NEWS ABOUT SAN JUAN COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT NO. 3
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Yacht burns to waterline
in ‘spectacular fire’
06/00
Only an outboard motor was saved from a 38-foot powerboat that burned for more than two hours Saturday afternoon before sinking off Stuart Island. All onboard the Bayliner Lazy J escaped the blaze.
Smoke from the fire could be seen in Sidney, B.C. and several of the San Juan Islands.
Smoke from the fire could be seen in Sidney, B.C. and several of the San Juan Islands. More than a dozen mariners, including Bob Miller of Humpback Hauling and Larry Hamilton of Vessel Assist, were drawn by the smoke or a Coast Guard assistance request.
The fire broke out when the fiberglass boat was between San Juan Island’s Davidson Head and Limestone Point. An engine quit, the owner tried to check on it and discovered the fire, he told Hamilton. Smoke built quickly, so the Seattle-area man and three or four others exited in the Lazy J’s dinghy, the owner told Miller. A Good Samaritan in a runabout retrieved the Lazy J’s crew from the dinghy.
"They were smart and left right away," Miller said, noting boats usually contain materials that become highly toxic when burning. Vinyl, a common upholstery, emits deadly cyanide gas.
Miller responded on his barge Humpback about five minutes after the Coast Guard help call. The Lazy J was completely involved but the Humpback couldn’t approach to use its firehose on the flames. "It was so hot we couldn’t get close to do anything," said Miller, a San Juan County District No. 3 volunteer firefighter.
Flames shot 12 feet high as the boat burned from stem to stern. "It was a pretty spectacular fire," Miller said.
As the weight of the boat’s upper level was consumed, more of its hull rose out of the water to also burn. Miller stayed with the smoldering hull as it floated northwest. "I didn’t want it to drift to shore and start a forest fire," he said. "Luckily, the tide was ebbing and it floated in the middle of the channel and sank in 800 feet of water in a big, white cloud of steam and smoke."
Only a bit of bow, the hull below the waterline and the transom remained when Hamilton salvaged an outboard motor, shortly before the boat sank.
The Lazy J sailed from Skyline Marina, Anacortes. Bayliners of its style are worth $200,000 and up, Hamilton said.
