KENT NARROWS, Md. - Recreational boating and alcohol often go hand-in-hand, and officials say the state of Maryland is no exception.
Brian Schuchhargt of Middle River, Md., has been around boats his whole life and said alcohol can play a major role in boating accidents.
"When boaters have a problem, most of the time alcohol is involved," said Schuchhargt.
Schuchhargt has seen far too many accidents and cannot understand why some think it is OK to drink and get behind the wheel of a vessel.
"It's like everything else, you need to drink responsibly and do the responsible thing and driving one of these things out on the water with other boats around is just as responsible as driving the car on a highway," Schuchhargt said.
It is not uncommon for boaters to dock along a Kent Narrows restaurant and head inside for a few drinks. According to the owner of Fisherman's Inn, precautions are already in place to prevent those kinds of accidents from happening.
"We don't let somebody walk off their boat with two beers in their hand or taking shots off the boat, hopefully they are not doing it here and leaving, and if we have a problem with that we are going to tell them to stay put tell them to get a hotel if it's late at night and demand that," said Andy Schulz, owner of Fisherman's Crab Deck. He believes Kent Narrows could use more marine police to crack down on drinking and boating during the summer.
"The marine police [are needed] because we are in Kent Narrows and [they would] patrol back and forth," Schulz said. "So that's a deterrent in itself, if somebody thinks they are going to leave and seeing a police boat going back and forth."
A good rule of thumb: being a captain means when cruising, do not go overboard on the boozing.
