fireboat
Seatttle fireboats Chief Seattle, left, and Alki, lead a parade of tug boats past the downtown skyline. (AP Photo/Cheryl Hatch)

You could own old Seattle fireboat

BY Jamie Skorheim  on February 28, 2013 @ 11:27 am (Updated: 11:56 am - 3/1/13 )

A vintage Seattle fireboat is going up for auction on Monday.

The Seattle Times reports Bidadoo.com will begin accepting bids on the 86-year-old watercraft, the Alki, beginning around 7 p.m. Monday evening.

The Alki was built in 1928 and retired after a 2003 levy made way for the purchase of a couple of new boats.

Those familiar with the boat say this wouldn't be a purchase for just your average boater.

"If you want to keep this boat working, it will take daily care and attention. You can't just fire it up and take off," Dick Chester, senior engineer for the city's fireboat fleet, tells The Seattle Times.

Another retired Seattle fireboat, a few decades older, now sits in need of $5 million in repairs. An amount it's owners tell the Times will be a difficult to come up with.

The Alki also reportedly has its own problems, and parts for the old vessel are hard to find.

But those interested in the challenge will have their chance to step up Monday.

More information on the boat with images and video will go live when the auction starts at bidadoo.com 7 p.m. Monday.

Jamie Skorheim, MyNorthwest.com Editor
Whether it's floating on Green Lake, eating shrimp tacos at Agua Verde, or taking weekend drives out to the Cascades, she loves to enjoy the Pacific Northwest lifestyle as much as humanly possible.
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Comments (3)


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  • CH wrote...
    some lucky sucker is going to own this money trap
    February 28, 2013 3:51 pm
    BOAT - Bring Out Another Thousand(s) !!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    There's a way to use this boat to make five or six million dollars.....
    March 2, 2013 8:25 am
    disappear. Just try to keep it in decent operating condition while looking for the *next* sucker.

    If the City, with what it considers to be the bottomless well of tax dollars available to keep this relic up and running has decided it makes economic sense to get rid of it, that should be a warning to the rest of us.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }