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Carters Creek boat parade lights up the season, December 1999,
A 52-foot sailboat, North Star, won best in show for her 60-foot mast decked
out as a Christmas tree, topped with a five-foot wide white star. The display,
"Light Up the Night," reached 82 feet above the water line; the tree's
green lights were sprinkled with 11 red, blue and yellow "balls," made
of circles of lights four feet in diameter. North Star skipper Hank
George designed the tree. He and his wife, Seale, with the help of John and
Carol Dingley, Jim King, Bob Carver, Charles Rotert and Jeffrey Wainscott, put
more than 400 man-hours into the project to prepare the display. Red lights ran from the fore and aft stays and white lights ran along the
life-lines. George said it took over 3.5 miles of electrical wiring. In addition to those who worked on the display, Carolyn King, Francene
Carver, Kathryn Wainscott, Ted and Kathryn Kattmann, George and Susan Garrett
and Clyde and Anne Warner served as crew. All were on hand to watch the Georges
accept the trophy, donated by the Irvington town council. The North Star also won the award for best lighted vessel.
Serendipity and skipper Norman Heller won the award for best theme. As
"Frosty the Snowman" played aboard the vessel, several Carters Creek
lighted snowmen came alive, dancing and skating around the stern. The best caroling award went to Radio Flyer and skipper Bill Westbrook. The
theme, "Have a Y2K Free Christmas," included Virginia Power's Y2K
elves wielding cables and working to save Carters Creek from the Y2K bug, which
had been delegated to the dingy being towed behind the 42-foot catamaran. On
board, the "Stardust Singers" performed traditional carols, plus a
couple of custom-written carols specific to Y2K. "We are really enthusiastic about the creativity and diversity that was
displayed during this first Christmas boat parade," said Village
Improvement Association representative Alison Drake. "Those who entered are
to be commended not only for the beauty and fun they created, but for the hard
work which went into each effort." The displays were "truly beautiful from both the water and the
shore," she said. "We had a great reception by homeowners and I can
only imagine that as the tradition grows we'll begin to see more parties along
the route and even more shoreside decorations." Kathy Lowery and Michael Morchower won the award for shoreline decorations,
voted on by those in the boat parade, for their Santa's workshop. Santa turned
Lowery's boathouse into his workshop for the evening, and party guests scurried
about dressed as elves with toys and packages. Drake also commended the work done by Jim and Molly Wroth at their residence.
"Boats honked their horns and people yelled greetings and encouragement
from their docks," she said. "They would blink their lights at us and
Dr. Thomas and Lucy Ann Davis even fired off their canon to salute the
event." She expressed the association's appreciation to all who helped organize the
event, and thanked judges Mayor Alex McD. and Suzanne Fleet, George and Betty
Ebeling and Granger and Ann McFarlane. Irvington resident Sandra Matthews
created numbers for all the boats to display and resident Michael Harrah led the
parade aboard the High Tide playing his bag pipes. Harrah, a member of the
Kilmarnock District Pipe Band, is band teacher at the middle and high schools. "We especially want to express our appreciation to Stormy Pearson,
dockmaster at The Tides, for his help in organizing the boats," said Drake. Boat parade committee members Lee Stephens, Hank and Seale George, Norman
Heller, Scott Stephens, Jack Henry and Drake began planning the event about two
months ago. "We had wonderful response to the idea from the
beginning," said Drake. "I believe we're going to see it grow each
year as people have more time to do the planning and execute their ideas." Reprinted from the the weekly Rappahannock Record. Please close this window to continue browsing the Synergy web site. |
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IRVINGTON-The
first "A Carters Creek Christmas" boat parade brought out massive
amounts of creativity Friday as color, lights and music filled the air and sky.
Fourteen boats paraded from The Tides Lodge up the eastern branch of Carters
Creek and back while judges made their decisions aboard the Miss Ann. 