As families across America are decorating their homes for the season, 68-year-old Richard Bartlett is also getting into the spirit, albeit in a different way. Bartlett has gotten out his lights and Santa memorabilia to decorate the boat he lives on in the Santa Cruz Harbor.
Bartlett is participating in the Annual Lighted Boat Parade in the Santa Cruz Harbor on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m. He began participating in 2006 and has been doing so ever since. This year, his boat features a giant Santa Claus on a surfboard, an enormous handmade ukulele, and an endless number of lights strung along the entire length of the vessel. Bartlett will also be bringing a group of ukulele musicians onboard to perform.
“There’s a huge amount of people,” Bartlett said. “If you don’t get down there in time you won’t get a parking spot down at the harbor. There are thousands of people who come down to watch this.”
The boat parade, now in its 24th year, is organized by the Santa Cruz Yacht Club in cooperation with Santa Cruz Port District. They expect the parade to draw 10,000 people and 40 entries. The event is held partly for the Second Harvest Food Bank, which will be taking donations of nonperishable foods. Organizers expect a crowded harbor and an overwhelming turnout, but look forward to both with excitement.
“The skippers do a very good job of going all out in terms of decorating their boats, so it’s a spectacle,” said Lisa Loe, a member of the Lighted Boat Parade Committee. “And there’s lots of good music, and it’s a nice, warm, cherished holiday feeling. It’s a chance for friends and family to gather together.”
Judges will peer down at the harbor from the Crow’s Nest, a local restaurant overlooking the Santa Cruz Harbor. They will award prizes for the best boat over 27 feet, best boat under 27 feet, best people-powered boat, and best sailboat. There will also be prizes for best music and best use of this year’s theme, “Boats in Toyland.”
Bartlett has his eyes set on first place in his division, best boat over 27 feet. The past two years he has come in second.
“I’ve gone all out the last two or three years,” Bartlett said. “I’m a very competitive person.”
Such competitions are not unique to Santa Cruz. Yacht clubs, port districts and city governments across the country organize similar events in hopes of bringing people together. Parades are held in Oakland’s Richmond Bay and Stockton’s Discovery Bay, as well as Southern California’s Newport Beach, Marina Del Rey, and Channel Islands Harbor. They have also grown popular on the East Coast, with several in Florida.
But Katrina Lagner from local business Kayak Connection, which took home the grand prize last year, believes Santa Cruz has a special relationship with its boat parade.
“It’s a really cute community event, and people come out. Families come out. Elder folks, young kids come out,” Lagner said. “It’s really neat. It’s just one of those things that Santa Cruz does that’s kind of out there … it draws in a lot of people, and it’s not really for money. It’s just for fun.”
Participants and organizers are eager to see families and students line the bridges, shores and levees to watch the glowing vessels drift by.
“I don’t think Santa Cruz does a lighting of a Christmas tree — if they do, I don’t know much of it,” Bartlett said. “I think of this, in Santa Cruz, as the lighting of the Christmas tree for the town, the starting of the Christmas season, where people come down with their families and really have a good time.”
