A Whitehorse man has been ordered to pay more than $3,000 in restitution to the owner of a boat he slammed into in Schwatka Lake.

Ryan Vaillancourt pleaded guilty in territorial court Wednesday afternoon to the Canada Shipping Act offence of jeopardizing the safety of a vessel or people on board.

Justice of the Peace Sharman Morrison-Harvey ordered the 31-year-old to pay a $500 fine, $75 court surcharge and $3,395.70 in restitution for damage caused to the other man’s boat.

“He’s learned a lesson from this,” said Vaillancourt’s lawyer, Bob Dick. “A very costly lesson.”

Vaillancourt was driving his boat in Schwatka Lake on June 6 with a friend on board when it spun around and slammed into another vessel.

He was injured in the collision and lost control of his boat. It ran up onto the shore, then back into the water, then back up onto the shore.

Both he and his passenger were injured and required medical attention.

The passenger told the RCMP that Vaillancourt was driving and that they “were both being dumb,” Crown prosecutor Keith Parkkari said.

He said Vaillancourt’s speech at the time was slurred and he appeared intoxicated, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him with the impaired operation of a watercraft.

Dick said his client has already finished the necessary repairs to the man’s boat, which cost him about $7,000. The only task left is a paint job, which the restitution will cover.

The boat Vaillancourt was driving belonged to his employer, Listers Motorsports, Dick said.

After the incident, he was forced to buy it.

Morrison-Harvey said the fact that he had completed repairs to the other man’s boat before sentencing was a mitigating factor.

“Mr. Vaillancourt, you’re probably quite lucky that things weren’t worse,” she said.