Boat

You could drive to a fish market or stop at a roadside stand to pick up a few dozen steamed crabs, or maybe a bushel. But then you'd miss the tranquility that comes from bobbing in silky-smooth back waters, the sound of bass leaping to catch low-flying bugs, the sight of great blue herons and bald eagles sweeping the sky to begin their search for the first meal of the day. And you'd miss the satisfaction that comes from baiting a line and...

As Maryland takes part in National Safe Boating Week (May 18-25), Natural Resources Police spokesman Sgt. Brian Albert has a number of suggestions and warnings for those planning to be on the state's waterways this spring and summer. •Wear your life jacket and make sure it fits. While Friday was "Wear Your Life Jacket To Work Day," it really kicks in with the start of the boating season and its first big weekend leading up to Memorial Day. "We like to remind people that this might be their first time out this year on the water, and we want them to get their life jackets out," Albert said.

Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. said Thursday that he had been drinking alcohol when a motorboat he was operating collided with another boat in the Magothy River — an accident that left six people with serious injuries. In a brief news conference outside a Baltimore hospital, the Pasadena Republican said his blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.2 percent after Wednesday's crash. The legal limit is .08, according to state law. "I deeply regret my actions and ask for your forgiveness," Dwyer said, adding that no one should operate a car or boat while under the influence of alcohol.

I strongly resent the comments made by Del. Donald H. Dwyer in regard to his arrest for operating a boat while intoxicated ("Dwyer gets 30 days in jail in boating incident," May 15). He sounds like the 5-year-old who gets caught taking a candy bar from a grocery store and uses the excuse that "everybody does it. " He recently made the statement that he made a mistake and that "who out there hasn't made a mistake and who out there hasn't been drinking on a boat out on the bay. " As a boater of many years, I can tell him - not me. As my mother would have said to me, "Just because everybody else jumps off the roof, would you?"

Don Riddle, who founded one of the largest independent garden centers in the country in rural Davidsonville and was known for his quiet contributions to civic causes, was found dead Thursday on a boat docked near the back of his home outside Annapolis. Officials did not release a cause of death but said they were alerted by a call about 4:35 p.m. Thursday to a possible suicide or sick person on a boat in Lake Ogleton behind the 1200 block of Eden Lane. Riddle was pronounced dead there by rescue workers, who turned the scene over to police, said Division Chief Michael E. Cox Jr. of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.

Saying that "those who made the laws have an obligation to obey them," a District Court judge in Annapolis sentenced state Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. on Tuesday to 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to operating a boat while under the influence. Dwyer, 55, a Republican from Pasadena, immediately filed an appeal. The sentence stems from a powerboat collision last summer on the Magothy River involving Dwyer's boat, the Legislator, and another vessel. Several people were injured in the crash, and toxicology tests showed that Dwyer had a blood alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit for being under the influence.

How is it possible that boat registrations in Maryland are stagnant even as boating sales and registrations across the rest of the country are bouncing back from the national recession? I think that Gary Jobson hit the answer squarely by pointing out the impact of Maryland's excessively high boat excise tax ("Bring the boats back," March 8). By not being competitive with our neighboring states up and down the Atlantic Coast, it's clear that Maryland boat owners are choosing to register their vessels in other states to avoid our tax. And that means that all of the local spending and local jobs that typically are created to service local boats are going to other states.

A recent column addressed to mayor-to-be Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called attention to the extremely challenging conditions of doing business in Baltimore, particularly at Crossroads Industrial Park in Southwest Baltimore. Trash, illegal dumping of construction waste, burglaries, expensive air-conditioning units repeatedly destroyed for their copper, no snowplow service and abandoned boats showing up on the street are all business as usual at Crossroads. Baltimore Development Corp.

A boat sank in the Inner Harbor just before 5 p.m. Saturday, fire officials said. The incident happened off the 2700 block of Boston St.and was over in under a half hour, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire department spokesman. No one aboard was harmed. A 911 call that came around 4:50 p.m. reported a sinking boat near the Bo Brooks Restaurant & Catering, Cartwright said. A rescue boat, a fire engine and a medic were dispatched to the scene. But by the time the rescue arrived, one of Baltimore city's trash collection vessels had removed the people aboard the sinking boat and taken them to shore, Cartwright said.

The body of a Virginia man thrown from a small boat on the Chesapeake Bay during Friday's powerful storm was recovered Sunday evening off Calvert County by Maryland Natural Resources Police. Angel Giovani Ayala Cerros, 26, of Alexandria, was found near Chesapeake Beach. He was one of five people aboard a 12-foot boat that capsized after being pounded by high winds and heavy seas. The four survivors, wearing life jackets, were rescued early Saturday morning by the Coast Guard. His body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for autopsy.

Saying that "those who made the laws have an obligation to obey them," a District Court judge in Annapolis sentenced state Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. on Tuesday to 30 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to operating a boat while under the influence. Dwyer, 55, a Republican from Pasadena, immediately filed an appeal. The sentence stems from a powerboat collision last summer on the Magothy River involving Dwyer's boat, the Legislator, and another vessel. Several people were injured in the crash, and toxicology tests showed that Dwyer had a blood alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the legal limit for being under the influence.

City officials plan to raise fees for docking boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in hopes of generating about $35,000 in added revenue. With that money, officials say, they could reduce the amount that taxpayers spend to operate the city-owned docks. Barry Robinson, the city's head of transit and marine services, said officials are working to make the program self-sufficient. "This is the first step in that direction," he said. The Board of Estimates is expected to approve increases to the Inner Harbor docking fees Wednesday.

State Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr. of Pasadena, who was involved in a powerboat crash last August that injured him and several others, will plead guilty Tuesday in Annapolis District Court to operating a boat while drunk — part of plea deal that his attorney said includes prosecutors not seeking a jail sentence. "I truly regret the incident of Aug. 22 of last year," said Dwyer, 55, at a Monday news conference in Glen Burnie. The collision of his boat with another vessel injured Dwyer — he suffered a broken foot and neck injuries — and six others, including four children, on the other boat.

Time was when American opera companies considered musicals as suspect artifacts from another planet, hardly worthy of serious attention -- not even on a par with the operettas those companies would occasionally stage when they needed a box office lift. Bit by bit, thinking has changed at a lot of places, and a welcome thing, too. Washington National Opera has enthusiastically embraced this broader view, offering an inspired staging of the path-breaking 1927 musical "Show Boat," a co-production with the Lyric Opera of Chicago (where it debuted last year)

A 100-foot tugboat sank off Pier 3 in Locust Point on Saturday night. The tugboat Kaleen McAllister sank before 10 p.m., Mike Reagoso, the vice president of Mid-Atlantic operations for McAllister Towing, said Sunday. No one was injured in the incident, Reagoso said. Everyone had left the boat by the time it sank, said Petty Officer David Marin, a Coast Guard spokesman operating out of Baltimore's Curtis Bay yards. "It is too early to determine what the extent of the damage may be, but the submersion of the tug is not expected to interfere with any harbor operations or any port operations," Reagoso said in a statement.

A vacant building in a prime location at Annapolis City Dock is about to be sold. An investment group led by Mark Ordan, CEO of Sunrise Senior Living, has signed a deal to buy the former Fawcett Boat Supplies building at 110 Compromise St. The building sits in a key spot in downtown Annapolis and will figure into the city's plans to redevelop the City Dock area. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, and Ordan said it won't be final until the proposal passes a five-month study period "to make sure we have the support and cooperation of the city and the various constituents.

A water rescue of four people from a boat offshore from Hawkins Point in Baltimore late Sunday night resulted in three people being taken to area hospitals, two of them in critical condition, the United States Coast Guard said Monday. The rescue occurred near the south end of the Key Bridge after a local fisherman called the Coast Guard about 9:45 p.m. to report a 40-foot recreational boat had crashed into concrete pilings in the water, said Petty Officer 1st Class Nathan Henise.

A witness told 911 operators the boat piloted by an admittedly drunk Del. Donald H. Dwyer was "flying [at] what seemed like full throttle" before colliding with another vessel, seriously injuring seven people, including four children. On 911 recordings released Tuesday and in interviews, neighbors who helped with the subsequent rescue described a bloody scene, screaming children, people tossed into the air and a boat ripped by the impact with Dwyer's motorboat, The Legislator. No one has been faulted in the Wednesday evening accident on the Magothy River that sent Dwyer, the pilot of the other boat and the children to the hospital.

Don Backe never won the America's Cup or any other world-class sailing event, but he probably had more of an impact on the sport around the Chesapeake Bay than any champion. A segment of the local sailing community - the physically and emotionally disabled as well as those who couldn't afford to sail - are deeply indebted to Backe, who helped found Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating (CRAB) in 1991, four years after a car accident left him a paraplegic. While mourning his death on April 12 at age 77 after a prolonged illness, those who knew Backe are also celebrating his life - particularly the last 22 years of it. A memorial service is being planned for June in Annapolis, where Backe's nonprofit was based.

Even as an experienced sailor, Peter McChesney said that racing the J/70 gives him a different kind of thrill. The 223/4-foot boat, the newest design of Rhode Island-based J/Boats, which began building its line in the late 1970s, will be the most popular entry in the prestigious Annapolis National Offshore One-Design (NOOD) Regatta Series, which will be held Friday through next Sunday. The third leg of the six-race series is expected to attract an estimated 1,000 sailors, with the top prize being a trip to the Top-Sider NOOD Regatta Championship in the British Virgin Islands in November.