Crosby Yard Burns

[Ian McColgin]

This from the Cape Cod Times. For the photos, go to www.capecodonline.com. (http://www.capecodonline.com.)

Fire engulfs boat yard

By ERIC WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
OSTERVILLE - A raging five-alarm fire ripped through the historic Crosby Yacht Yard last night, shooting flames 50 feet into the air and destroying dozens of luxury boats stored for the winter. No injuries were reported.


Scores of firefighters battled to contain the blaze, which was punctuated by explosions as fuel and chemicals stored in the sheds ignited.

Three large boat storage sheds and their contents were consumed by the huge fire, which was reported at approximately 9:30 p.m.. More than 50 boats were believed to have been destroyed in the blaze.

Firefighters from across the Cape fought a battle of containment, dumping enormous quantities of water on the burning buildings.

Witnesses to the blaze were awestruck by its size and strength. Heat from the fire could be felt from hundreds of yards away. Explosions from within the sheds, believed to have been caused by flammable materials used to repair and maintain boats, rocked the night

"We're just trying to contain it," said Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills (COMM) fire Captain Phil Fields as he worked with a crew sending water into the inferno. "No one is going inside.

"Unfortunately, this is the kind of fire the department has been training for," said Fields. "It's inevitable, with this kind of storage that you're eventually going to have some kind of major fire."

The fire consumed three large storage sheds that housed expensive yachts, in storage for the winter.

Fire chiefs from several departments gathered near a COMM ladder truck and studied schematics of the buildings. Through an opening in the side of one of the sheds, scores of boats burning inside could be seen, the flames barely dampened by the wall of water flowing in through gaping holes in the roof.

"We have three buildings burning," said Mashpee fire chief George Baker, who handled press inquiries while COMM fire chief John Farrington worked the fire.

Baker said the three sheds measured 128 by 50 feet, 260 by 82 feet and 150 by 50 feet. At least one of the sheds appeared to be made of corrugated metal.

Baker listed the reasons the fire was so difficult to fight.

"It's a large area fire," said Baker. "This is a winter storage area for boats. There's fiberglass resins, construction materials, and there's limited access because the sheds are packed tightly."

"This is a defensive exterior fire," said Baker. "To prevent extension to other exposures. This is a very, very tight area. The challenge is keeping it away from other storage sheds and boats stored on other areas of the property," Baker said.

There were no injuries reported. Cause of the fire was undetermined last night.

Gregory Egan, who identified himself as the owner of Crosby Yacht Yard, which was founded in 1850, stared at the inferno with disbelief.

"We have no idea what happened other than it's a tragedy," said Egan. "There's all types of boats in there. Beautiful boats, nice boats. That's the worst thing about it. It's filled with our clients' boats, and that's our main concern."

Egan's assistant, Jessica Steiger, estimated that at more than 50 boats were involved in the fire.

"Five alarms is big for the Cape," said Baker. "It equals what we had in Provincetown," referring to the huge Whalers Wharf fire in the mid-1990s.

Baker said officials did not know last night how the fire started.

(Published: December 11, 2003

[Donn]

That's awful! There are, no doubt, a few classic Stripers in those sheds. I came very close to buying a Striper a few years ago...gorgeous little boat.

[rbgarr]

WOW!!! The house I grew up in was a couple of hundred feet from those sheds (if they are the ones I'm thinking of) and I used to crawl all around those stored boats when I was young. A lot of Beetle cats and Wianno Seniors may have been lost. There was a separate shed, very nearby, where many Stripers were stored cheek by jowl, and I wonder if it may have been protected from the fire. The buildings were very decrepit, even 30-40 years ago, but that's not to say they were the source of the fire.

My mother lives there still. If she gets any more details I'll post.

BTW, if this fire is where I think it is (and it's not completely clear from the photos) it's across a narrow lane from a multi-million dollar shoreside compound that belongs to Bill Koch of America 3 fame.

[rbgarr]

Shaw Yachts (the only current authorized builder of Wianno Seniors) told me that there are reports of as many as 25 Seniors lost, and they are already getting orders for new boats.

[nedL]

Holy crap!! I heard something about that on the news last night, but there was no indication what yard it was. :( (Now I have to go back & read the previous posts)

It sounds like it might be worse than some of the Lake Union fires in WA.

[ 12-11-2003, 12:45 PM: Message edited by: nedL ]

[Billy Bones]

:(

[Alan D. Hyde]

I'd be very reluctant to store a boat I loved in a big shed or in a big covered slip dock, where a mistake with one boat is so easily and so rapidly transmuted into the loss of all.

Alan

[TimH]

Hopefully Crosbys was storing mostly fiberglass boats these days. :( Too bad we cant get a list of what was destroyed... :(

[Art Read]

Oh, God... ****.

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

What a nightmare! :(

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

:(

[rbgarr]

A good part of the Wianno Senior fleet shown racing in these pictures may now be in ashes. http://www.wiannosenior.org/elf03/Wiannos.html

[TimH]

That really sux. I have an excellent book by Richar Ulian called "Sailing, an informal primer", that chronicles a guys adventures in his Senior. They are fine boats..... :(

[brian.cunningham]

I saw that on the news this morning, complete with 100ft flames :eek:

Truly sad :(

What would make a boatyard go up like that? :confused:
Don't they require sprinklers? or Halon so it doesn't freeze?

[TimH]

Originally posted by brian.cunningham:
What would make a boatyard go up like that? :confused:
Chemicals. Mostly resins and hardners, but paint and such are pretty flamable too. and those frozen snot boats burn HOT. will catch anything around them on fire too...Styrene, MEK, reducers for linear polyurethanes....Epoxy hardners....ack...I hope there were no Dark Harbors in there.... :(

[Ian McColgin]

This mornings CCT still does not have the exact cause but they are homing in on the location.

There may be more than the published 50 or so boats lost and many many of them were Wiannos. Those with glass boats are replacing right off. But there were some old jewels that were on the third and fourth generation of family life and I don't know if they will be replaced.

My friend's Wianno #80, Ardent, is not stored at Crosby. Depending on who got lost, Ardent may well be the senior Senior.

[Jack Heinlen]

Golly I'm sorry to hear that. What a loss, for the Cape and for all of us. Those Wiannos are lovely little boats, not mentioning all the others. :(

[On Vacation]

Its just so hard to accept that many of the Wiannos have been burnt up. These are something that even with time, replacing them would be a task that I would think to be almost impossible to do, in time, workers, and expense. Think of the quality of materials in them. Art, please store your work of art in a safe place, okay?

[Ed Harrow]

:(

[Art Read]

"...Art, please store your work of art in a safe place, okay?"

Well, as a matter of fact, I logged off and ran down to the dock right after reading this... Just to make sure. Sat aboard for a few minutes, sponged out her bilge and counted my blessings. (Knocking wood...)

[Dave Thibodeau]

I heard on the Boston television this morning that three of the Kennedy's boats were destroyed.

I hope their big black woden schooner was spared

Dave Thibodeau

[True Love]

What about Ted Kennedy's girl? I can't stand him but his boat is lovely and I wouldn't wish her or him ill in the loss of the lovely girl.

[rbgarr]

I think the Kennedy's schooner MYA is stored somewhere further up the Cape toward the Canal.

I'm wondering how this will affect the employees at the yard. Osterville and the surrounding areas are not cheap places to live if you're out of work.

[Jack Heinlen]

I read somewhere today that JFK's 'Victura' a Wianno Senior, was not one of the victims. I'm glad for that. It was given to him by his parents when he was fifteen. Ah wealth. It's, apparently, not sailed anymore, being put on display at the Kennedy Library in Boston through the season. Now that's a real shame. :(

[David Virtue]

Very sad. Reminds me of my boat's close encounter when Manchester[MA] Marine' sheds burnt to the ground in 1989. I had just purchased and moved my 32' custom S&S/Seth Persson cutter, built in 1976, out of the shed she had been stored in for 7 years. She was moved out 10 days before the fire that probably started by spontanious combustion. Aura II would have been some very expensive charcoal.

[rbgarr]

The commodore of the Wianno Yacht Club has sent out a letter that reports that 24 Wianno Seniors burned.

http://www.vsb.cape.com/~wianno/

[rbgarr]

Another article about the fire:

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/workersmourn13.htm

[rbgarr]

The Wianno Senior Class Association sponsored a teleconference today. The upshot of the meeting seemed to be that six fiberglass have been ordered (as of now) and that they may, with luck, be ready to race this summer. There also seemed to be some ideas for having wood Seniors built for two interested parties. It sounded like a large part of the Wianno fleet that raced out of the Wianno Yacht Club was lost. There was discussion of conducting round robin racing this summer for crews that lost their boats, as a way to keep the fleet membership on the water while the new boats are abuilding.

[Figment]

Originally posted by rbgarr:
The Wianno Senior Class Association sponsored a teleconference today....... It sounded like a large part of the Wianno fleet that raced out of the Wianno Yacht Club was lost. There was discussion of conducting round robin racing this summer for crews that lost their boats, as a way to keep the fleet membership on the water while the new boats are abuilding.Now that's showing some class!

[ 12-17-2003, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: Figment ]

[rbgarr]

All the rigs (spars, sails, standing rigging, I presume) from the lost boats survived, so that may make resurrecting the class a bit speedier.

[rbgarr]

Another local newspaper story about the impact on owners and families.

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/ownersshattered28.htm

[Art Read]

A nice piece, but quotes like this don't help:

"...Twenty-one Wianno Seniors - one-sixth of the fleet of 125 - were lost, most of them traditional wooden boats that cannot be replaced..."

While it's true that those INDIVIDUAL boats with all the character, charm and quirks that made them unique are gone forever, the implication that because they were the "old" wooden versions, that they are therefore unable to be recreated just re-enforces the perception that ANY "new" Wianno has to built of fiberglass as a matter of course. One owner was reported to have invested $100,000 in "restoring" his wooden Wianno. We all know there's plenty of yards, if not the Crosbys themselves, who could build these boats in wood. For a lot less than that! How much does it cost to "sail away" with one of the new, fiberglass, production versions anyway? It seems to me that this tragedy has the potential to be the catalist for a wonderful, local regeneration of the crafstmanship and quality that those revered relics represented. The desire seems to be there... And God knows, the money is! Why waste all that by just throwing cash into just another fiberglass mold?

[TimH]

There are a few Wianno Seniors for sale in this months WB

[Art Read]

I saw that, Tim. Wonder if perhaps any of those ads went to the printer BEFORE the fire?

[imported_Steven Bauer]

There's a bit of a time lag in getting an ad into WB. I wonder if those advertized boats even exist anymore. If they weren't in the fire I bet they've been snapped up already.

Steven

[rbgarr]

Art wrote-

"While it's true that those INDIVIDUAL boats with all the character, charm and quirks that made them unique are gone forever, the implication that because they were the "old" wooden versions, that they are therefore unable to be recreated just re-enforces the perception that ANY "new" Wianno has to built of fiberglass as a matter of course. One owner was reported to have invested $100,000 in "restoring" his wooden Wianno. We all know there's plenty of yards, if not the Crosbys themselves, who could build these boats in wood. For a lot less than that! How much does it cost to "sail away" with one of the new, fiberglass, production versions anyway? It seems to me that this tragedy has the potential to be the catalist for a wonderful, local regeneration of the crafstmanship and quality that those revered relics represented. The desire seems to be there... And God knows, the money is! Why waste all that by just throwing cash into just another fiberglass mold?"

Crosby's owns the rights to build any wood boats, and the class association has certified only one company to mold fiberglass hulls. (BTW, Crosby's would jump at the chance to build new wooden boats and the employees would love it!) This was done in order to keep the boat dimensions under control. The association doesn't have the time, manpower or wish to be doing much measuring. There's a bit of effort going on now about standardizing rigging details, since some owners have altered or built in underdeck purchases for backstay and peak halyard adjustments that other boats don't have and don't want to go to the expense of installing. Various opinions ahve been surfaced regarding the desireability of these alteration. Some owners want to give the boat a 'cleaner' look or make it easier for lighter weight crew to handle the boats safely. The builders and a naval architect have commented that altering the older wooden boats this way would diminish their strength.

The cost of a new fg Wianno w/o sails or options is $40K. That seems to be competitive if not significantly lower than what a wood boat would be, IMO. Chip Falanagan asks $54K for a Dark Harbor 17 (25' keelboat) and $75K for a Stuart Knockabout (28' keel/centerboard) so his price for a Wianno might be somewhere in between those prices.

http://www.wiannosenior.org/newboats.htm

[ 02-03-2004, 03:02 PM: Message edited by: rbgarr ]

[Ian McColgin]

For an update and pix go to:
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/arisenashes10.htm

Bad news: Still don't know the cause.

Good news: Boat owners so loyal to Crosby's that there've been no law suits, yet.