Nathan Pilling

nathan.pilling@kitsapsun.com

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – As billows of smoke poured out from the interior of his sailboat, Patrick Farrelly was quickly running out of options. The fire below deck had damaged his radio and the waves of heat rolling up the vessel’s companionway were blocking him from getting to his phone to call for help.

He would run his beloved Valhalla, a 28-ton, 53-foot vessel, up on a Bainbridge shoreline and jump off, he decided. Just as he was about to maneuver the boat toward the beach, he saw a welcome sight through the smoke: the lights of Marine 21, the Bainbridge Island Fire Department vessel. Soon Seattle Fire Department and Coast Guard crews were also on the scene.

Emergency responders coaxed him off the boat – “like talking a rat off a meat truck,” he said – and got to work quelling the flames.

“There goes my retirement,” Farrelly, 52, thought as he watched them work on the boat, his home since late November.

While flames spread through some of the lower level and ate up part of the boat’s Honduran mahogany interior, crews were able to put out the fire before it could reach the bow or upper deck areas. They then towed the boat back to Eagle Harbor, where it now sits tied up, waiting for repairs.

While Feb. 13 was a massive, chaotic setback, Farrelly – a veteran of the maritime world – isn’t ready to give up on the boat. It’s not in his nature.

“I think it’s got a lot of potential,” he said Friday, sitting at the Valhalla’s helm. “…I have a hard time throwing in the towel.”

He still lives on the boat, putting up with dissipating gas fumes as he contemplates repairs, both for himself and the boat. He has eye surgery planned for March, but after that, he plans to resume his practice of picking up odd jobs to pay for repairs to the boat’s blackened sections.

The fire department believes the blaze was caused by an improper application of a “Fireblock” foam that Farrelly said he recently installed. The engine exhaust that it contacted had a higher temperature than what the foam was meant for, according to Assistant Fire Chief Luke Carpenter. The material ignited and the fire spread from there, he said.

Farrelly is thankful for those who have lent a helping hand over the last couple weeks, including the Red Cross, first responders, 911 callers and those who have chipped in money and clothes to replace what burned up last week.

“This community is a special place,” he said. “These are some good, loving, caring people.”

While he’s looking ahead to the future, he’s already getting down to work. He has the boat’s diesel engine up and running and planned to take the vessel out for a test spin Friday.

“I’ve worked on boats my whole life,” he said. “I know three things in life: boats, boats and boats. I suck at relationships, and I suck on land, so I might as well stay on the boat."