By Becky Maxedon
Crowds lined the Bridgewater Channel in Lake Havsu City Saturday night when holiday magic floated by.
The annual Boat Parade of Lights illuminted the channel, bringing the spirit of Christmas with each decorated boat.
One parade entry crew told RiverScene Magazine the story of how they came to participate in the event.
One of the crowd pleasers in the parade was “Little Crabby” – a pirate ship.
Logan Lefebre brought the pirate ship that was built on Andres Island in the Caribbean to participate in the event.
Boat #28 Logan Lafevre and Barbara Cline. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
“It’s 98 percent garbage retrieved from the bottom of the ocean by free diving. We saw this event when we lived in the Carribbean and we recently moved here and decided to enter it. It’s a good-will boat. Never a fee or anything like that. All our cannons fire, our slingshots fire and there’s lots of smoke for the kids,” Lefebre said.
At the helm is Lefebre’s wife Barbara Cline. “Capt. Calico I call her. She’s a freckled and a redhead and she’s the captain of the ship.”
“I had been to Havasu about 35 years ago. I was living in Phoenix. I didn’t know anything about Havasu so a friend of mine brought me up here. He said ‘you won’t beleive this place.’ I didn’t know there was a lake here,” he said.
The couple drove up to the area one winter during the Havasu Balloon Festival and Faire. “We loved this place and decided that when we retired we would move here,” he said.
While still in the Caribbean, they watched the Boat Parade of Lights on RiverScene Magazine’s site.
“I didn’t know they had a boat parade and I decided we had to be in it. We built it, we saliled it, we barged it and we trailered it across the hottest desert known to mankind just to get it here to be in this event.”
It’s the vessel’s first year being in the Boat Parade.
Winning entrants in the parade were announced Sunday morning.
Best First-Time Entry $250 – #23 Benjamin Gerlich
Judges Wildcard Pick $500 – #16 Kelsy and Tesia Hansen (The Van Boat Airplane)
Best Nonprofit $500 – #18 The Parrott Head Club
Best Corporate Entry $500 – #8 Anderson Auto and Powersports Group
Best Family Entry $500 – #1 The Creagan Family
Best of Show (and the first ever three-time winner) $1,500 – #4 (Gingerbread House) The Luebke Family
People’s Choice $500 – #4 The Luebke Family
Lake Havasu Boat Parade of Lights title sponsors were Anderson Auto and Powersports and GoLakeHavasu.
Event organizers were JJ Gibbs and his assistant Rachael Atkinson.
Here are photos from the event and the awards breakfast.
Best First Time Entry Boat #23 Benjamin Gerlich. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Best Non-Profit Entry Boat #18 Parrot Head Club. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene Magazine
Best Family Entry Boat #1 The Creagan Family. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Best in Show Boat #4 The Luebke Family. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Best in Show and People’s Choice Boat #4 The Luebke Family. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Honorable mention Tiny Toot Boat. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Phone photo Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
IllumEFX Mark Gomez performs on his PWC before the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Tecoma Boat at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Jillian Danielson/Riverscene
Dixie Belle at the Boat Parade of Lights in Lake Havasu City. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Coorporate Winner Boat #1 Anderson Auto and PowerSports. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Coorporate Winner Anderson Auto and PowerSports. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Best Family Entry Boat #1 Creagan Family. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #2 Elite Audio Havasu. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #3 Rick and Cherri McPhereson. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
People’s Choice and Best in Show Boat #4 The Luebke Family. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #5 Toy Brokers at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #5 The Toy Brokers. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #6 Aliya and Jace Rusch. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #7 Mark and Stephanie Ethridge. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #8 Paul and Lizzy Healy. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #8 at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #10 Rob Bost. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #11 Neil Kleine. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #12 Hilltop Community Church. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #12 at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #14 at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #15 at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Judge’s Wildcard Pick Boat #16 Kelsy and Tesia Hansen. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #17 Tiny Toot at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #17 Tiny Toot. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #18 Parrot Head Club at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #19 Kris NG. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #20 Mujgan Bademei. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #21 Butch Ortiz at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #22 The Yacht Club at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Best First Time Entry Boat #23 Benjamin Gerlich at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #24 Mike and April Masterpole. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #25 Alex Vasquez. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #26 Tom Perry. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #27 Elite Havasu Cleaning. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #27 at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #27 at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #28 Logan Lafevre and Capt. Calico. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #29 Kimlee Morgan. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #30 at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #30 Mumma Family. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #32 The Nautical Inn. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #34 Haley Callahan. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #33 Andrew Wagner and Summer Gibson. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #35 Russ Otterson. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #36 Sheryl Caldbeck Wild Wave Rentals. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #37 Todd and kelly Gileno. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #38 Xtreme Speed and Marine. Jillian Danielson/Riverscene
Boat #39 Mario Latka. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #40 Chuck Tasker. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #41 Chuck Tasker at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #46 Mark Weaver. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #47 Steve Caitlin at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #48 Dan Podgurski. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #49 Ken Jayne. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #50 Sean Jessen. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #51 Joseph Rufino. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat #52 Jimmie Michael at the 2025 Boat Parade of Lights. Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
Boat #70 Rick and Stephanie. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Boat Brokers Santa Sleigh. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene
Tyanna Renee’/RiverScene
This was a fun event this year. It seemed like more boats than last year. You and your staff did a great job of documenting it and sharing the joy with your followers. Awesome close-up photos of those onboard the boats. Congratulations to all the winners, but everyone did a swell job of decorating their boats for our enjoyment.