[Rhodes22-list] baltimore harbor lighted boat parade

[RUSSELL MILLER]

Congrats to all our great chessie Rhodies!!!

Russ Bulldog
----- Original Message -----
From: <SVTRITON at aol.com>
To: <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 11:25 AM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] baltimore harbor lighted boat parade


> hi all
> this past weekend triton participated in the 17th annual baltimore harbor
> boat parade..we were scheduled to participate last yr but snow kept us
out...this
> was our first parade and we were the last boat in the parade except for a
> huge harbor tug which was behind us...our crew were fellow rhodies don and
> jeannie clark and jim and rosemarie harrison and my better half
linda...our theme
> was "wheres rudolph"...don clark aka santa  was on the bow with a search
> light..the ladies..dressed in elf costumes were in the center of the boat
throwing
> candy at the kids (im waiting for the lawsuits)..jim harrison was in
charge of
> the dighy which held rudolph..a lighted deer shaking his head no, adorned
with
> a red strobe light of course..and i was at the helm....we were powered by
a
> 900 watt generator that sat under the tiller in the cockpit...we had a
string of
> 150 colored lights going up the forestay and another string going down the
> backstay with another string going down the mast and another going across
the
> boom..also we had two sets of white icicle lights on each side of the boat
and a
> wreath at the bow and one at the base of the mast...also rudolph had 300
> white lights.....we had a preliminary run the day before and all worked
> well....last saturday night we started out in one of two circles one in
fells point the
> other in the inner harbor..all went well as we lined up...no lights were
> on....then the parade started and we were given the go ahead to light up
which we
> did..carefully adding one load at a time....things went well for about 15
> minutes and then the generator popped a fuse...of course it was
overloaded...when i
> had originally done my computations for a 900 watt generator i was going
to
> use 7 amps of current..unfortunately we got so carried away that the
generator
> was holding up  i was up to about 18 amps...anyway..we started
disconnecting
> lights but it was not enough..the lights would go out..then pop back on
for a
> few minutes then go out again....to make a long story short as we
approached
> the judges boat the lights miraculously came on and after we passed them
they
> popped out again ...we were so bummed that we went back to our dock, drank
rum
> and didnt go to the after sail party....yesterday i found out we took 2nd
place
> in the smaller boat category (35 and under)...thanks to a great crew and a
> great boat....so we got an early christmas gift this year....next year
well get
> a bigger generator
> best
> tom
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