A used 32’ Uniflite cabin cruiser for only $4,000 sounded like a good deal when its new owner bought it. Uniflite had a good reputation for building strong, safe boats, but unfortunately it hasn’t been in business for 26 years. After the explosion it was cut loose and drifted into a moored 64’ motoryacht causing $30k of damage. There was one injury and one good lesson for us all.

This is what was left of an old 30’ Uniflite after an explosion and fire.

Reported By Benjamin J. Romano in the Seattle Times--

An explosion and fire aboard a pleasure boat tied to a fuel dock on the west shore of Lake Union late Saturday (Feb. 28th) morning sent one person to the hospital and damaged another boat in an adjacent marina.

Quick work by people at Morrison's North Star Marine Fuel Dock, 2732 Westlake Ave. N., may have averted a much larger fire. "I heard an explosion and I saw the guys at the fuel dock chopping the line, and pushed the boat out away from the fuel dock," said Craig Edwards, who was working on his boat at nearby Diamond Marina.

Edwards called 911 and the Seattle Harbor Patrol and "told them to get over here quick because it's burning." The Seattle Fire Department responded to the fuel dock, but the boat had drifted away.

Edwards watched as the burning pleasure boat, a Uniflite cabin cruiser about 30 feet long, slowly drift into a 64-foot motoryacht moored in Diamond Marina.

The starboard bow of the yacht was damaged by heat, causing an estimated $30,000 in damage, before the Uniflite drifted free, he said.

The harbor patrol arrived and extinguished the fire aboard the Uniflite shortly after noon. The boat, its deck and cabin areas blackened, continued to move south — it's not clear whether it was drifting or was being towed by the harbor patrol — as a thin cloud of dark smoke spread over Lake Union.

The boat, which was recently purchased for $4,000, was a total loss, said Fire Department spokeswoman Dana Vander Houwen. The cause of the fire was a vapor explosion.

Westlake Avenue North was briefly closed.

Seattle Fire Department Deputy Chief Jesse Youngs said one person was taken to Harborview Medical Center; a second person's injuries were not as serious. It wasn't immediately known whether the injured people were on the boat or on the dock.

The owner of Morrison's North Star Marine could not be reached for comment.

Harbor police towed the wreckage to a police facility on the north side of Lake Union.