HONOLULU-  A sailing yacht that caught fire about a mile off Waikiki Thursday afternoon is now 800 feet below the Pacific Ocean.  The fire was seen by hundreds if not thousands of people along Oahu’s South Shore.

Two people were about an hour into a leisurely cruise after leaving the Waikiki Yacht Club when the 62 foot Keaoleleana caught fire.

The fire began below deck.  A fire extinguisher deployed by his son was not powerful enough to beat back the flames.

“Within about two minutes we were totally engulfed.”

 The father and son, both from Waikoloa on the Big Island, jumped into a life raft to escape the thick black smoke and intense heat from the flames. 

The fireboat Moku Ahi and a U.S. Coast Guard vessel both responded to the fire but could not save the vessel.  The ketch-style sailboat sank at about 3 p.m. without fire investigators getting a close look or being able to climb aboard.

Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. said the first call for the fire came at 1:37 p.m. About an hour later the fire was extinguished and both men had been delivered to the Kewalo Small Boat Harbor courtesy the Snoopy V.  They suffered only minor scrapes and bruises.

“They had it under control,” said the captain of the Snoopy V.  “They had a life raft out and both of them had life jackets on, so they did good.”

The owner of the boat for the past ten years, estimated the Keaoleleana’s value at $1.8 million.  The sailboat was custom made and featured a teak-paneled Jacuzzi.  He said insurance on the vessel covers a maximum of $500,000.

The operator doesn’t know how the fire began but said the sailboat’s diesel engine was in neutral at the time, and he had recently replaced batteries on the vessel.

“It could've been a battery problem,” he speculated.  “Could've been a short.”

The U.S. Coast Guard could not say whether the hull of the sailboat would be raised off the ocean floor, but such an effort would likely be too expensive to be worth the effort.


HONOLULU                      