PORT ANGELES — The Great Olympic Peninsula Duck Derby is going to migrate this year.
Bruce Skinner, executive director of the Olympic Medical Center Foundation, which puts on the annual fundraiser, said the 23rd annual derby will move from the Nippon Paper Industries USA mill canal in Port Angeles to either the City Pier or the Clallam County Fairgrounds across town.
The move is necessary because of the $71 million expansion of the biomass cogeneration facility at the Nippon mill at the foot of Ediz Hook.
The plastic duck races draw hundreds of spectators every year, and one of the biggest considerations in moving the event is parking space, Skinner said.
“We’re looking at a couple of sites,” he said.
“I think both have pretty much what we need.”
Event organizers will likely make a site selection Monday, Skinner added.
This year’s duck derby will be held May 13, a Sunday.
Tickets will be sold in the weeks leading up to the derby.
If the number on a ticket corresponds to the number on the rubber duck that crosses the finish line first, the holder of the ticket wins a prize.
Tom Baermann of Port Angeles won last year’s grand prize: a new Toyota donated by Wilder Toyota-Scion.
Proceeds from the event benefit the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and Sequim Rotary.
In the past, the ducks were dumped into the Nippon industrial canal and floated about 100 yards to a finish line through an oil spill boom.
Skinner said he doesn’t foresee any problems with moving the derby to either the City Pier or the fairgrounds.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
