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Buy This Sweet Fireboat For Less Than A Month's Rent
Get a load of this thing. (Department of Citywide Administrative Services)
The city is auctioning off a 62-year-old fireboat, and this hot item could be yours for as little as $510. The 129-foot boat is docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and went up for sale on Wednesday. It includes all sorts of nifty features such as hose spools and water cannons—though the hose has been removed and it's not clear if the cannons work—and plenty of space to stretch out.
Before you start looking at your bank balance, though, it's probably worth pondering the hundreds or thousands a month this thing would cost to dock, not to mention its many possible maintenance needs. The auction site notes that the boat is being sold "'AS IS' and 'WHERE IS,'" and that the buyer is responsible for transporting it.
This view could be yours. (Department of Citywide Administrative Services)
In good news, the sellers note that the boat "WAS TAKEN OUT OF SERVICE APPROXIMATELY 5 YEARS AGO AND WAS IN RUNNING CONDITION AT THAT TIME." The auction goes till March 2nd, so a bidding war may yet break out. Then again, there may not be anyone out there with the guts to make the purchase.
The city's other auction items are more mundane—tables, chairs, old camcorders, filing cabinets (starting at only a dollar!)—but agencies do on occasion try to unload old boats from their fleets. A Newtown Creek sewage-sludge-collector boat built in 1967 went up for bidding last year for a more ambitious $235,000, and though no winning bid is recorded on the auction site, a Department of Citywide Administrative Services spokeswoman said that a buyer is in the process of finalizing a sale. A local government in Florida and a scrap dealer had expressed interest, the New York Times reported. The FDNY last sold one of its vessels three years ago, the spokeswoman said.
It's not clear where the nearest marina is that could accommodate such a big ship, were a buyer to want to go Sleepless In Seattle XL with it, rather than melting it down or using it to fight fires again. A worker at a Bronx marina suggested that the World's Fair Marina in Flushing is the only one in the city with slips potentially big enough to accommodate a 129-footer. The World's Fair Marina didn't immediately return a call, but its short-term overnight rates are $2 per foot per night. Long-term rentals are typically much cheaper.
According to a plaque on the boat, it was named for Marine Engineer John McKean, who was burned by steam in a 1953 explosion on the George B. McClellan. "Although fatally injured, McKean heroically remained at his post, vainly trying to keep the vessel under control," the plaque reads. It was built in Camden, NJ, for a whopping $1,426,000 according to a websitechronicling fireboat history.
The boat was on the Hudson River during the September 11th attacks, according to the site, and its crew performed some heroic acts in the immediate aftermath.
Don't mind the clutter. (Department of Citywide Administrative Services)
The DCAS spokeswoman said that no test drives will be allowed, but people who want to inspect the vessel can create an account on the auction website and call the FDNY number listed there to set up an appointment to look at it. Interested buyers will be allowed to run the engine in place. Whoever photographed the ship seems not to have made much effort to pretty it up, but think of the possibilities!
The spokeswoman said that if there are no bids, the city will likely scrap the boat.
