'm surprised I haven't seen any of them out yet skimming on top of the ice. Coast Guard however is very respectible to everyone.

I don't know ay specifics about it, but there is drunk and then there is that wonderfull drunk attitude some people get which is much more likely to get them hauled away then merely consuming a few beverages.....

That sucks man. The CG are cool here and the Sheriffs are as nice or nicer. Most know you by boat or name. That is the one thing keeping me from spending $$$ on that side of the state. You have a very nice side but it is not worth the bs.

Seriously, I would call each and every law enforcement agency that patrols your area and ask them.

In the San Jacinto river the police are normally cool, however the river is a navigable waterway that can be reached from the Gulf.

The USCG can and will board any vessel at any time if they so choose.

I watched and photographed them as they ordered a boat to back off a beach so they could board it.

I would not rely on this forum for your specific location as you may be affected by local ordinances.

fixx
 

we will stay at blarneys island if we get too drunk,,same for petite lake..ancor down and ancor light on so they can see you of coarse..

Had a guy get busted on his live aboard while in his slip, under his covered moorage for BUI since he COULD untie and get underway.

I couple summers ago I was boating in south haven a bit. Watching the sheriffs from the public marina, all they did was cruise up and down the river, stopping people all day long. I was stopped twice i think in 2 weekends. It becomes annoying, and was a big turnoff for me. I can see if your driving like a jerk, or doing something wrong, but the random ''I wanna ruin your day'' checks are BS.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife/Game Wardens here are who you need to watch out for. It's kind of a built in "pissed off" mode for them from what I have gathered. They go to college for wildlife managment, and get stuck on a boat for the summer, watching drunk teenagers. Dreams of catching poachers and looking out across Big Bend=killed.
I've had Sherriff departments, Police departments, and constables (yes, the have constables on the lakes in TX), tie up to me to do safety checks. Very respectful, gregarious, and get on their way because I didn't have the droids they were looking for <force hand wipe>. The game wardens I have had board my boat have made me feel like I was absolutely incapable of driving a boat, nor operating a fire extinguisher, or throwing a float. BEFORE I had a few beers. Plus, no one at party cove is fishing for Bass out of season, so they are already pissed off. <rant over>

A Texas Game Warden popped a buddy of mine in his 31 American Offshore with a pair of 900's cuffed him and put him in the patrol boat, then uncuffed him and had him drive his boat to the coast guard station. Need to say he won the case .....

local laws can definitely be more stringent and it will vary state to state. Even lake to lake here. the lake my house is on has a "zero tolerance" for alcohol period, simply because all counties touching the shores are "dry" counties. Meaning they do not allow the sell of alcohol in the county. Certain cities can but not the counties. However the lake just south of here follows laws more like the ones explained in the posts earlier. When you get to the coast it's a totally different ball of wax.

I would just encourage you to know the law before you go. Playing dumb will not help.

i don't care how drunk you are on a boat or not, they can always pull the "public intox" if they really want to get you.

also remember if you are piss ass drunk on someones boat who is sober you become a liability as well.

and yes this comes from someone who has been burned before and has been quite the liability.

They will ALWAYS find a reason to take you in if they want.

ie Bloodshot eyes and Slurred speachi( is all the report has to say) = Public Intox = Can not win period!

Just depends if his Wife pizzed him off that morning

28 Responses and not one "holier than thou, I don't drink anything while boating - anchored or underway" reply - I am shocked.

On our end of the river if you are drinking they give the same as DUI on the water guess it varies State to state.

I was told by someone the USCG cannot issue a DUI that goes against your driver license. Only local law enforcement like sheriff, city pd, etc. Is that true?

There was a thread a while back about a guy in I think Oklahoma or maybe Missouri that rented a houseboat. Drove the boat to where they wanted to stay for the weekend and tied off. After a couple of days the lake patrol or game warden pulled up and wanted to know who whose house boat it was. They checked the guy out and he had been drinking so he was hauled off to jail. I was on Lake Livingston here in Texas about a 90k acre lake by myself and had 1 beer. I had not been driving fast at all and there was only a couple of boats on the lake. 2 hours later I was pulled over by 3 guys in a boat I think the wildlife department. One asked to board the boat, checked all my safety equipment registration etc looked into my eyes asked how much had to drink and so on. They let me go but it scared the hell out of me. I have never had any problems with law enforcement in 30 years of boating.

Just don't take a pi$$ in Peoria Lake at 5:30 in the afternoon without checking out your surroundings really, really well. They will board you and have a chat! :lolhit: The told me, "Next time, be a little less obvious".

:lolhit: so true...

fined from both
 

A friend of mine was stopped by coast guard then turned over to DNR who wrote him up for BUI in ohio he had to go thru same thing as DUI fine 3 day lock up and high insurance and not able to boat for 2 years then 6 months later get civil fine from USCG for 5000 and this is not considered double jeopardy. Still had to pay fine but was reduced because he responded and sent in what he already did but still had to pay..


http://www.uscg.mil/legal/cgho/CGHO_...o.nwl.vol7.pdf

The local police tie up at our local watering hole. I used to have a party out at our hang-out (island) every year. One of the cops took the early shift so that he could get off and catch the tail end of the party. :evilb:

I think you would have to do something real stupid to get their attention. Although leaving the harbor I have heard of people getting stopped for a safety check, but I'm sure they are required to do that.

This is the part that scares me! In MI you the operator can drink as long as he/she is under .10. If the boat is moored then you are no longer considered operating the boat. But, what happens when the law asks you to move your boat for some reason?

never know what the whole story is, i kinda find it hard to believe they could take someone in for being docked/anchored and drinking.

I get pulled over every so often and have absolutely no problem with that. The guys here are pretty cool and very professional especially when they find you have not had a drop to drink. Most are just doing safety checks and are probably using that to target bui's but in all honesty i am fine with that. The more often i get stopped tells me there is a high frequency of stopping people in general and the more chances to get the drunk idiots off my water. I see the schit all the time from local bars and beach spots, drinking all frikin day then take off with a boat load of people. I have a zero (zero) tolerance policy for myself but i have no prob with passenger drinking while on my boat, my friends are fairly responsible and no one turns into a mess. Got pulled over around eleven o'clock one night coming back from a concert and got the full test. My crew had been drinking and it was mildly obvious (lol) but the coasties realized very quick i was stone sober and my boats pass impeccably any safety check. They thanked me for operating sober and also complemented me on the state of my 89 Scarab and how i have safety gear stowed within two steps of my helm. I thanked them for watching over my end of the lake, I see them often and get a wave and maybe a cordial short stopping every so often but they already know i pass safety so its usually short and sweet. Point is most of these guys really just doing their job and its the belligerent A'holes that make it tough, the guys that think its some sort of right in boating to drink all day and still be out there. At some of the speeds we travel schit happens fast people, you gotta have a clear head at all times.


And yes i will catch up to my crew when i get safely to my dock for the night :D lol

I'm sure I'll catch some heat for some of the above :D

They were loaded for bear! Guy was on beach across from us for a couple of hours.