Boaters Say Coast Guard Is Going Overboard With New Drug Policy

Dr. Joseph Tangredi planned a party for 40 people this weekend on his 60-foot motor yacht, which is moored at the Kona Marina on Shelter Island Drive.

But the professor of surgery from the University of Nevada canceled the party on his $1-million craft at the last minute because of concern over the Coast Guard’s “zero tolerance” drug crackdown.

“Everybody is condemned” under the new policy, Tangredi said. “I’m afraid to have parties. They will hold me responsible for the criminal intent of someone else.”

Boats Seized

The zero tolerance crackdown has resulted in the confiscation of more than two dozen craft since mid-April, ranging from sailboats to shrimp boats to tugboats, from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico.

It calls for the seizure of U.S.-flagged vessels if even the most minuscule amounts of narcotics are discovered on board.

On Saturday, the luxury yacht Monkey Business, which former presidential candidate Gary Hart once rented for a trip to the Bahamas with model Donna Rice, was back in the news when it was confiscated by the Coast Guard after a small amount of marijuana was found aboard.

In another highly publicized case, the Ark Royal, a $2.5-million yacht owned by an Irvine firm, was seized last weekend 260 miles southwest of Key West, Fla., after Coast Guard personnel who boarded the vessel for a routine documents check found a small amount of marijuana aboard. The yacht was released after the owner paid $1,600 in fines.

Coast Guard spokesman Brad Smith said zero tolerance is designed “to send a message to boaters that no amount of illegal drugs is acceptable.”

And Customs spokesman Dennis Murphy said the program is the most visible of a wide-ranging series of anti-drug measures approved by U.S. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese and put in effect in mid-March.

At border crossings throughout the country, Customs officers have seized 1,120 vehicles and made 640 arrests of people “with any amount of drugs on their possession.” But when cars are seized, Murphy said, “it doesn’t make as much of a splash” as with an expensive boat.

However many boaters complain that authorities are wasting precious resources at a time when the Coast Guard has been forced to reduce essential patrol and emergency service because of Reagan Administration budget cutbacks.

Coast Guard spokesman Nicholas Sandifer acknowledged that the agency is so financially strapped that it has eliminated routine search-and-rescue patrols, closed 53 facilities and retired two aging vessels. What’s more, said Sandifer in a telephone interview from Washington, the Coast Guard has cut back its routine drug patrols by more than 50%.

“We are out there, but less,” Sandifer said.

‘Generating a Lot of Ink’

With the zero tolerance program, he added, “what we are doing is getting a lot of light and generating a lot of ink and TV time.”

In interviews conducted with boaters last week in Southern California ports, almost all of them opposed the use of drugs aboard ship and favored hard-hitting enforcement efforts against drug smugglers. But most added that they also strongly opposed the inequity of boats being confiscated for the seizure of illicit substances so small in quantity that it would result in a mere ticket on land.

In San Diego, Ken Guyer, a licensed captain who skippers charter excursions, jokingly told a group of passengers: “In light of what’s been happening in the news, if any of you have any contraband, please deposit in the trash before you come aboard.

“I think you can take the word pleasure out of pleasure boating,” he added. “Are they giving me the authority to strip-search my passengers?”

Guyer said the policy has already “caused bad blood” between pleasure boaters and the Coast Guard. “I wonder how many drug dealers get by while they (the Coast Guard) stop the pleasure boaters?”

Cindy Crawford, a receptionist at Eichenlaub Marine and Yacht Ways on Shelter Island, said she got a great deal on a 35-foot sailboat that sustained extensive damage in a storm last January. She had the vessel repaired and this weekend it will take its maiden voyage.

“I’m not taking any alcohol on board or anything,” she said. “I don’t want any problems.”

“I think it’s an invasion of people’s personal privacy,” said Jeanine Dryer, who owns two sailboats moored at the Eichenlaub boatyard. “They need a warrant to go into your house. Then it should be the same here.”

Many boaters say alcohol consumption far surpasses drug abuse at sea. They say, however, that so-called recreational drug use is common on some expeditions.

Some boating businesses have also expressed displeasure with the new policy. Business owners said boaters have been calling with questions about the drug crackdowns.

Dean A. West, a yacht broker on Shelter Island, blamed the Coast Guard for “creating paranoia in the waterfront community.”

A woman who organized a cruise of San Diego Bay for her friends called West to say she was concerned about members of a band possibly carrying drugs on board.

West said the boating industry could be hurt should the seizures continue.

“Why should I spend $500,000 for a boat that’s going to require a large crew and take the risk that somebody will bring drugs on board?” West asked.

Still, others disagree.

Coast Guard Applauded

Richard Fick, owner of a 41-foot sailing vessel, applauded the Coast Guard for its efforts to fight the drug problem. He said skippers should be cautious of who boards their boats.

“The skipper has always been responsible for who is on board,” he said. “You just don’t pick up anybody.”

Morin Foster, an entertainer who owns a 52-foot motor yacht moored at Shelter Island Marina, said she had no problem with the Coast Guard seizures. “They are trying to cut back on the suffering brought on by drugs,” she said.

Mark Laws, a boat captain at Marina del Rey in Los Angeles County, has no problem with the Coast Guard launching a stern new effort to combat drug smuggling on the high seas.

But “they’ve gone overboard,” said Laws, 26, who skippers a 52-foot private sportfishing boat. “It’s going to overwork the Coast Guard. It’s drastic, man.”

“It’s ridiculous,” said Judi Oergel, owner of the 50-foot houseboat Have a Party, docked in Marina del Rey. “If you get arrested for drunk driving, they don’t confiscate your car.”

Other boaters also raised the issues of personal privacy and due process, noting that the Coast Guard can board any U.S.-flagged ship for routine checks at any time, even in international waters. Foreign-flagged boats, however, cannot be boarded without permission outside the 3-mile territorial limit.

Staff writer Paul Feldman in Los Angeles contributed to this story.