December 9, 2008
For more information, contact:
Peter Barbour, 8331 Laurelwood Drive, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
714-963-5271
Christmas Boat Parade Entry Sports More Lights than a Two-Bedroom House
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif - The city of Newport Beach, California is celebrating the holidays with her 100th Annual Christmas Boat Parade December 17 to 21, 2008. One of the entries, D25, has become an annual crowd-pleaser. Peter Barbour, a Huntington Beach resident, said, “Creating a unique and floating design each year with more lights, sound and animation than a two- or three-bedroom house is great fun.”
D25 has captured national attention in previous years, and this year, a limited edition aloha shirt by Reyn Spooner called “Holiday Parade,” Item number 1549, features D25, as well as several bay front homes and boat parade entries.
“Oh, by the way, D25 is an eleven-foot dingy, the smallest boat in the parade,” Barbour added.
Barbour has won top prizes continuously since 2004 and has pulled out all the stops for the centennial celebration.
This year’s D25 theme is “Tropical Island Cheer.” This works well with the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade theme of “100 years of Christmas Cheer.” Major design elements aboard D25 include a 10-foot, animated palm tree, an illuminated Adirondack-style beach chair, an eclectic-electric market umbrella and dancing-flickering lanterns. Even skipper Barbour will be integrated into the sound and light show. The lights are computer-controlled and synchronized to an audio system playing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's “Wizards in Winter.”
Barbour’s ham radio hobby spills into the D25 decor: There will be automatic, real-time position tracking of D25 as it moves around the parade route. This setup is made possible with Barbour’s ham radio equipment interfaced with a GPS receiver. The track can be seen on the D25 website, http://www.d25.org. Click “Find Me” on the menu.
Technical Highlights Aboard D25:
- Over
6,025 lights, consuming four kilowatts of electricity, in
64 independent circuits
- Over
six hundred and D twenty-five feet of custom extension
cords
- A
quad-core microprocessor system controls the lights and
interfaces with the 150 Watt sound system
- Two
Honda EU2000i generators provide 120 Volts AC power and a
combined 4KW of peak power
- The
11-foot dinghy is powered by a Nissan 4-stroke, 5HP
engine
- A 5
Watt ham radio is interfaced to a GPS for reporting
location, and is available for emergency communications,
if needed
For more information on D25 and the Newport Beach Christmas parade, go to www.d25.org