A BOATIE had been drinking when he got confused entering the Swansea Channel and slammed his six-metre vessel into a sand bar.
Joshua Garth was the master of a bar crusher boat with three passengers on board at about 5.30am on December 30 when the impact threw him into the windscreen.
The 50-year-old was knocked unconscious when he struck his head and suffered a cut to his lip.
Blood analysis testing later revealed Garth was more than twice the legal blood alcohol limit at the time of the crash.
Garth represented himself in Belmont Local Court on Wednesday when he pleaded guilty to the lone charge of operating a vessel with a mid-range prescribed concentration of alcohol.
He had his boat licence suspended for four months and was hit with a $1000 fine.
Magistrate Stephen Olischlager warned Garth he had put his passengers in danger.
The court heard the Ebenezer man was up at Lake Macquarie during the summer holiday period when he took a 6.15-metre bar crusher out on the morning of December 30, 2023.
He was travelling at Lake Macquarie with three passengers on board when he approached the entry of the Swansea Channel near Pirrata Island.
Garth took the wrong entry and, in doing so, collided with a sand bar, causing him to be thrown forward so he hit his head on the windscreen of the boat.
Emergency services were alerted.
A Marine Rescue NSW crew was tasked to the scene and took Garth to the boat ramp at Pelican, where water police and ambulance paramedics were waiting.
Garth told police: "I misjudged the entrance to the channel. The sun was in my eyes and I hit a sand bar."
He was taken to John Hunter Hospital and later charged by water police after returning a blood alcohol reading of 0.136.
