Can I get a DUI on a boat?
On the water it's BUI rather than DUI, charged under Florida's boating statute rather than the motor vehicle DUI law. Given how much life on the Treasure Coast happens on the water, this comes up more here than in most of the state.
What's the same: the .08 threshold, and the alternative theory of impaired normal faculties.
What's different, and it matters. Officers on the water — FWC, the Coast Guard, or a county marine unit — can stop a vessel for a safety inspection without the reasonable suspicion a roadside stop requires. That's a meaningful distinction in how these cases begin.
Field sobriety exercises are also different on the water, since standard balance tests are unreliable on an unstable platform, and seated alternatives are used instead.
A BUI doesn't carry the same automatic driver's license consequence as a DUI, though it affects boating privileges and appears on a record. Prior BUIs and DUIs can interact for enhancement purposes.
There are a number of issues in BUI cases that don't exist in DUI cases, and they're worth a specific conversation.
The water rules are different enough that a DUI analysis will lead you wrong. ---
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