AUGUSTA — The Maine Warden Service and Marine Patrol are warning boat operators to stay sober or face the consequences.

Operation Dry Water, a stepped-up,  on-water OUI enforcement program starts Saturday.

“Are you looking forward to a relaxing boat ride this weekend with that ice chest full of cold beer? Better think again,” warns a statement by Deborah Turcotte, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Part of a nationwide effort to crack down on drunk or drugged-up boat operators, the Warden Service and Marine Patrol, which polices offshore waters in Maine, will be out in force.

“Boat operators who have been consuming will be subjected to field sobriety testing and, if warranted, Breathalyzer analysis,” the statement reads.

From 2004 to 2008, Maine saw 10 boating deaths where alcohol was a contributing factor, according to a 2009 report from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Office of Auxiliary and Boating Safety.

In the same period, 12 accidents on the water in Maine were attributed to drunk boating, the report shows. Nationwide, boating deaths are down but still 17 percent of all boating deaths were related to alcohol, the report shows.

Recent Maine boating deaths, where alcohol was a contributing factor, include an August 2007 fatal on-water crash on Long Lake in Harrison that claimed the lives Terry Raye Trott, 55, of Harrison and his passenger and girlfriend, 44-year-old Suzanne Groetzinger of Berwick.

Trott and Groetzinger where stopped in the middle of the lake watching stars when their 14-foot boat was sliced into by a 32-foot speedboat powered by twin 425-horsepower engines driven by Robert LaPointe of Medway, Mass.

LaPointe’s boat, named “No Patience,” vaulted the smaller boat, ejecting LaPointe and his then 20-year-old passenger, Nicole Randall, who swam together to shore.

LaPointe’s unmanned boat continued at the same speed until it reached land, then climbed up a hill 160 feet into the woods before it was stopped by trees.

A blood-alcohol test taken about three hours after the crash showed LaPointe’s level at 0.11 percent. The legal threshold in Maine is 0.08 percent. An expert at his trial estimated LaPointe’s level at the time of the crash was about 0.15 percent.

LaPointe was convicted by a jury of two counts of aggravated operating a watercraft under the influence. Jurors deadlocked on three additional charges, including two counts of manslaughter and one count of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

LaPointe was later sentenced to serve 3 1/2 years in prison.

Turcotte said in an e-mail to the Sun Journal that the incident was still prominent in the minds of the wardens and others who responded to it. It took several days of searching for warden divers to recover the victims’ bodies and evidence, including Trott’s demolished boat from the lake bottom.

“The Robert LaPointe incident, in which two people died when he hit them with his boat, still is fresh in everyone’s mind,” Turcotte wrote,  “from the wardens who worked the case to the people of Maine who remember it as a stark reminder of the lives that boating under the influence can destroy.”

The Maine Warden Service, Maine Marine Patrol and Maine State Police this summer are airing public service announcements on television and the Internet reminding boat operators to not drink and drive or boat, Turcotte’s release stated.

“We want people to have fun while boating,” said Maine Warden Service Lt. Adam Gormley said in a statement. “But boating under the influence of alcohol or drugs has become the leading contributing factor in fatal recreational boating accidents. “

Gormley said wardens and other on-water law enforcers in Maine would be making arrests this weekend.

“But we’d much rather arrest someone than to have to tell their family and friends that they’re never coming back,” he said.

Operation Dry Water is a joint program of the Maine Warden Service, Maine Marine Patrol, the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, and the U.S. Coast Guard.

For more information online visit: www.operationdrywater.org.