home

T

he Endeavor 40 sailboat “Lz Sea Dogs” survived Hurricane Bertha, a tree falling on her and in 1996, a trip to the bottom of the Neuse River. Wednesday morning, in her Whittaker Pointe Marina berth, she took her last voyage. She burned to the waterline and sank.

Lz Sea Dogs in her slip a few hours after she burned and sank. Little of the fiberglass vessel remained visible above water except…

…her bow pulpit and roller furler. The rest of the fiberglass vessel lies submerged.

Marina manager Ashley Irwin says the vessel caught fire early Wednesday morning. A witness across the creek from the marina spotted the blaze and called the Southeast Pamlico Volunteer Fire Department.

The vessel was berthed in slip 40, at the far end of the marina. By the time firefighters attached enough hoses to reach the burning boat, the blaze was fully developed. Marina owner Henry Frazer moved a sailboat berthed next to the blazing boat to safety. It escaped with a scorched sail cover.

The fire crew applied fire retardant foam to the blaze. Ashley says, “they tried to suppress the fire. But the boat burned to the water line and went down.”

The side-on view of the blaze. The purple object over the finger pier is the vessel’s furler. The vessel with the red sail cover – visible two berths over from the sunken boat – is the sailboat Henry moved. At the time the fire broke out, it was berthed next to the flaming Lz Sea Dogs. The heat was enough…

…to scorch the sail cover. No other vessels in the marina were damaged.

By 9a, the fire crews had gone. All that remained were a few bystanders. Visible in the slip where the boat had floated only hours ago was the burned craft’s bow pulpit, sections of the submerged hull and a few floating parts.

One of those standing by was Ed Piricsky. Ed had owned the boat for many years. He says, “I bought her after she sank in Hurricane Bertha in New Bern. We raised her and brought her to my house. I had her in my front yard. I spent 10 years getting her together. When I got done with her, she was primo.”

Ed Piricsky: While Ed owned the Endeavor, her name was “Sugar”. She survived a hurricane ashore. He says, “one tree fell on her, and another, an even bigger one, fell on her mast. But that didn’t hurt her.”

The remains of Lz Sea Dogs’ fiberglass hull after she burned and sank. It was one of the larger pieces of the vessel to remain visible. The rest was submerged in dark waters.

Lz Sea Dogs is owned by Bill Stronach and Tudd Dean. The hull will be raised. The source of the fire has not been determined. The blaze is being investigated.

Posted Wednesday December 17, 2014 by Bernie Harberts