Since the preferred form of celebration in "Champa Bay" is clearly boat parades, there may never be a better time to invest in a 14-foot fiberglass boat completely decked out in Bolts decals.
Right now, Tampa native Julius Pereira is selling his pandemic passion project: “The Tampa Bay Lightning Boat,” for just $3,500 on Facebook Marketplace. The boat comes with an upgraded trailer, a Bimini top, a 6-horsepower Yamaha two-stroke motor (starts first pull), and tons of “Go Bolts” every time you take it out.
“I take it to every home game, even playoff games and park it at the arena,” said Pereira to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I bought the boat last year during the pandemic and painted it blue and got custom order decals of all the Stanley cup champion players.” Periera, a northern transplant who's been a Bolts fan for the past 20 years, says he’s parting ways with the boat because he wants something bigger, and that hopefully his next boat is already blue so it can easily be made into another “Bolts Boat.”
Unfortunately, Periera says the boat was purchased after the team won the 202o Stanley Cup, so it didn’t make it to their boat parade. But it did lead the Bucs Super Bowl parade for a while, he says. So, if it goes to a real fan, maybe this will be the year ‘Lighting Boat" finally leads a Stanley Cup parade.
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