Duck Boat Challenge at Frensham
by David Innes 7 Apr 12:56 BST
3 April 2026
What an amazing event the Good Friday Duck Boat race is! Now on our third year the race was conceived by Frensham Pond Sailing Club as a way of bringing together club sailors with members of Sailability for close, combative racing in Hansa 303 keelboats easily recognisable by the bright sail colours.
The third year of the event was expanded to four races with a mix of triangle and windward /leeward courses. There were additional points for picking up floating ducks in Race Two, points for 360 degree turns in Race Three and, in Race Four, short windward and leeward gates to tighten up the racing leading to lots of shouting but luckily no boat contact.
There were members from all the Frensham adult racing classes represented. ILCA, Enterprise, GP14,Solo, Lark, Europe,2.4mR,RS200 as well as 303 sailors who regularly join club racing. In two seat boats most of the teams shared helming and mainsheet duties and all of them were having a ball. The wind was challenging with 14 to 26 knots south-westerly generating some large gusts as well as the odd quiet area. One 303 was too slow to dump the main and was partially swamped calling for some urgent bailing and a rather wet Jay!
The start lines were very competitive with the fleet typically splitting north and south off the line with really competitive reaches with, on one rounding, five 303's gently negotiating with each other for room.
The fun really ramped up with the duck collection race. Armed with fishing nets usually deployed to keep Sailability youth sailors engaged on light wind days and with seventy coloured ducks released on the first windward leg, a new playground version of the racing rules appeared to come into play. The big hunt was for the only high scoring green duck, snaffled by Mark and Jolyon just in front of Lisa and Moya.
Strategies varied as did compliance with the instruction that circling for multiple passes at ducks was not allowed. The duck distributor tried to even points up by lobbing ducks in front of the chasing pack and actually getting one in a boat much to the surprise of Kris and Helen. The lowest duck points scored was 6 and the highest 34 so techniques deployed were important. The third race through gates was a good test of sailing skills with two laps of tight racing resulting in the two teams going into the final race on equal points.
Chaos returned in the final race with a variety of techniques deployed for getting 360 turn points. Some maths knowledge was also being deployed trying to work out whether turns were more valuable than places with some teams just gunning for the finish. All sailors helped to put all the kit away with Sailability members showing club members how to operate C Crane and Oxford hoists and all challenged by driving unfamiliar wheelchairs along the jetties.
Pizzas and the club bar followed with the usual speeches and thanks.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Boat Name | Team | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | “Fairwinds” | Mark and Jolyon | ‑24 |
| 2 | “Sealion” | Meg and Rob | ‑23 |
| 3 | “Jaguar” | Kate and Jen | ‑8 |
| 4 | “docpaul” | Lisa and Moya | ‑5 |
| 5 | “Farnham Flyer” | Kim and Clive | ‑3 |
| 6 | “Andy the bear” | Debs and Simon | ‑1 |
| 7 | “Miranda” | Kat and Lara | 4 |
| 8 | “Hedgehog” | Judith and Alan | 5 |
| 9 | “Neil Kymatik” | Helen and Kris | 6 |
| 10 | “Blue Falcon” | John and Jay | 14 |
| 11 | “Dido” | Ann and James | 15 |
| 12 | “Rosie III” | Ali and Derek | 18 |
If you are interested in joining Frensham Pond SC or Frensham Pond Sailability please visit the FPSC website.