2005 Ft. Laud. Christmas Boat Parade

The 34th annual Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade took place Saturday night, December 17th along the intracoastal waterway. Many boats in this year's parade featured a King Tut theme in honor of the exhibit currently on display at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art.

Some of these images should be relegated to the recycle bin, but something is better than nothing. It's difficult to take good pics at night from a rocking boat! I did my best to compensate for delayed shutter speeds, but I had to throw-out about 20 pics. In all, there were about 50 boats in this year's parade, way down from years past when over 100 boats participated.

As we made our way down to the flotilla near the Coral Ridge Yacht Club, a few of the boats in the parade were heading south to the milling area at Port Everglades. This sportfish featured a horse and charriot on the bow. It was pretty elaborate, because the wheels of the charriot rotated and the horse's legs moved back and forth. A night time pic will follow later...

This Sea Ray "Blu Christmas" featured the Elvis theme with a few girls sporting side-burns and Elvis's dress code...

Elvis's Cadillac was being towed on an inflatable behind the Blu Christmas Sea Ray. Unfortunately, it capsized before the parade started. A certain irony here... I've always thought Cadillac's were boats, because you don't park 'em... you throw anchor.

Lady Windridge, a local charter/dinner boat was the mascot of the Winterfest Boat Parade festivities...

Another local dinner cruise boat hosted FSN and SUN sports network. I'm told Shaquil O'Neil was onboard...

"Son Worshipper" hosted the Calvery Chapel crew, a very popular local church. A night time pic will follow...

Next year, I'll try to get pics as the sun is going down, which seems like the best way to see the boats AND the decorations. This Sea Ray was running blocker for this pic of another local charter boat featuring marine life...

Leading the parade was the U.S. Coast Guard. People from the shore cheered, while rumblings of discontent echoed from the flotilla...

Kicking off the parade is the fireworks barge. You have to give credit to these guys, most fireworks displays are finished in 30 minutes or less. These guys are lighting fuses for about 2 hours...

The runt of the bunch was this ski-boat. It featured two flat panel televisions mounted to the wakeboard tower, showing waterskiing highlights...

The skiboats were followed by the Trinity "Status Quo". Don't mark my words, but I think it was sponsored by the World Wakeboard Tour...or something to that effect. Still, they adapted the King Tut theme with the "Burger King" crown above the flybridge...

Pictured earlier in the thread, this is the "Jewel Of The Nile", the parade's mascot. A Cobra stands ready to strike on the flybridge.

I'm assuming this boat was sponsored by Deco Drive, a popular television show with the equivilent value of a grocery store tabloid...

Sponsored by the Seminole Hard Rock Casino. (your gambling dollars hard at work!)

This barge, sponsored by Advanced Roofing, featured a live circus act with tight rope balancing acts, acrobatics, etc. You think these guys have made some money with Hurricane Wilma?

It's really a shame this picture didn't turn out, this was one of the best boats in the show. Looks to be an older Hatteras. He would have bought a new one, but spent the money on Christmas decorations...

This sailboat is now famous in Ft. Lauderdale for it's marching men that fall to the deck when a cannon is shot. Sorry for the pic quality. The cannon fired as I snapped the picture?

Clean decorations compliment the lines of this 112' Westport "White Star"...

Another shaky shot... a sportfish being captained by a snowman?

A local deep sea fishing boat wishing you Seasons Greetings...