THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 23, 1994 TAG: 9412220130
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
SITTING BESIDE A BACKYARD pier on a drizzly Saturday morning, Marty Strait's Strait Aweigh looks like what she is: a 27-foot, 22-year-old power boat. Or maybe it's a 27-year-old, 22-foot powerboat. It's hard to keep the facts strait - oops, make that straight - when Marty and crew members David Oliver and Tom Kirsch are pitching one-liners faster than the brain receives or the pen writes.
Anyway, one fact is indisputable. The chunky little cabin cruiser with the bulb covered plywood cutouts of the commonwealth of Virginia attached port and starboard and the icicles dripping from the gunnels took first place in the Privately Owned Power Under 30 Foot division of Norfolk's Holidays in the City boat parade.
``What a difference a night makes,'' Oliver sighed as a handful of on-lookers surveyed the tangle of spray-painted fig branches, electrical cable and plywood that formed the base of the nighttime display.
In the daylight, it looked a bit rough around the edges, perhaps even a bit shop worn. But by night the little boat, like an aging belle with the underpinnings covered and the age marks masked by soft light, was nothing short of beautiful.
Especially on the Saturday night of the lighted boat parade. That was when Oliver, Kirsch and David Powers dawned elf suits and ears and plywood skis to play a trio of Santa helpers on the boat's bow while Norfolk teacher Shelley Parks did her dancing snow woman act on the stern.
Santa was there that night, also, a plastic Santa who stood tall on the boat's canopy just above the wheelhouse.
``The crew wanted to have a bonfire, too,'' dead-panned Strait, who lives in Birchwood Gardens.
He was at the helm when they sailed the vessel he almost lovingly refers to as the ``money pit'' from the dock at Kirsch's parents' home in Deep Creek around to Waterside for the parade. Beside him was Shelley Parks' husband, Les, who guided Strait through the maze of river traffic.
``I couldn't see a thing during the parade,'' he said. ``You have no idea how bright Christmas lights are when they're right in front of your face.''
The crew, which had spent only a couple of days working on the project, did have one major problem - the generator that powered all of the added lights.
``It ran out of gas,'' he recalled. Fortunately, the fuel supply held long enough for the judges to make their decision.
There was also the matter of interaction with the crowd, which was one of the points on which the judging was based.
``We'll serve them Virginia cider,'' Strait told the crew.
``There are going to be 45,000 of them,'' Kirsch reminded him.
``Then we'll need more cups,'' the skipper quipped.
Despite the problems, the crew of the Strait Aweigh walked off with the trophy for its class and a promise to each other to enter the event again next year.
``We intend to take Best in Show,'' Strait declared. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
``Elfs'' Tom Kirsch and David Oliver join boat owner Marty Strait
aboard the Strait Aweigh, which took first place in the Privately
Owned Power Under 30 Foot division of Norfolk's Holiday in the City
boat parade. The boat was spruced up by a tangle of spray-painted
fig branches, electrical cable and plywood that formed the base of
the nighttime display.
Graphic
Other Virginia Beach winners in Norfolk's Holidays in the City
competition:
Kellam High School band, which took second place in the High
School Band Contest.
Jewells, a sailboat owned by Forrest Norman, which took first
place in the Privately Owned Sailboat Over 40 Foot competition.
Other Virginia Beach winners in Norfolk's Holidays in the City
competition:
Kellam High School band, which took second place in the High
School Band Contest.
Jewells, a sailboat owned by Forrest Norman, which took first
place in the Privately Owned Sailboat Over 40 Foot competition.
by CNB