U-21 burns at the 2006 ABRA Chevrolet Cup at Seafair

Fiery finish for U-21 boat
By Jim Riley
Special to The Seattle Times

Nothing sends a chill through boat racers and their crews like fire. A spectacular one ended the racing day for driver Kevin Aylesworth and the U-21 team in Heat 2B at Seafair on Sunday morning. Aylesworth abandoned ship once the spectacular fire started, with a head-first dive into the cool waters of Lake Washington. He emerged unhurt, his sense of humor intact. "I didn't bring marshmallows because I didn't know there was going to be a barbecue on the back of my boat," Aylesworth said to a friend as he made his way back to the pits. "Fire is definitely a freaky thing. In a matter of seconds the whole thing was very, very hot." Aylesworth's hasty exit might have actually prolonged the fire. It took several minutes and more than 50 gallons of foam concentrate from a fireboat to finally extinguish the flames. "Kevin didn't have a chance to turn anything off, and when you have oil and hot wires together, it's going to burn a long time," U-21 crew chief Kevin Braun said. The heat basically melted the fiberglass and completely burned out the cockpit. Thirty minutes after the boat had been towed back to the pits, it sat on a trailer and was guarded by two fully protected firefighters. The crew sprayed water onto the fiberglass to remove the foam while trying to assess the damage.

Braun believes the boat, which was formerly owned by Ken Muscatel, can be repaired. It won't be a quick fix, he added. "It got hot enough that there was some structural damage," Braun said. "Until we completely tear into it, we're not going to know. It's probably a good month worth of hard work. We'll bring it back to our base in San Diego and go from there." Aylesworth, a rookie unlimited driver from San Diego, said he went into a turn, heard a loud bang from his turbine engine and knew he was in trouble. "Instantly I saw flames everywhere," Aylesworth said. "Flames were coming out of both sides of the cowlings." Aylesworth managed to get the canopy door open just as the heat was getting unbearable. He made it into the water without inhaling any smoke and rescue workers helped him swim away from the boat. "I had the full face helmet on so I had a good air system," Aylesworth said. Aylesworth vowed to get the boat ready for the race in San Diego. "We have four weeks to figure out a way," he said. "We've got to make it one way or another; that's our home base."