NEWS RELEASE

Free piloting service available for 2023 Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade

The parade route will also be lengthened by more than a mile this year, and shuttle bus service for spectators will be provided.


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  • | 11:00 a.m. November 28, 2023
From the 2022 Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade. File photo
From the 2022 Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade. File photo
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Boaters hoping to participate in the 2023 Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade are being offered free piloting services for the 2023 Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade. 

Boaters wishing to have a licensed professional at the wheel are asked to contact the Parade Chair Sarah Ulis at 386-283-5166.  

The parade is the largest lighted boat parade in the state of Florida. The parade route will be lengthened by more than a mile, and shuttle bus service for spectators will be provided.

Now in its 40th year, the parade will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 9, 2023. It is free to all.  

To register boats and for all details about the parade, The Palm Coast Yacht Club, sponsor of the event, invites all to visit palmcoastyachtclub.com.  

Parking will be available at the Palm Coast Community Center and the Daytona State College campus, both on Palm Coast Parkway.  

Flagler County buses will shuttle viewers between designated parking and European Village. Lit parking signs will be posted along Palm Coast Parkway.  

Parking will also be open at Waterfront Park. Parade viewers are advised to seek parking early. All parking and shuttle service is free and will be available continuously between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Dec. 9.

This year, the parade will begin at Cochise Waterway, the city’s northern-most cut to the Intracoastal Waterway, and head south. 

The parade will pass the Cimarron and Club House Waterways and sail under the Hammock Dunes Toll Bridge past St. Joe Walkway and Waterfront Park. 

Boats will turn at the Gazebo in Grand Haven, pass the Club House Waterway and return to home port. 

The parade will be held in honor of the late Al Krier, a longtime parade champion and major community activist. 

At the head of the parade will be Krier’s 18-foot Herreshoff Pilot, which has been donated by his family to the Palm Coast Yacht Club.  

Grand marshals will be Palm Coast Mayor the Honorable David Alfin and Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly.  

Carrying the grand marshals will be “Sunshine,” a 55-foot Viking owned by club members Donna Heiss and Ken Mazzie.

Parade escorts include the Marine Unit of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and TowBoatUS.  

The Florida Inland Navigation District is endorsing the event.  Once again, the parade will be broadcast live by Flagler Broadcasting on KOOL-FM, 100.9. The city of Palm Coast is providing worldwide simultaneous live coverage on YouTube.  

 

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