Boaters Turn Their Boats Into Festive Floats for the Eastport Yacht Club Lights Parade
Built with PVC pipes, wires, various odds and ends of hardware, green tablecloths, and more than 10,000 twinkling lights, the “Octoclaus” is a crowd pleaser at the annual Eastport Yacht Club Lights Parade.
“It’s really cool to see the crowd reaction, especially from the kids, who are like, ‘wow’ when they see the giant Octopus. We love being a part of such a magical community event,” said Stacy Biggs, the creative genius behind the display.
Arguably Annapolis’s flashiest and most dazzling holiday event, EYC Lights Parade is a procession of sail and power boats decked out in thousands of twinkling lights crewed by jolly revelers. Last year 40 power and sail boats, ranging from 16 to 60 feet, were wrapped with Christmas lights. The displays mix traditional holiday elements with maritime themes from a dazzling 3D rendering of Thomas Point Lighthouse, to a giant Octopus, to a grand Christmas tree with happy dogs waiting to open presents.
The 44th iteration on December 12 will undoubtedly create more pageantry and magic.
“It is a holiday gift to Annapolis,” said Heather Ersts, co-chair of the event. “It gets the participants and spectators into the spirt of the season,” she said.
The magic-makers, aka, the skippers and crew, say the work of building the displays is well-worth it.
Biggs and her friend Gary Patenaude, the owner of the Shamrock 26 that carries the octopus and seahorses, say it is a chance to think creatively and spend time with friends and family who help carry out Stacy’s vision.
The morning of the parade, Patenaude drives the boat with the octopus head tied to the cabin, from the head of the Severn River to Ego Alley, where EYC has set aside berths where participants can dress their boats. Friends and family deliver by car the octopus’s legs and lights. Assembly begins to prepare for the parade later that evening.
Downtown holiday shoppers and visitors are curious.
“People are really interested in what you’re creating,” Patenaude explained. “We get to show off our work and explain how we do it from building a sea creature it to electrifying it.”
While some skippers have been at this for 40 years, for Janice Cannon, owner of Menagerie, a Jeanneau 440, 2025 was her debut.
Despite being a last-minute decision, she won best new entry in the sailboat category for “It’s a Woof Christmas.”
“Which is funny since every light was borrowed off other people’s boat,” she said. Skippers donated their past displays to her, from the towering Christmas tree to the animated dogs with wagging tails.
“It all evolved when friends told us what they could make available to us, and it the theme worked for us as we have three dogs on board,” she said.
Cannon was the first skipper to register this year with her partner Matt Brown, citing the communal nature of the event.
“It’s a wonderful, shared experience with friends who show up and help make it all happen,” she said.
She is keeping her display under wraps but teased that the display has never been done in Annapolis. They’re adding more lights and animation.
“Go big or go home, or at least have fun,” she added.
Scott Robinson has done the parade on and off for the past 40 years. It marks the beginning of the holiday season and gets him into the spirit, he said.
“The event is so festive, so it really captures the holidays,” he said.
He and his wife are responsible for some of the more memorable displays through the years: a 46-foot train with spinning wheels and the Griswold family station wagon with a Christmas tree on the roof.
He admits building large canvases and stringing more than 10,000 lights can be arduous, but said once it’s built, you can re-use it subsequent years and save time. He’ll use the same display for three years before it “gets stale.”
Now that he’s perfected the art of building boat displays, he said the hardest part is thinking of a new theme that will wow the crowd.
Anyone can enter and find registration and a bevy of other parade-related info at EYCLightsparade.org.
Need some inspiration? Email LightsParade @EastportYC.org and a member will connect you with an EYC skipper to answer. There are also decorating “how-to” videos on the website.
“I encourage others to do it,” Cannon said. “It’s not as hard as think when you have skippers willing to share knowledge and even their lights.”
By Carrie Gentile
