Boats worth millions gutted in Bay blaze

sale of a wide range of marine equipment.

“It seems like the fire started in the far corner of Butt Cat.

“But due to the chemicals, resins and other highly flammable materials used while working on boats, the fire spread extremely quickly,” Van Kempen said.

Though they were able to save some of their equipment, they lost a total of 11 boats commissioned for international clients.

One boat, built for a client in Australia and valued at about R2m, was already complete and was scheduled for testing today.

Another boat, destined for Morocco in six weeks, was also destroyed.

Van Kempen said their priority was to find a secondary facility where they could set up a temporary workshop and ensure their 27 employees did not lose their income.

“Our people cannot lose their jobs and our orders need to be filled.

“Obviously setting up a temporary facility will cost time and money, so we hope to finalise the insurance process as quickly as possible to reclaim the money we lost.”

Nauti-Tech Suzuki, which operates separately from Butt Cat and Yamaha Marine EC, lost about 16 boats of varying sizes and models in the blaze, as well as 18 boat engines still in the packaging.

However, it has already started setting up a secondary workshop for its 12 employees to be back at work, right next to the old workshop, within the next few days.

Rachman said he dreaded the phone calls he now had to make to clients, telling them that their boats had been destroyed.

“We have to break the news to our clients that their boats were gutted in the fire,” he said.