What's it Take to Win a Black Duck?  Ken Howe asked.

Some come to Duck Dodge to race.  Most come to party.  A few get excited about the theme of the night.  WYC's Deception, skippered by Alexia Fischer, has made an effort to be both the fasted boat and the best dressed this summer.  Unlike other WYC boats, the crew of Deception tries to follow the theme of the night.  The crew are pirates on a pirate ship for pirate night, A dead celebrity on the Titanic (a dead celebrity too) for Dead Celebrity night.  The crew dress as kids in formals on Prom Night, and wear sheets for Toga night.  The competition for the black duck is fierce because it is awarded mostly to the biggest screw up of the night so it is sometimes hard to get noticed.  When Deception came to the race covered with card board pieces converting it to a pirate ship the boat was finally too hard to ignore.  The card board captain's cabin surrounding the cockpit made it hard to steer around the other boats and the cardboard cannons got in the way of the jib sheets.  Not only did we win the coveted black duck but later we were given a second for all the effort Alexia put into creating the look.

I found sailing in costume was a problem.  The leather boots of my pirate costume were too slick for the deck and the long Jack Sparrow wig was blown into my mouth the whole race.  Wearing a GoPro camera chest harness conflicted with the look but it did let me capture the action like the two boats almost hitting off our bow. Like my costume that I kept taking apart, Deception kept shedding her cardboard.  The bowsprit fell off by the first buoy.  The card board cannons had to be repaired  and a small round hole had to be cut in the stern cardboard about waist high.  A working window could have served the same purpose but that was not part of the design.

At the raft up after the race Duck Dodge virgins make the required walk of boat to boat to kiss the skipper or if the skipper allows it kiss the mast instead.  This is the time to compare costumes with the other crews.  Some Duck Dodge regulars get into dressing the part but most don't dress the boat.  Flying a pirate flag just didn't compare to making the boat one big cardboard pirate ship.

-Ken Howe, Summer 2012