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A bill making its way through the Maryland General Assembly would hand down stiff criminal penalties to people who are found engaging in one of the Old Line State’s more dangerous past-times: Navigating a sailboat while drunk.

The Capital Gazette in Annapolis reports that people found guilty of piloting a non-motorized sailboat while drunk or high on drugs would be hit with a fine of as much as $500 and up to two months in prison. Second offenses could result in a $1,000 penalty plus up to a year in jail.

The bill passed the Maryland Senate last Friday on an overwhelming tally of 38-7, though its dissenters were vocal, The Gazette reports:

“I really don’t believe this bill is necessary,” said Sen. Richard F. Colburn, R-Dorchester. “I’m sure the Mothers Against Drunken Sailors are wholeheartedly in favor of this bill, and it would be bad to vote against Mothers Against Drunken Sailors.”

Colburn quizzed Brochin on the details of the bill during its three readings in the Senate.

He asked for a definition of sailing. He questioned how much drunken sailors have actually caused problems for the DNR. He said the DNR’s resources could be better used. He also argued it was hard to tell, out on the water, how much a sailor has had to drink.

“Obviously, they wouldn’t ask a sailor to walk the line or walk the plank,” Colburn said.

The law uses Maryland’s legal blood alcohol content limit of 0.08 percent. As for the Mothers Against Drunken Sailors, no such association exists. But according to the U.S. Coast Guard, 16 percent of all boating-related deaths in 2009 were linked to alcohol, making it the leading cause of waterborne fatalities