[Judy Patsch]

To summarize Travis' posting: it worked well for the boats when the boat people basically ran the event. Hence it would be great if we could return to that. But, as Steve pointed out, the biggest boat benefactor and boatman, Nelson Jones, has departed and the chances of finding someone to fill his shoes is grim. As David pointed out, the Festival poohbahs now proclaim it to be a Music and Arts festival, and are probably soliciting the sponsors based on that premise. And I as pointed out, the chances of having the NATCHEZ there again are next to nil. Add these all up, and it doesn't look real promising on the boat end of the festival.
Here are a couple of observations from the '06 boat end: there was no way the NATCHEZ could afford to come up and pay for her fuel and expenses and then get reimbursed. So I believe a certain amount of the anticipated proceeds were advanced so she could pay for those items as she went. I think that some, if not all boats, had contracts which guaranteed them x dollars or passengers or profit, so that the boat owners knew they weren't risking a financial bath. Now, in order to make these guarantees, the festival people set the ticket prices and the types of cruises each boat would take and when. This caused quite a few complaints about the high ticket price, but all we could respond was that it was set by the committee, not by the boat. Another problem with the committee in charge of boat things: they advertised a couple of our trips as Mardi Gras trips with all the trimmings, like beads, masks, etc. Only thing is, they didn't tell us - so we didn't have those things to hand out. That made for bad PR. I believe there were also some issues about food on the boats which didn't prepare their own, but I don't know what that was about. I'm guessing that IF boats would come to another TS, they would be the ones like our CELEBRATION BELLE, which makes money coming over by offering daylong trips and bussing people back to their starting point, and which prepares its own food. One other point about '06 - the fast rising water did certainly cause problems especially with repositioning the boats. But there wasn't agreement among the captains as to whether to run or not. The NATCHEZ was adamant about running, for while the river was high and more rapid than usual, it was nothing compared to conditions the NATCHEZ operates in regularly, and of course she has the handling and power needed for such conditions. So there was some ill will, if only temporary, during the summit meetings at high water. As it turned out, I believe we stayed dockside for one morning and then everyone resumed cruising.