formal sail-past (illuminated). Advice on organising it ?

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kds

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www.canongrange.co.uk
I have been tasked with organising our club regatta "sailpast".
It is a procession of illuminated boats along the 1 mile of sea front at high tide around 10.00pm.
20 + Boats have to get out of the river, collect and then process and then get back to pontoon or moorings before the tide goes.
I do have some ideas regarding organisation and safety, but have any of you personal experience ?
Thanks.
Ken /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
I've done a fair bit of land-based stuff and some on water including bringing a VIP from the North Pole up to the quay last December. Talk about nerves coming alongside with an audience but our lit boat was memorably described afterwards with "well that was... well it wasn't... it wasn't a boat... it was a, errr, a... spectacle" so I reckon we got some bits right.

I'd say as a general approach to organise and plan as little as possible as there is then a lot less to go wrong and much more opportunity for everyone to have fun doing it.

For example, if you do a detailed schedule and order for the participating boats, someone will be late or in the wrong place or will do something silly trying to keep up. If you just say "get your boat to position X by about 9.45pm then we'll form up and follow boat Y at 10pm then once we're past Z, break off and go home" then things should largely sort out and run themselves.

Similarly, avoid too much detail for the viewing public; it's enough to say "starting around 10pm" and then you've no pressure if things go a bit late. (We usually add "subject to the tide" even for some land-based events because it creates an aura of mystery and removes any obligation to run to schedule.)

On the more practical side...

Insist on VHF on each boat on a designated channel but use it just for the leaders to form up, start and stop the parade and for any real emergency; don't fill it with chatter or clutter. People sometimes go for M1 or M2 or some other obscure channel for events like this but last year we decided to sit on the harbour channel so that every man and his dog knew what was going on.

Plan it at slow speed so there's time for mistakes and catch ups and go out to time and rehearse it in similar tidal conditions. (Don't tell anyone but I went and practiced the tight turns and coming alongside the historic vessel several times in the days beforehand.)

Lighting boats seems to be an American thing and it was quite hard to find equipment or advice.

Ordinary battery-powered LED lamps are cheap and easy but not bright enough from any distance. 12V and 24V LED fairy lights and rope lights were much better without having huge power requirements.

Nav lights are likely to be miles brighter than the decorations... I fortunately tumbled to this in advance so I ran with nav lights on up the channel so that the audience could see us coming from a mile away and then turned them off, to dramatic effect, as we arrived at the quay.

Billion power cheapy handheld spots are also useful on and between boats and our local coastguard has an absolutely huge searchlamp that really adds to the occasion... though it's a bugger when you spin the boat round and look right into it /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I would add, with many years of motor club organising that you must identify those odd few people who can cock-up absolutely any event. Then identify all the others who can be problematic and anyone who can thrown an unexpected wobbler.
There should just be yourself left by now /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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