Tales of luck — and loss on Lake Union

Ken and Darcy Peterson were among the lucky ones.

As fire spread through Seattle Marina on Lake Union Friday night, a stranger boarded their 60-foot boat, Split Decision, and drove it through the smoke to safety.

Peterson was shopping at a Home Depot at the time. His wife, in tears and disbelief, watched the flames — and the rescue — from a hillside.

"It was like an angel," she later told her husband.

Their $300,000 boat was later pulled to the Seattle Police Department's harbor patrol station, where the Petersons — who, fortunately, had the left the key in the ignition — picked it up. They have no idea who jumped aboard and saved it.

Yesterday, boat owners — some in borrowed clothes or bathrobes — hugged and cried as they shared tales of heroism and heartbreak in the fire that gutted a close-knit community, taking with it pleasure craft, liveaboards and classic wooden boats.

Nick LeClercq, the marina's owner, said yesterday that insurance adjusters had not arrived to tally the loss. But the fire was devastating: 31 boats were damaged, 28 now on the bottom of the lake. He put the average value at $150,000 a boat.

Many lost more than a boat; they lost their homes. In all, seven of the marina's 18 liveaboard boats were destroyed, he said.

LeClercq said the loss would be harder felt here than at other marinas that have burned in the past year.

"The Seattle Yacht Club, those are the megayachts. People don't live on those," LeClercq said. "This is sort of a blue-collar community, straight and ordinary folks, and a lot of their boats are on the bottom right now."

Jolene Williams-Hunt, 44, and her husband, Stewart Williams-Hunt, 49, said they were still in shock. Their home, a 43-foot boat built in 1954, was destroyed. They said they had no insurance.

"I can't believe it's gone," said Jolene, wearing the bathrobe she escaped in. She said everything they owned was on that boat. Both are unemployed and said they have no idea what their next step will be.

Marina manager John Baxter said no one is allowed in the marina without at least $500,000 in insurance, though it's possible that some could start out insured and then let their premiums lapse.

Baxter said the marina has 148 slips, and all but two were full. Moorage rates range from $175 a month for a 20-foot boat to $1,080 for a 120-foot boat.

The liveaboards were on the east pier, where the fire started. Boats that are for sale and at least two other now-destroyed craft were on the west pier.

About one-third of the slips were leased by Hanan Yachts, a brokerage that specializes in classic wooden boats.

The yacht company lost 23 boats — half its inventory at the pier, said owner Ron Sperry, putting his loss at more than $2 million.

But he said a greater loss is historical. Twenty-one of the destroyed boats were classic wooden boats, including the well-known Lady Wilshire, a 1918 U.S. Navy launch converted to a yacht.

"Classic historical boats are a big thing in Seattle," said Sperry. "We just lost a ton of history."

Other boats destroyed include the Seahawk, a 1966 24-foot Fairliner that won best of show and the people's choice award at last year's Fairliner convention in Port Orchard, and the Torchy, a 1938 40-foot boat designed by Frank Prothero, a local legend in ship design. His Lake Union boathouse has produced some of the most beloved, handcrafted boats on the water.

"It is like losing a piece of art," LeClercq said of the Torchy. A steel trawler valued at $350,000 was also destroyed, he said.

Still, many were buoyed by the response from the community.

A number of boat owners talked of people coming in from other marinas to cut lines and save boats.

Like the Petersons, Carolyn and Ghassan Daher have an unknown good Samaritan, someone who saved their 48-foot boat, Salamat. They'd like to tell the person thanks.

Williams-Hunt said a woman named Heidi who lives across the street made sure she and her husband were clothed, bringing Williams-Hunt a University of Washington sweat shirt and sweat pants and her husband a fleece jacket. She fled in just her bathrobe and slippers and he was wearing only jeans.

"I don't know who gave me these sandals," said Stewart Williams-Hunt, looking down at his feet.

LeClercq said one neighbor put $50 in another's hands so that person could buy dinner.

Surveying the damage yesterday, he said he was relieved no one was injured. "It is not the end of the world. We'll fix it. We'll start over."

Rusty Beck, 51, lost her house barge, and her son lost one as well. She, too, was relatively optimistic. "We plan to rebuild. We have a million-dollar view."

Staff reporter Bobbi Nodell can be reached at 206-464-2342 or bnodell@seattletimes.com.

Staff reporters J. Martin McOmber and Janet I. Tu contributed to this report.