Character Boat Parade Scuttled After 31 Years

The sponsors of the Newport Beach Character Boat Parade, which has taken place every summer for the last 31 years, axed the event Friday in a surprise action.

Saying the support for the parade came mostly from the spectators who attend the annual event and not the boating community, the Commodores Club, a division of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce, decided to cancel the parade.

“We did get some calls and letters, but it wasn’t from the boating community, it was from spectators who liked to watch it and had fond memories of it,” said Richard Luehrs, president of the Chamber of Commerce. “As much as the community might have liked it, what winds up happening is we look like we can’t put on a decent parade.”

Questions over the parade’s future surfaced after last summer’s lowest-ever turnout for the Newport Harbor event in which owners decorate their boats in outlandish and downright silly decorations.

About two dozen boats participated this year. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, parade officials said the event attracted more than 100 boats and upward of 100,000 spectators.

The Commodores discussed canceling the event at a meeting last month, but also solicited comments from the public, which were overwhelmingly supportive of the parade, Commodores Skipper Bill Hamilton said earlier this week. Hamilton was out of town Friday and did not take part in the vote.

The one complaint the group received was that the sporadic scheduling of the event discouraged participation, and that an fixed annual date, perhaps July 4, might be better.

Luehrs said Friday’s vote was final, even though Hamilton, a longtime advocate of the parade, was not there for the vote. He added that about 40 Commodores members were there and voted 2 to 1 against the parade.

“I don’t see (Hamilton) changing it,” Luehrs said. “It was just too strong a vote to do it.”