Holiday Boat Parade?

walt · Dec 9, 2016

My .02,,

I just went through this using LED 110V Christmas lights plus and inverter and ended up with about 60% of the lights some of the guys who have been doing this for a while. I had about 775 LED bulbs and the current draw through a 150 watt inverter measured on the 12V side was close to 2.6 amps. Powering this for several hours was very easy on my two six volt golf cart batteries.

Using my numbers, you can estimate your current. My current per LED bulb (through a 150W inverter and measured at the 12 volt battery) 2.6 amps / 775 bulbs = .00335 amps/bulb.

So if you end up with 1000 LED bulbs, you can ballpark your 12 volt current at 1000*.00335 = 3.35 amps. 1500 LED bulbs would be in the ball park of 1500 * .00335 = 5.025 amps. Note that even for the 1500 LED bulbs, the power at the battery side is only 5 amps * 12.5 volts = 62.5 watts. Your 1200 watt inverter will of course work fine but its serious overkill for what you likely will need. Not really a big deal however.. the larger inverter will likely result in 12 volt current a little higher than what I saw.

What most people did was use a PVC "boom" that strings of LED lights were attached to and all connected at the top. A halyard was then used to raise the LED lights sail. The 100 bulb strings worked well for boats in the 23 to 26 foot range for the "sails". My main sail was 4 strings of 100 bulb sets but a lot of the boats were using 7 or 8 strings. Ie, 700 to 800 bulbs for each "sail". You can then add whatever lights around the lifelines and rails.. etc.. We had a lot of fun doing this..

Justin_NSA · Dec 9, 2016

Will you be sailing or motoring? I think sails made up of lights would look cool. LEDs come in so many ways these days , you can be pretty creative. Don't forget to post pics!

walt · Dec 9, 2016

FYI, here is a picture of the one of the PVC booms. I got the advice to build it in your driveway then take it to the boat. The "sails" are now all rolled up around the PVC pipe hanging in the garage waiting for next year. This particular boat had a bare boom but a bunch of the boats just tied the PVC boom to the main sail in the bag

This picture was taken just before everyone left the marina

oldlaxer1 · Dec 9, 2016

Just did our first parade last weekend. It may be too late for you but I found 166' strings of 12 volt LED lights and ran them off a spare battery I had at the house. I ran out of time converting the 12 volt blow up Santa and Rudolph to bypass the 110 power packs so I just plugged them into my 400 watt inverter. They both only draw 2 amps each so it worked fine. I'll convert them to straight 12 volts and connect them to the battery for next year. It was a lot of fun and I'm already working on ideas for next year.
It was a ridiculously windy day so we only ran a string of lights up the backstay and down the headstay, and around the lifelines. We had a 9ft blow up Santa standing on the boom and a 4 ft blow up Rudolph leading the way off the bow pulpit.
I had planned on making a tree shape but it was just too windy to pull all that together in time. We were a little under-decorated compared to most of the powerboats and some of the more seasoned sailboats but we still got pretty good reviews.
Have a blast!

Kermit · Dec 9, 2016

Lots of good ideas on the technical aspects. Here's my take on aesthetics. Sometimes less is more. It seems clear to me that you won't outshine anyone with quantities. Why not try for "Classy-Minimalist" this year? Keep in mind that setup takes longer than you think it will. Plus the entire aparatus will take up space from your family and guests. Plus there's the extra attention it will require on your part. Whatever you do it needs to be fun for everyone onboard. And it's entirely possible you'll get noticed for being different - but in a "Classy-Minimalist" way. Good luck and have fun.
Merry Christmas!

Justin_NSA · Dec 9, 2016

People are doing neat things with coordinating lights to music too.
Not the Griswalds, but impressive

Kermit · Dec 9, 2016

I heard someone on VHF refer to me as Clark Griswald on the 4th. One man's ceiling is another man's floor I suppose.
How about draping the lifelines? You'll probably find that the length won't be perfect. So do what seems to work out the best. I'm serious about it taking more effort than you realize. My wife seems to like the effect but doesn't like the bother of setting things up. Make it fun above all else.

marke14 · Dec 9, 2016

Kermit said:
I heard someone on VHF refer to me as Clark Griswald on the 4th.

Kermit, I took this one for you buddy:

Kermit · Dec 10, 2016

marke14 said:
Kermit, I took this one for you buddy:

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A frog in his natural habitat. On a boat. Decked out with lights!

CapeMaySailor · Dec 12, 2016

pateco said:
Thanks for everyone's suggestions, The parade was a huge success.
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I will definitely be doing this again next year.

Congratulations! I saw you from the Sands!! I do this in the summer for Christmas in July in NJ. It's a lot of work but also a lot of fun!! Unfortunately I didn't see the thread until today!!

Kermit · Dec 12, 2016

pateco said:
Thanks for everyone's suggestions, The parade was a huge success.
View attachment 131072
View attachment 131073

I will definitely be doing this again next year.

Fantastic! Merry Christmas.

kimelmore · Dec 12, 2016

Marke 14...that boat is in a slip a couple down from my boat. The folks are really nice too. Kermit looks better by day tho.

Holiday Boat Parade?

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