"Boat" fire West Alton Sand bar

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by Riviera

The crew of the fire boat may have decided to do the world a favor, and let it burn.

Seriously though, I’m glad nobody was hurt, and I feel for the owners in terms of any financial loss. (I imagine that would be a tough boat/structure to insure). That said, the Dive has been a safety hazard since day one. It has run aground due to insufficient power/mechanical systems, it has nearly sunk, and now it has caught fire. It has also left an environmental mess in its wake. Had anybody tried to float such a structure on USCG governed waters, it would have never gotten certified for commercial use. I am not usually a fan of over-regulation, but laws should be enacted to keep this sort of amateur built behemoth off of public waters.

At some level, I could understand the entertainment attraction of having this sort of business/structure on the lake. It is always nice to have another food and beverage option while out boating, particulary a novel one. I personally detested the aesthetic nature of the thing, and I never thought it was right that a business could effectively “claim” a section of lake (the West Alton Sand Bar) as its own sort of free “lakefront real estate”.

I hope the powers that be are able to clean up the mess, now and in the future. If this sort of thing were to appear on the lake again, I hope it is done to USCG commercial vessel navigation and life safety standards, and I hope any future business is prohibited from anchoring itself in public waters for business purposes.

Spot on.

While I've never commented on the seaworthiness of the vessel given my limited knowledge, I've been very vocal about my issues with The Dive profiting off of, and negatively impacting access to, public space.

I am, however, sad for the owners and those who have lost something they enjoyed...just not enough to miss it.

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