|
BLACK OAK Since 1976 the Black Oak Boat Parade has been held
on the Fourth of July. The schedule is simple – Four on the Fourth. Boats
form up in no particular order in front of the public beach at 4pm on July
4th regardless of the day of the week. An odd number of judges (usually 5)
are placed around the lake or are possibly even in the parade itself on
non-competing boats. The locations and identities of these judges are unknown
to the competitors. The parade progresses counter-clockwise, i.e. up the east
shore first, at the speed of the slowest boat. The complete circuit takes
about one hour. There are two classes of competition –
Pontoon Boats and Non-Pontoon Boats. A competitive entry may employ more than
one boat. If any of the boats in an entry is a pontoon boat that entry will
be judged in the pontoon boat class even if the pontoon boat is being towed.
There shall be no pre-announced theme so as to allow entrants maximum
flexibility in demonstrating their creativity. To be judged an entry must fly
an American flag of any size somewhere on each of its boats and must complete
the entire lake circuit. Non competing boats can enter or leave the parade at
any point. Judges will rank the entries as first, second, and
third in each of the two classes. Appropriate traveling trophies are awarded
to the first place finishers and second and third place plaques go to the
other places. The parade organizer (currently Walt Bates)
appoints the judges and collects their votes. He has the plaques on the first
place trophies engraved according to the wishes of the respective winners and
presents the awards at the annual picnic though their names are released as
soon as votes are tabulated. The past winners of these first place trophies
are as follows: |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
