DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Mike Feeney took his sailboat on its maiden voyage yesterday only to find it a total loss this morning, the victim of a fire. He's holding a photo showing what the cabin used to look like.

3 Yacht Club boat
fires may be arson

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By Craig Gima
cgima@starbulletin.com

Arson is suspected in separate fires that broke out within a half-hour of each other before 6 a.m. today and caused several thousand dollars damage to three boats at the Waikiki Yacht Club.

One of the most seriously damaged boats -- the 35-foot yacht Chance -- once was used in the opening scene of the Elvis Presley movie "Girls, Girls, Girls," said Les Vasconcellos, the owner of another damaged boat.

Vasconcellos owns Urban Renewal, which also caught fire and is docked next to the Chance.

Bob Sinclair said he was sleeping on his boat at the yacht club when he was awakened by a bilge alarm, which sounds when a boat is taking on water.

"I saw smoke coming out of the Chance," he said. Sinclair and security guards used a fire extinguisher to try to put out the flames. Firefighters arrived minutes later, and as they were putting out the fire on the Chance, another fire broke out on the Urban Renewal. About 10 minutes later, another fire broke out on a 25-foot sailboat at the repair dock on the other end of the yacht club grounds.

"I heard somebody yell, 'hey there's a fire,' and then we kind of got up," said Laurie Hagenauer, who slept overnight at the yacht club with her family after last night's Fourth of July fireworks show. "Then somebody yelled, 'hey there's another fire over there.' "

Fire Capt. Richard Soo says because the fires broke out within minutes of each other and because one of the fires occurred so far away from the other two, the fires are "suspicious."

Vasconcellos said investigators recovered a flare gun on his boat that he had not seen before.

"As far as I know, it would be a random thing," he said. He said he can't imagine why anyone would target his boat or his neighbor's boat.

A number of people spent the night at the Yacht Club after Fourth of July festivities last night and police and investigators were looking for witnesses who might have seen or heard something suspicious.

But Hagenauer said it's normal to hear "a lot of weird noises," when you sleep on a boat. She said docks creak and there are other sounds all the time.