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My husband and I took the Ketchikan Duck Boat tour years ago. We had a lot of fun, but after this tragedy, we'll never do it again, if in fact, these tours are even offered.
Edit: just looked, and the Ketchikan Duck Tour is still offered.
What a horrible tragedy!! Maybe I'm in the minority, but I wouldn't have taken my family out on the water in those conditions.
IIRC, it was a sudden squall. You can't see those arrive with the naked eye - it can be pleasant on shore, and 10 minutes later the front hits the lake. But you can follow them with weather radar and the advisory had been issued.
If you sail with passengers, there's a level of care you have to provide - not just as a civil matter, but with actual criminal penalties for failing to do so. Part of that is to assess weather and sea conditions vs. your craft's seaworthiness.
If this is a true "duck boat", a navy surplus DUKW, or a modern reproduction of one, keep in mind it was designed to transport soldiers and their gear to a landing. It was not designed to be a risk-free transport for tourists. It was designed to be cheap to build in mass quantities fast and to be easy for those with little training to operate. Safety was not a prime consideration. If you land 100,000 soldiers on a beach and 200 of them get drowned due to the landing craft getting swamped, that's tolerable in war. I also rather doubt they had awnings to keep the sun off; that's what the steel helmets were for.
It's like people who take a Jeep, a tall tippy truck designed to travel over rough terrain at less than 40 mph, and drive it on the highway like it's a sports car, and roll it over at 70.
IIRC, it was a sudden squall. You can't see those arrive with the naked eye - it can be pleasant on shore, and 10 minutes later the front hits the lake. But you can follow them with weather radar and the advisory had been issued.
If you sail with passengers, there's a level of care you have to provide - not just as a civil matter, but with actual criminal penalties for failing to do so. Part of that is to assess weather and sea conditions vs. your craft's seaworthiness.
The weather coming in was known that day. They thought they could beat it I guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by turf3
If this is a true "duck boat", a navy surplus DUKW, or a modern reproduction of one, keep in mind it was designed to transport soldiers and their gear to a landing. It was not designed to be a risk-free transport for tourists. It was designed to be cheap to build in mass quantities fast and to be easy for those with little training to operate. Safety was not a prime consideration. If you land 100,000 soldiers on a beach and 200 of them get drowned due to the landing craft getting swamped, that's tolerable in war. I also rather doubt they had awnings to keep the sun off; that's what the steel helmets were for.
It's like people who take a Jeep, a tall tippy truck designed to travel over rough terrain at less than 40 mph, and drive it on the highway like it's a sports car, and roll it over at 70.
Yes, it's the same duck boats. They added the awning to keep sun off of people.
My husband and I took the Ketchikan Duck Boat tour years ago. We had a lot of fun, but after this tragedy, we'll never do it again, if in fact, these tours are even offered.
Edit: just looked, and the Ketchikan Duck Tour is still offered.
I'm guessing they've had the canopies modified somehow for easier escape. They'd have been fine if there wasn't a storm.
IIRC, it was a sudden squall. You can't see those arrive with the naked eye - it can be pleasant on shore, and 10 minutes later the front hits the lake. But you can follow them with weather radar and the advisory had been issued.
If you sail with passengers, there's a level of care you have to provide - not just as a civil matter, but with actual criminal penalties for failing to do so. Part of that is to assess weather and sea conditions vs. your craft's seaworthiness.
It wasn't a sudden squall, from what I remember there was debate about whether to take the boat out because they were expecting bad weather. At least from what I recall.
My husband and I took the Ketchikan Duck Boat tour years ago. We had a lot of fun, but after this tragedy, we'll never do it again, if in fact, these tours are even offered.
Edit: just looked, and the Ketchikan Duck Tour is still offered.
I went on a D.C. duck boat about a month after this event. The D.C. duck tour however only goes out on the Potomac and you're at most maybe 300-400 yards off the shore. I'm not super concerned about it on a river in good weather. But I wouldn't go on any kind of boat tour if thunderstorms were in the forecast.
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