Westport in Brief August 15 2010

Westport in Brief! EverythingWestport.com Sunday, August 15, 2010

Quick Article Index . . .

“ Bertal” wins the seventh running of the ducks at Barney’s Joy. Politics and jambalaya at the COA.

“Bertal” wins the seventh running of the ducks at Barney’s Joy. EverythingWestport.com Wednesday, August 11, 2010 Photos/EverythingWestport.com

View the photo album for this event now 88 photos | Dial-up speed | Broadband/DSL speed |

Windy course conditions and a rippling tidal flow with back eddies contributed to a come-from- behind win for duck owner Al St. John of Warren, Rhode Island. An unidentified duck, leading by 15 meters for most of the race, crashed at the wire and was swept under the boom a moment from being plucked from the water, a fate met by many.

Al St. John adopted one duck at Bayside Restaurant on Friday the 13th because his 45th wedding anniversary was on the 14th. Again, all it took was one duck. Just one.

But the race was not without its own challenges. Last minute course changes were made by race organizers trying to deal with a brisk northeast wind that almost derailed the race.

“Davinci” took second with “Aflack” rounding out the top three winners. A winning finishing time of slightly more than 10 minutes was well off the record of six minutes set last year.

4676 quackers qualified for the annual running of the ducks, a new zenith according to Gina Purtell, Sanctuary Director. “This race event continues to grow,” she said. “We sold more than 500 ducks over last year. These funds enable us to be good stewards of the properties under our care.”

A treacherous current and slippery course conditions swept hundreds of ducks under the finish boom, but “Bertal” was able to navigate the wind and waves to claim the gold and ultimately the honor as Allens Pond “Champion Ducky of the Year.”

The “stealth duck” handler, randomly selected by a computer-generated process was won by Cheryl Foley of Assonet. At purchase time Ms. Foley named her duck “Sydney”. How could she have know this covert quacker would win her lunch for 2 and free coffee for a month at F.A. Simmons Store in Adamsville!

Click here to see a list of all winners and their prizes.

The event was held at the Sanctuary by the Field House on Horseneck Road. Activities included: race broadcast, silent auction, plant live auction, barbeque, music, children’s art exhibit, games, crafts, and displays about the sanctuary wildlife and activities. “This was an effort to raise money to support environmental stewardship and conservation at Mass Audubon’s Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Dartmouth, MA,” said Becky Cushing of the sanctuary. “The 7th annual Duck Derby event grossed hundreds more than $36,000 from last year for Allens Pond, and truly represents a community effort to support the Sanctuary’s projects and introduce newcomers to what it has to offer. And because all of the prizes are entirely donated, each duck adoption fee goes toward Sanctuary projects -- many of which directly benefit the community -- including trail maintenance, the Butterfly Garden, school programs and the Junior Bird Club.”

“While this Duck Derby might be best known for its unbeatable Grand Prize, in the end it benefits more than just one lucky winner: 48 participants take home more than $8,000 in prizes; Allens Pond raises important funding to continue its conservation work; and the entire community continues to benefit from the free trails and undeveloped landscape that Mass Audubon works so hard to protect,” Cushing added.

Challenging course brings fame to the few whom could hang on. As has been the case with many of these races over the past seven years, an eager quacker takes an early lead and maintains it throughout the race. But the perils of the finishing gate are also well known and many ducks have had their hopes dashed seconds from the wire. This day a tricky northeast wind was pushing the test ducks out of the tidal current into a back eddy on the southern side of the channel, stranding them along the shoreline. Course manager Mike Sylvia moved the pack of anxious contenders to the north bank and set them free.

The unique current and wind combination caused the quakers to string out into a long, snake-like formation not seen in previous races, with the last duck finishing a full five minutes after the winner.

The herding and roundup of over 4600 ducks took kayakers to the furthest reaches of the channel and marshes, as the qwazy quackers tried to make their escape into nature’s realm.

“The attendance was great,” a smiling Purtell told the gathering later at the Sanctuary. Duckmaster Norman Buck quacked in agreement.