The 6 Knots Boat Cruise takes all the best elements of its surrounds and offers a unique experience with a select crew of DJs serving a soundtrack to an afternoon and evening aboard a gorgeous multimillion dollar multilevel vessel with the sole purpose of sweeping along Gold Coast’s beautiful Broadwater. With the hype surrounding its successful maiden voyage not too out of range, the journey resumes with all hands on deck for another evening of excellence.

The first thing one notices is just how well appointed the ship is, but soon in tow comes the minor explorations and pre-requisite crowd watching. This is the Gold Coast after all and its sprawling leisure character ensures a lot of care has gone into appearance and the swath of oversize sunglasses masks as much as highlights those in attendance. Also expected amongst those in attendance is the peppering nautical themes and outright pirate outfits. With all soon aboard and the moorings cast off, the boat make moves for full speed and the milling crowd instinctively gravitates towards the position of choice. With the DJs set up amongst the seating and the bar in the main cabin, the front and top decks offer the ideal social aspects, and an uninterrupted view of the beautiful surrounds.  

A simple spread of Mackie speaker provide ample sound and volume in the heart of the cabin, to which the attention goes form purchases at the bar to Le Bad Krokadilies, who step up with a muffled microphone intro which suggests some mish-mash fun ahead. The spontaneous and one would hope inebriated falsetto singing proves oddly amusing alongside tracks like the classic Grandmaster Flash hiphop anthem ‘White Lines’ and indeed the future bubblegum pop classic by Annie with, given some of the fashion onboard, the most appropriate title; ‘Chewing Gum’. The tracks jump and the boys visible are having fun whilst the crowd seem happily dispersed in and on the boat with the distinct fashionable flair that gets photographers ready to rapid fire as the sun threatens to set on a golden horizon.

Hours get lost as sunglasses come off and with it perhaps some of the reservations and pretensions which were evident earlier. Some rather odd behaviour peppers the night, with confused glances from the staff on the bbq as some rather odd individuals think it amusing to throw piles of bread at each other. Similar behaviour from others adds a somewhat incongruous character to the early evening given the other extreme of a number of people simply perching with great care to look leisurely fashionable. In between these outliers of ‘common’ and ‘delicate’ people, which perhaps are only so noticeable given the restrained proximity of being on a boat with them, lies a vast number of incredibly fun people having incredible amounts of fun. The boat is well underway but the party is just getting loose.

The pace picks up yet again with Audun and Tomas J on deck playing what appears to be an entirely vinyl derived set of electronic house and similarly veined edgy prog. Almost perfectly on cue the duo soundtracks the final setting sun with the boat moving well into the Broadwater and leaving the bemused fishing boats and family day trippers behind. Audun and Tomas J move comfortably into jacking electro and suffer the almost ironic problem of having made the boat dance to such a degree that stomping feet leads quickly to skipping records… though one might offer perhaps the sound of records skipping being a punctuation mark of hot tunes. Run with that shall we? Hard work for the DJs to keep in check in any case but an impressive set.

Whilst many seemed casual party people making the most of a beautiful boat experience, the trainspotters and 24 hour party people were abundant, with a noticeable cheer going up to the pair’s selections such as the Trentemoller remix of ‘Friday‘, summing up the vibe of the set for chinstrokers and clubbers alike. It pays to mention again that their set was predominantly if not entirely played from vinyl which is an increasing rarity in cutting edge styles such as electronic house and the sharper crossovers of prog. The pair worked effortlessly together with the occasional smile at the setting sun and assembled party people kicking it up a gear in a very literal sense.

With the sun truly gone off to bother some other part of the world, the wind on the front and top deck moving from cool to cold, and the bar stock extremely lower then upon boarding, Audun and Tomas J grin at their final applause and introduce Scott Walker and Rasp, both being as much a mainstay of the Gold Coast electronic music scene as their home quarters in Brisbane. Watching Scott and Rasp in an unrestrained fun mode is an interesting sight, with the theatrical fader and fx work and one-upmanship track selection infecting the crowd with smiles and urging them up on the seats in a final display of dancing debauchery. The pair drop their respective sounds, with Scott giving Cirez D’s ‘Diamond Girl’ a smashing and Rasp with a nasty BLIM remix with a title that washes away on the white-water trailing the smoothly cruising vessel. Oh yes, fancy ways to write away the diminishing ability to train-spot and the increasing propensity to simply get loose are all the rage and barely a chin got stroked for the rest of the evening.

A slightly earlier docking enticed some to start disembarking ahead of plan, with many of the more musically driven staying exactly where they were for the duration of the Rasp and Walker back to back. There is a clock ticking and the set comes to an end with the anthem of Chris Source’s ‘Hugs and kisses’ getting those final cheers and smiles. The party moves on reluctantly to the appropriate setting of Elsewhere, where yet more adventures take place but for the boat, the emptied bar and the tired crew, the memories are saved and the experience is indeed truly unique. Given the interesting mix of participants and DJs alike, the stunning setting and the novelty of the entire experience, the 6 knots boat cruise is certainly one to look out for.