The wife of a powerboat racer recounted the traumatic experience of filming her husband's high-speed crash into a houseboat, an accident that resulted in his death. Rhianon Phillips-Duncan told Suffolk Coroner's Court that she was filming her husband, tech boss Brett Duncan, 51, from the clubhouse on July 24, 2026, when his boat veered off course and collided with a moored steel-framed vessel.
Phillips-Duncan stated that the trauma of witnessing the accident at Oulton Broad near Lowestoft, Suffolk, will be "ever-lasting." She expressed surprise upon learning that her husband had not been wearing a kill switch cord, which was attached to the powerboat he had borrowed from a friend. "I told him to be careful as I always did, and he gave me one last look as he headed to the boat," she said. "When Brett went on the boat, I filmed it from the clubhouse knowing he would like to see it. I saw the boat veer off course and stop abruptly at the houseboat. Not knowing exactly what caused the accident has been difficult. He was always methodical about safety precautions."
Environmental health officer Timothy Durrell informed the inquest that Duncan had previously raced the borrowed hydroplane a month prior, and it had been fitted with a new steering damper. Video footage from Duncan's practice laps on the day of the accident showed him with his helmet visor open, as he had been struggling with fogging. He had rounded a buoy on the outside of another vessel but failed to make the turn, striking the corner of the houseboat.
Durrell confirmed that the houseboat was moored 74 meters from the turning buoy, complying with a rule requiring structures to be at least 50 meters away. There was no evidence of an engine malfunction, and the steering damper had not been removed before the crash. The owner of the houseboat, retired nurse Jackie Beech, described seeing Duncan's hydroplane approaching at high speed. She recalled him looking left at another boat just before the impact and then turning to face the houseboat, at which point she observed "a look of horror on his face."
The inquest into Brett Duncan's death from head injuries is ongoing.