TMCA Wins Best Overall In the Boat Parade.
by Ed Herndon
The 2003 Jack
Campbell Memorial award for Best Boat Overall
was awarded to the TMCA entry "Santa's Carousel."
The boat S/V
Mystery is a 30 foot Nonsuch Sailboat owned by Jack and Pati
Lund.
The design featured a 20 foot
Diameter Carousel with Reindeer
and Sleigh flying 15 feet above the deck. The lighted Carousel turned
around
the mast.
The Masthead featured a Giant star with a
trail of lights.
On
deck a Peaceful Village awaited the coming of Santa himself.
Crew aboard : Jack and Pati Lund, Ed
and Marion Herndon, Doc Wayne Mulloy, Philip Kropf, Douglas
Haberman, Andy Upchurch.
The Story of Santa's
Carousel
Every year at the Commodore's ball I get asked, "And what will be
the design for next years winner?"
Last Year I answered, "It will come to me in a dream or at a party...
Who knows where or when? I can only tell you that it will be Big, and
Lighted, and in Motion, and probably made of PVC."
This year the inspiration came in stages. We went to the Circus du
Soliel when it came to Houston in March. The Circus was held in a
Gigantic tent covering most of a city block. In the entry section was a
marvelous mobile consisting of two loops of steel perhaps 40 feet
in diameter . The inner loop was attached by cables to a hub centered
on one of the 50 foot high tent poles. There were bird like forms about
five feet in wing span connecting the inner and outer Loops. It soared
overhead in a slightly tilted orbit that made the birds swoop up and
down as it spun around the tent pole. "Awesome," I thought, "Wouldn't
that be great in the boat Parade?"
Another part of the
inspiration came while returning from the April Steve's Landing
Cruise. Jack Lund passed me in his 30 foot Nonsuch and I admired
his unstayed mast. "We can fly the loops around the mast of Jack's
boat," I thought, "It is a perfect platform... I must ask Jack if we
can use his boat."
As we passed the Kemah Boardwalk I mused about what we have done in the
past: a train, the
ferris wheel, the rocking boat. Why not do the Merry go Round on Jack's
mast?
Soon thereafter at the Fajita Margarita party I broached the subject
with Chief Engineer Bert Olavari. I described the mobile at the Circus
and proposed that we do a Christmas Carousel. Perhaps the "Twelve days
of Christmas" complete with Partridge, Calling birds, French hens, and
Lords a Leaping.
That was all it took to get Bert into action. By the fourth of July he
had measurements of Jack's boat and had built several models of the
boat with carousel turning mechanisms aboard. 
These models had the carousel supported by the main
Halyard and turning involved the halyard wraping around the mast. Only
1.5 turns were possible in each direction with this limitation.
Here is one of Bert's early Concept Drawings. By this time
we had settled on reusing the reindeer from the previous years winning
entry.
This design features a carousel supported from the
base not hung from the Halyard.
Here on the right is Bert with the base
supporting a carousel column.
The base wraps around the mast. It uses casters as the bearings to
support the structure.
Bert prefabricated all of the PVC and Plywood structures at his home in
Stafford.
Planning Session
Early in October a general call to arms was issued to create the
Army of workers needed for construction of Santa's Carousel plus all of
the other decorations needed.
Ed announced that
Blue Dolphin would again allow us to use their bulkhead and adjioning
lawn for our construction site.
Bert Olaveri brought Models and drawings of the Carousel and briefed us
in the construction technique.
Chairman Andy asked probing questions about how we would get it up.
This Socratic query
chrystalized the decisions to use brute force and a main halyard.
We would reuse and refurbish as much as possible. Philip Kropf
resurrected the Star and comet stream. The Reindeers and Sleigh would
be cleaned up by Tom Curran. Ed Herndon would spruce up the
village. The new decorations were the Diamond decorations around the
carousel. These were the work of Marion Herndon, Sally Curran,
BarbaraTonnelli, and Lynn Renaudin. Jack Lund would prepare the boat
and get the carpet needed to protect the mast of his boat. James Taylor
would find carousel music.
Luke Sterling provided the generators(3).
The Grand Erection
The construction would be done in several phases as illustrated in
the Photo sequence below.
Saturday a week before the Parade
Lay out the parts for
assembly
|
Send a monkey up the
mast
to Wrap it with Carpet
|
 |
Build the carousel in
two halves on the ground.
The base structure with the bearings has been wraped around the mast.
The uppermost canopy structure is wraped around the mast.
Next step is to add the two carousel halves in
the space above the
bearing and below the canopy.
|
Here it is, resting in place.
The two halves are joined around the mast.
|
 |
 |
This is the
structure at the end of the first day of construction.
On the next day we started with this base
and added the decorations
|
Sunday a week before the parade
|
|
The multi collored lights and the support cables
have been strung forming the tent at the top,
Here we are adding the Diamonds around the face
of
the carousel top structurOnce this is done the
carousel can be Hoisted about
40 inches.e. |
| Here
we have raised the
structure so the Reindeer can be added. |
 |
 |
This is the completed job on the second day of
construction.
Its pretty cold and some of the workers have fled. |
Here she is Lighted
during Daylight
Lighted by Night on Sunday before the parade
We let her sit this way
until the following weekend. Then we returned on Saturday of the parade
and hoisted her to full height, added the candy cane wrap, added the
village and added the lights around the
lifelines.
Ready to go
Parade Night
We headed out for our meeting with destiny while it was still
light. There was a strong breeze on Clear Lake and we adjusted the tack
of the carousel to provide minimum drag on the Sleigh, our largest
object.
We made it into South Shore Harbor and tied up on the same T Head Dock
as last year. It has a No Docking sign that effectively reserves
this spot for our annual arrival. This is also a good vantage point for
checking out the competition.
It was 45 minutes before the parade started. Marion had made a
big pot of Chili and Pati had made Cornbread to go with it. There was
time to relax and enjoy the scenery. After dinner I put on the
Santa costume Cindy Porterfield had loaned me. It was time to spread
some Christmas joy, so I steped off the boat to better see the what we
look like from a distance. There was a large party on the shore and
soon some parents with small children came forward to meet Santa. That
was lots of fun being Santa. I was quite believable in the role.
Soon darkness fell and it was time to get under way. The Light
House at South Shore was lit up and the fireworks at Nassau Bay were
set off. "Let's Go." I called.
"Not Yet," said Andy our Chairman in Charge, "We don't want to be in
the front of the parade."
Ten Minutes Later. "Why are we waitiing?" Doc asked me.
"So we won't be next to any other fancy boats," I explained, "Andy
holds back for a position between two mediocre boats."
The explaination did not satisfy Doc; he called back, "Come on Andy,
lets go Git Um."
A general Mutiny was brewing, even mild mannered Philip joined in,
"Lets Go."
After most of the boats passed us we finally joined the parade.
We would be the Grand Finale'.
There were a lot of very well done boats in the parade but I was
confident that we had the winner.
The systems all worked for the first 10 minutes. Then Disaster struck.
The #2 Generator serving half the lights quit. It later started but
would not generate electricity. We would have to work on two
generators.
Andy worked out a combination of loads that would work with generators
#1 and #3 but without the sound system.
Our morale sank. The system was able to run everything but it seemed on
the verge of overload. We rationed power crossing the lake and brought
up everything as we passed the main crowds.
The Crowds loved us. We kept the Carousel turning almost all the
way. At the end we passed the Judges and got enthusiastic thumbs up
signals from several.
We then stopped in to the TMCA viewing party that was going on at
Seabrook Shipyard Clubhouse.
Several had left by the time we arrived, but there was a warm welcome
from the faithful.
On Parade
Awards and Thanks
Next Morning at the awards ceremony we got to see the pictures of
all the 117 participants. We had to wait to the end for our prizes. The
TMCA entry won the League City Mayors Trophy and the 2003 Jack
Campbell Memorial award for Best Boat Overall.
Many Thanks to the winning team. This group of TMCA members comes out
in the cold and rain, and works hard to create a memorable Community
event for Christmas. We could not do it without the dedication of these
clever and inovative people.
At the awards ceremony:
Top: Bert Olaveri,
Lynn Renaudin, Marion Herndon, Jack Lund, Andy Upchurch, Doc Wayne
Mulloy,
Randy Russell, Philip Kropf, Douglas Haberman, Pati Lund
Front: Lilian Olaveri, Ed Herndon, Georgia McWilliams,
James Taylor.
Additional Thanks to those workers who did not make it to the awards:
Tom and Sally Curran, Don and Barbara Tonnelli,
JJ "No Show" Wallace, Birgit Green, and Luke Sterling
The formula worked again!
"...it will be Big, and
Lighted, and in Motion, and probably made of PVC."
It's a TMCA tradition.
For Earlier
Years Winners
