In this corner. . .

You can't float your noisy gas-powered racing boat anywhere in Scottsdale -- except in this little corner pond northwest of the busy intersection at Indian School Road and Hayden Road.

"We had to fight hard just to keep this place," Wayne confided this morning. "Somebody killed a couple of ducks or something, and they, well, there were people in the bushes taking our pictures and everything."
Once you've seen one of the beautiful scale model racing boats in action, screaming across the still waters, rooster tail flying, you can understand why some may take exception to their presence in the extensive city park system.
Wayne has been doing this for 30 years along with other like-minded locals who enjoy tinkering with and driving these miniature racing craft. We mentioned that we owned a battery-powered duck decoy, he wasn't impressed, but curious.
We asked for a demonstration and Wayne was pleased to oblige, firing up the white boat that he wasn't working on this morning. He pulled the starting rope, the engine roared to life, then he flung it into the water. He opened the throttle on his remote control and the model immediately responded, skimming the surface at an astonishing rate, circling past the photographer so fast he missed the shot twice in a row.

It was a stunning display of power -- noisy, exciting, dramatic, obnoxious and over as quick as it started. After a brief discussion about the weather in Minnesota and his sister who will be fleeing here soon from Wisconsin, we thanked him for his courtesy, wished him luck with city politics, and moved on.

(No ducks were harmed during this demonstration.)