Boat Fire at Schoonmaker Marina

When someone calls to tell you that a boat in your marina is on fire, your heart immediately starts thumping. But when the caller then informs you that the blaze is just a few slips away from your boat, all thoughts other than getting to the marina as fast as possible flee your mind. Such was the case around 6 p.m. last night when the 48-ft Ocean Alexander Rubicon caught fire on C dock at Schoonmaker Point Marina in Sausalito . . . just four slips away from the Crealock 37 this writer calls home.

My husband and I were just two minutes from the marina when the call came in, so we beat feet down Bridgeway — no doubt breaking just about every traffic law in existence. As we rounded the corner onto Liberty Ship Way, clouds of roiling black smoke billowed into our sightline. Several fire trucks were on scene, and more were rolling up behind us. Had the fire reached our boat yet?

Our car had barely stopped moving before we were running down B dock to assess the situation. Adrenaline pumping, we watched flames shoot more than 20 feet into the evening sky. The southeast breeze — which thankfully hadn’t freshened to the predicted 25-30 knots yet — was blowing the flames directly toward our boat, and though they weren’t reaching it, we watched burning embers drop onto our deck. The two boats directly downwind of the blaze had yet to ignite, but they didn’t appear to be faring well from our vantage point.

Within a couple minutes of our arrival, one fireboat and the onshore firefighters began dousing the blaze. The majority of the flames were extinguished almost immediately, though the fire was hot enough to warrant several more minutes of water application. In fact, it was so hot, that clean-up crews had to deal with two good-sized flare-ups during the night.

In the morning light, the worst our boat appears to have seen was some falling ash and a little smoke down below. The two boats in the direct path of the blaze — the Beneteau 35.5 Vitesse and a little daysailor — appear to have suffered surprisingly little damage; most of it confined to their roller furling jibs. The concrete docks have certainly seen better days — like yesterday — but other than a couple of melted dock boxes, little else seems to have been seriously damaged.

All told, two fire boats — Southern Marin and Tiburon — and six engines — from Sausalito, Marin City, Mill Valley and Corte Madera — arrived at the scene within 15 minutes of the initial call. A 47-ft Coast Guard lifeboat remained on scene well into the night as Parker Diving Service and Schoonmaker workers successfully pumped fuel off the smoking hulk before any spilled. Though Rubicon is a total loss, the professionalism of the emergency workers prevented a major disaster, and for that we are personally and eternally grateful.