Tipping is encouraged mofo!
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Duck Tour operator's innovative use of a stick for cruise control. All we want to know is, is that thing USCG approved?
B est known today as the quacking, gridlock-inducing distraction for your boss's out-of-town guests, the Duck Tours have grown frighteningly in popularity in recent years.
Today's Duck fleets were engineered and built with technology dating from the 1930’s. Long before it became a tourist attraction, the DUKW was developed and prototyped for the US Army in just two months in preparation for the Allied invasion of Europe. Underneath the DUKW is a standard military truck—the GMC 353 series. Take a 2½ ton military truck, strip the body off, wrap a boat hull around the chassis, add a propeller and presto—you’ve got an amphibious landing craft!
When the Army first saw the prototype, they were none too happy. Resembling a bathtub on wheels, it was found to be neither a very capable truck or boat. The inventor, frustrated, impatiently told them that “it floated better than a truck, and drove along a road better than a boat”, and so they bought it, eventually building more than 20,000. The DUKW's were later used to deliver munitions, supplies and troops from ships at sea to shore in landings in the Pacific, North Africa and on D-Day in Normandy.
Four decades later, the Ride The Ducks franchise (www.ridetheducks.com) began amphibious sightseeing tours using surplus DUKW's in Branson, MO. In 1999 they received US Coast Guard approval to launch the "Stretch Duck" which greatly increased the carrying capacity of the original WWII design and is now in common use. This franchise has since expanded to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Memphis and Seattle. Today their fleet exceeds 75 vehicles and carries more than one million quacking tourists each year. At $24-35 a head, the Ride the Duck is a multi-million dollar enterprise.
The average Duck fueled and loaded with 30+ passengers weighs well in excess of 10 tons. Powered by thundering 8-cylinder gas or diesel engines, the Duck produces emissions on par with a city bus. In fact, most require a bus-type Public Service Vehicle license in addition to a passenger-use boat license. If the bad Motown, Village People and assorted late '60s era schmaltz blaring over the Duck's PA system weren't enough, its engine noise level can exceed 100 decibels under full acceleration. This is equivalent to the noise produced by a jackhammer. To top it off, the Duck commits the cardinal sin of supplying dozens of children and adults with duck whistles.
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As one might expect, speed is a problem for the Duck. In many locations the Duck is banned from use due to its very poor in-water performance. With a top speed of 4-5 knots the craft can barely make headway against even modest currents. At their full capacity the Ducks float—just. The freeboard is less than 24", making the vessel vulnerable to being swamped by as little as a 2' wave produced by a small boat wake.
Unbeknownst to tourists, the Ducks possess a serious design flaw that makes them extremely vulnerable in the water, of all places. A flexible rubber boot is used to seal the propeller shaft where it exits the hull and connects to the front axle (see Figure 3, 4a-b below. Source: US Coast Guard, Dec 1999). Click for larger view:
The failure of this boot was the ultimate cause of 13 deaths when a Duck dubbed the "Miss Majestic" sank in Hot Springs Arkansas in 1999. The failure of this seal allowed approximately 220 gallons of water per minute to flow unabated into the hull. The failure analysis by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) estimated the time to sinking in this accident was an astonishing 6 minutes. Even more disturbing, the USCG determined that the vessel sank in less than 30 seconds after the captain realized the vessel was in distress. Subsequent to this incident, fear of a boot failure has led many Duck operators to add up to six electric bilge pumps in addition to the existing mechanical Higgins pump.
A similar event occurred just two years later in Seattle, WA where a Duck Tour boat sank to the bottom of Lake Union. Luckily no one was injured in this accident. Empty and under tow, the Duck filled with water and sank like a stone in front of a restaurant full of onlookers. "When it went, it went real fast," remarked Michael O'Dell, the manager of Ivar's Salmon House. Details surrounding the sinking of the vessel are sketchy, but the USCG ordered the Ducks of Seattle to suspend operations until the cause of the accident could be determined. After a perfunctory investigation the Seattle Ducks resumed tour operations without public disclosure of repairs or modifications made to the fleet to prevent future accidents. Precisely why the USCG continues to green light these aging vessels remains a mystery.
Independent Duck tour companies operate worldwide in major metropolitan centers and are limited only to cities with an accessible harbor, lake or river. Today this includes cities such as Boston, San Francisco, Portland, Austin, DC, Wisconsin Dells, Palm Beach, Chicago, Miami, Pittsburgh, Halifax, Victoria, Dublin, London and Liverpool among others. Your city could be next!
In the US send letters, postcards, recipes etc. to:
Ride The Ducks
Ride The Ducks International, LLC
5445 Triangle Parkway, Suite 200
Norcross, GA 30092
1-678-993-1900
info@ridetheducks.com
The Duck truly is a global phenomenon—and the scourge is spreading. We need you in the fight.
Fight Back — Join the Resistance!
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