The gaping hole left in Hythe Pier after a drunken skipper smashed his dredger into it graphically demonstrated the folly of being in charge of a vessel while under the influence of alcohol but it is not proving easy to come up with exactly the right legislation to prevent such incidents from occuring again...

WHAT shall we do with the drunken sailor? Never, when the hearty seadogs of the middle ages were singing this shanty to while away the perilous hours of dangerous sea voyages, could they have thought their 21st century descendants would consider the age old quandary in such a different light.

For that is exactly what movers and shakers in the sailing world are

currently trying to decide.

Although, it is not so much a question of what to with the drunken sailor as which drunken sailors to do it to.

Two cases to hit the headlines in recent months perfectly illustrate the situation.

Andrew Bartlett was jailed for eight months after smashing the Donald Redford dredger into Hythe Pier.

Weeks later, musical conductor Roy Goodman was fined £1,250 for skippering a yacht while drunk and urinating over the side of the vessel into Southampton Water.

The current legal position is that Mr Bartlett, as a professional seaman, would be liable for prosecution under new laws passed by Whitehall but Mr Goodman would not because he is a recreational sailor.

Mr Goodman could still be charged, but not under the Railways and Transport Safety Act which came into effect at the end of March.

So if "drink sailing" was already an offence what is the point of the new laws? Before the act was passed, sozzled sailors could not be arrested until they caused damage, as in the case of the Hythe Pier.

Mr Bartlett should perhaps be given credit for the fact that he volunteered to be breathalysed.

Had he refused, a course of action he would have been perfectly entitled to take, the authorities would instead have had to prove that he was negligent.

Now, if marine authorities suspect a professional seaman is drunk on duty they can force him to take a breath-alyser test.

If he is over the limit, he will face prosecution.

It is now the same for professional sailors as for road users - right down to the acceptable level of alcohol in the bloodstream - 80 milligrams alcohol per 100 millilitres blood.

Leisure users are yet to be dealt with under the new rules. Many groups of sailors, notably the Royal Yachting Association, resent the introduction of the new laws.

A statement on the RYA website says: "So far as privately owned and used recreational craft are concerned, the RYA is aware of no reason to justify the introduction of breath testing, nor any evidence that drunk sailing is a recognised problem on a scale sufficient to justify the extension of legislation to cover the leisure sector."

The organisation goes on to concede alcohol abuse could be considered a problem in larger power boat crafts but claims existing byelaws would be sufficient to reel in the minority of troublemakers responsible.

PC Mike Hannam said: "Harbours have always had byelaws to cover masters being drunk on a ship but before we had no power to demand a specimen of breath for a breath test, and also no legal limit.

"This legislation has laid down a set limit in line with the Road Traffic Act. It's exactly the same limit and has now given our coastguard authority the power to detain a ship and then call the police who will breathalyse.

"We can breathalyse people now and we can arrest them if they're over the limit. And it makes it an offence to refuse a breathalyser, which we didn't have prior to this Act.

"But we can only use these new laws for professional sailors. The leisure side has gone to consultation again.

"The Royal Yacht Association is one of the main reasons it's gone back to consultation.

"They're saying the new laws should apply to motorboats but not to yachts, which is ridiculous.

"I think they thought the police would be going around marinas and breathalysing everyone, which isn't the case.

"From our point of view the last thing we would do is walk around marinas breathalysing every yachtsman sat on his boat having a glass of wine.

"The new legislation, as it's drafted, wouldn't apply to vessels unless they're under way, so if they were tied up we wouldn't be doing that anyway, so I really can't see what their

argument is."

Jeremy Smart, senior enforcement officer for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, worked closely with PC Hannam in the Hythe Pier case.

He said: "The leisure users consultation is about deciding which vessels the legislation will need to apply to.

"At one end you have high-powered motor boats which pose a danger to other individuals and at the other end you have rowing boats, which could be dangerous to the individuals operating them but not to others.

"If there's an incident involving a leisure vessel, such as collisions and what have you, the coastguard will call the police. If there's a reporting saying someone is speeding around a marina at high speed, police will be on the quayside to administer a breathalyser. Sixty-five per cent of all Coastguard incidents are leisure users so leisure users in general are an area where safety could be improved.

"It's very difficult to say how many of that figure are alcohol-fuelled because before this legislation comes in there's no ability or facility to require breath tests.

"The evidence is either when people have voluntarily done it or it's anec-dotal, to the lay person he appeared drunk or, in unfortunate cases, there is post-mortem evidence.

"It's not aimed at penalising a group. It's aimed at trying to stop alcohol and people in charge of boats from mixing."

The RYA is lobbying for the laws not to apply to crafts 22 metres or less in length and capable of speeds of no more than 17 knots.

Mr Smart said: "A 17-knot boat is highly likely to be a planing boat that skims across the water. Somebody doing that speed can do an awful lot of damage.

"The level the RYA is requesting is one that has definitely got to be further explored.

"There are yacht users who claim incidents involving alcohol do not happen to yacht users - well they do."

The drunken conductor is an example of this happening in Hampshire.

Mr Smart said he was also aware of a yacht skipper having killed his brother while over the legal alcohol limit for road users as it was then.

He said: "It does happen and that wasn't an isolated incident.

"Every weekend if you talk to the guys on the rescue stations they will say alcohol is often a factor but they haven't got the ability to test.

"They can't say 'he had this amount of alcohol on his breath', because they're not allowed to test.

"It's frustrating when you know that what's caused this incident is somebody being well over the legal limit and they became an accident waiting to happen.

"As far as the rescue services are concerned, when you've got someone like that it's only a matter of time before something happens."

Returning to the issue of the consultation on which users should be affected by the incoming legislation he said: "Time will tell if the levels are in the right place, which we hope they will be, which is why we're doing this consultation part to get it right first time. But like all these things we wait and see."