Perhaps the most famous boat parade occurs during the holiday season in Newport Beach, California. For a week, boat and yacht owners decorate their ships with Christmas lights and animated figures and set sail around a predetermined route around Newport Bay. The parade began in 1907 when friends John Scarpa and Joseph Beek began to take groups of visitors on a nighttime cruise around the newly developed Balboa Island in the center of the bay. They decorated gondolas with lanterns, and each ensuing year the procession grew. In its history the parade fell in and out of favor with residents and law enforcement due to the large crowds the parade attracted. Today the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade continues to run, sponsored by the Commodores Club of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce... though the number of nights when the show runs seem to be dwindling.
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