Boat-owning Trump supporters have been invited to join in a TrumpStock boat parade from Noyac to Montauk on Friday in advance of the president's fund-raising visit to the South Fork this weekend.
The parade is being organized by the Boaters for Trump, which describes itself as a group of "passionate boaters who proudly support and promote President Donald J. Trump." Similar events have taken place across the country, including one in the Great South Bay on June 27 that the group said drew more than 3,000 boats and at least 15,000 people.
"We've seen them all over the rest of the country and we're getting one going here," Donald Trump Jr. says in a video posted on the Boaters for Trump Facebook page. The younger Mr. Trump owns a house in Bridgehampton with his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who appears alongside him in the video. She is the national chairwoman of the Trump Victory finance committee.
Participants in Friday's TrumpStock parade will meet in Noyac Bay at 11 a.m., travel to the Orient Point Lighthouse by 1 p.m., and then head to the Montauk Point Lighthouse by 3 p.m. Two boats will lead the fleet -- Team Deplorable, a 63-foot sportfishing yacht, and a 42-footer owned by Carlos Gavidia of Jupiter, Fla., who organized the first such Trump flotilla on Florida's Intracoastal Waterway in May.
"We will take it nice and slow heading southeast towards the Montauk Light House," Boaters for Trump wrote in a post about the event. They promised that members of the Trump family would be in attendance.
In the video, Donald Trump Jr. says, "People will join up along the way."
"Take your boat or get on your friend's boat, bring all of your flags and Trump gear to show everyone . . . how much we love and support our President!" Boaters for Trump wrote. "There's going to be prizes for the most outrageous design," the younger Mr. Trump said, and "that person is going to get to come see the president with us the next day on Saturday when he comes into town."
The event will end with a tie-up off of the Navy Road beach on Fort Pond Bay.
Leyla Marchetto, a representative of the Navy Road restaurant there, noted that the event is not affiliated with the restaurant, which is open this season by reservation only. Those who plan to cheer on the boaters from shore will not be allowed to park at the restaurant or to access the event from the restaurant. Those aboard boats will not be allowed to access the restaurant, either, Ms. Marchetto said, because of limited capacity due to Covid-19 restrictions.
"We are looking to avoid any form of overcrowding on our the property . . . as well as any kind of bottlenecking / traffic from Shore Road to Navy Road and down the dead end road leading into Navy Beach which would both block our customers as well as the residents on Navy Road and create a potentially dangerous situation where emergency access is not available in and out of Navy Road," Ms. Marchetta wrote.
TrumpStock participants who raise the most money for the president's re-election effort individually and by "bundling" . . . "five or more unique contributions" will win prizes and a chance to have their photograph taken with President Trump on Saturday, Ms. Guilfoyle says in the video. "It's going to be fun," Donald Jr. says.
Organizers have encouraged Trump supporters who live near the water parade route to cheer it on from the shoreline. They have advised boaters to launch early in the morning and to obey all maritime laws and social distancing guidelines.
Saturday's fund-raiser is to be held at the developer Joe Farrell's estate in Bridgehampton, the site of a similar event last summer. According to Newsday, "a source familiar with the planning of the event said entry is $50,000 per person or $100,000 for the opportunity to attend a roundtable discussion and meet-and-greet session with the president."
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Update: While the organizers of TrumpStock wrote that the event would end with a tie-up in front of Navy Beach, the Leyla Marchetta, a representative of the Navy Beach restaurant in Montauk wrote to clarify that the TrumpStock boat parade was not affiliated with the restaurant. In addition, the organizers of the event have changed the starting spot to Noyac Bay since this article was originally published.
