The Lady Delray (left) and the Lady Atlantic were moored about like this when the Lady Delray fire occurred April 12, owner Joseph Reardon said. A strong easterly wind helped keep the fire from spreading to the Lady Atlantic, which is still in operation, he said. Photo provided by Trip Advisor
By Larry Barszewski
The ability to keep her beer kegs cool may have doomed the Lady Delray, which its owner said won’t be restored following an early morning fire April 12.
Joseph Reardon, who owns Delray Yacht Cruises with his wife, Kerry, said the fire was started by the tour boat’s beer cooler motor while the Lady Delray sat docked in the Intracoastal Waterway at Delray Beach’s Veterans Park on the north side of Atlantic Avenue. He put the loss value at more than $1 million and said it occurred “over a $3,000 beer cooler that never ever should have caught fire like that.”
There wasn’t even any beer in it at the time, just a case of water, and the motor was only 4 years old, he said.
Delray Beach Fire Rescue responded to the fire shortly after midnight, and the State Fire Marshal is handling the investigation. The fire marshal has ruled the fire accidental.
“When the windows were broken out, we noted significant fire to the front/mid area of the main passenger area of the vessel,” the Delray Beach incident report said. “We quickly knocked the fire down and contained it to that area.”
The fire that damaged the Lady Delray started in a beer cooler. Photo provided by Delray Beach Fire Rescue
The Delray Beach report says the fire started in the “dining room, cafeteria, bar area, beverage service.” It estimated the property and contents value at $1.1 million and the property and contents loss at $300,000. The fire marshal’s office said a very early rough estimate was $100,000.
Reardon said his company has operated the 90-foot Lady Delray out of Veterans Park since 2003 and added the 105-foot Lady Atlantic in 2008 because of a pent-up demand for tours and charters on the Intracoastal Waterway.
The fire spared the larger Lady Atlantic, which was also at dock, tied up to the east side of the Lady Delray. The Lady Atlantic received some minor cosmetic damage, Reardon said, but was protected from any smoke or fire damage by a strong easterly wind blowing that night.
“I still haven’t wrapped my brain around it. I just can’t believe this happened,” Reardon said. “If this fire happened six hours later, it would have been put out in 30 seconds. It happened in the middle of the night, with no one on the boat.”
Delray Yacht Cruises is continuing to operate with just the Lady Atlantic, working to reschedule as many of the Lady Delray’s private charters as possible onto the Lady Atlantic. The Lady Atlantic also continues to provide regular cruises open to the public.
Reardon said he may have to shut down for a couple of weeks in September — the slowest time of year for the tour company — to have regular maintenance work completed on the Lady Atlantic.
The Lady Delray had just come back from a six-month marina stay, where it had over $500,000 in work completed, Reardon said.
“We were ready to get it back in service, probably a week away from using it,” he said. “The boat was probably in the best shape it’s been in since I’ve owned it.”
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