Baja
Type of boat – Nimbus 320 Coupe
Refit/ Work completed – Extensive internal fire damage repair
Jonathan and Sally-Anne Dean were taking a winter break in Madeira in March 2014 when a friend phoned them. Their much-loved 10 metre Nimbus 320 Coupe Motorboat ‘Baja’ had caught fire while laid-up ashore at Ponsharden in Falmouth.
The good news was that it could have been much worse. The blaze was sparked by an electrical fault in a dehumidifier; the interior was sealed tight and, starved of oxygen, the flames spluttered out. But for that, the whole boat would have gone up.
The bad news was, well, still awful. Fibreglass and upholstery had continued to smoulder, creating a fog of acrid chemical smoke which coated everything and was corrosive enough to pit stainless steel. The entire interior was basically a write-off.
An initial assessment suggested that in insurance terms the whole craft was too, given the likely repair bill. Jonathan said: “We didn’t go and look at her until a fire specialist had made a first clean and it was still pretty bloody depressing. My wife and I adored her, but we were advised we might want to start looking for another boat.”