A beached sailboat in Cape May County was devoured by flames hours before it was set to be demolished. The overnight fire was an unexpected twist in bizarre circumstances in the boat’s journey. Authorities say investigators did not find anything suspicious at the scene. NBC10’s Jersey Shore bureau reporter Ted Greenberg has the story from Lower Township.
Not as planned? A wrecked sailboat beached at the Jersey Shore was devoured by flames hours before it was set to be demolished.
This strange tale begins the day before Halloween when a sailboat, named Panache, was discovered wrecked and abandoned just north of the popular Sunset Beach near Cape May Point.
The owner of Sea Tow Cape May said a man in his mid-80s from New England had gifted the boat to two men. He said with no working motor, the pair apparently tried to sail around Cape May Point in the middle of the night and ended up beached.
"They apparently walked away from it, leaving the owner in quite a pickle," Sea Tow Cape May Captian Jack Moran told NBC10. “Fortunately, he did, you know, come through with the funds to remove it from the beach.”
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However, on Tuesday just hours before salvage crews were set to haul it off the sand for demolition the boat somehow went up in flames.
Fire crews received a call around 7 a.m. to put out the flames but most of the sailboat was already destroyed.
“Walked up, just a little bit of the hull was left. Apparently, it was burning all night," West Cape May Volunteer Firefighter Chief David Peck said.
The fire left salvage crews with chunks of charred, soaked rubble to clear away.
Authorities said investigators didn't find anything suspicious at the scene but they are still working to figure out how the boat caught fire.
"25 years of doing salvage work. Not a whole lot surprises me, but this one got me,” Moran said.
It was an unexpected and fiery final chapter for the Panache.
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