MO Duck boat

[nammac]

Heard something on the radio this morning about this... Sounds like there was a fierce thunderstorm that blew in after the craft was on the lake (Lake of the Ozarks IIRC). Talking about 5-6 foot swells and hurricane force winds. I'd thats indeed what happened, this is a very sad and tragic event.

The weather is both uncontrollable and unpredictable, man has known this form the earliest days... If this was a sudden and severe thunderstorm, there may have been telltale signs prior to launch. Perhaps consulting with local weather radar as well as the national weather service prior to launch could have made a difference.

But weather can change quickly in Missouri, I've seen it myself, in just minutes going from a sunny, hot, humid summer afternoon, to one heck of a wind whipped thunderstorm.

Weather radios are priceless.

Prayers to those who lost loved ones, I can't even imagine, in my worse dreams, what that must be like... Drowning has to be a horrible way to die...

So sad...

 

[11Charlie]

Prayers to those who lost loved ones, I can't even imagine, in my worse dreams, what that must be like...

It is a horrible thing to loose a child. Something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Which is why I take care of and watch the ones I have left. Priceless does not even come close to explaining it. Which is why I would have made sure they made it back even if I didn't.

 

[nammac]

It is a horrible thing to loose a child. Something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Which is why I take care of and watch the ones I have left. Priceless does not even come close to explaining it. Which is why I would have made sure they made it back even if I didn't.

Amen Brother, I'm with you there. As a responsible parent, I would have had my kids in their PFD's as soon as the wind picked up and the lake started white capping... there was no need for any life lost, just sheep being sheep...

 

[Certaindeaf]

The state of California has mandated that only virtual reality duck boat rides are possible from now on and that pajama boy clones hold their hands during this activity.














not really

 

[Argonaut]

Here is a photo of a San Francisco duck boat, look at the amount of free board and compare it to the video of the one going down. It simply was swamped by the weather.........and had insufficient pumps to deal with it. They ignored the weather forecast and the equipment couldn't deal with it, possibly the captain allowed the boat to breech starting the flooding that put it down. These boats are a bit of a canoe, narrow for there length. Obviously the crew was at fault for not ordering lifejackets put on and abandoning the boat as she foundered. It requires skill and a cool head to exit a boat as it sinks and is already underwater.......we lost a tug in a storm off Santa Barbara in 1989 ( it was 1990, the day before the Painted Cave Fire) my crew was young and all commercial divers, all got out fine but eye opening never the less.

 

[EPS]

The PROBLEM with this is the boat had a hard top on it . even if everyone had life jacket on.
They all probably wouldn't have been able to to get out .
We have all heard the airline speaches.
In the case of a water landing.
Do not inflate you life jacket inside the plane

 

[EPS]

Those duck boats are heavy.
I'm sure once it starts takeing on water it probably sank like a rock

 

[Argonaut]

Those duck boats are heavy.
I'm sure once it starts takeing on water it probably sank like a rock

They are not heavy.........and if they would have ordered abandoning the boat people would have been able to get out. That one was heavy because it was full of water. The windows are designed to push out rather easily as well as a USCG requirement. He was close to the shore and was just trying to make it in. Obviously a mistake. The interesting thing to me is it appears to still be under power shortly before going down. These have been retrofitted away from the orignal Gas 331 GMC engine (I am sure) but the ones I had used 454 marine engines, they would quit quickly with a little water on them unlike a diesel that will run as long as it can get air and fuel.

 

[EPS]

They are not heavy.........and if they would have ordered abandoning the boat people would have been able to get out. That one was heavy because it was full of water. The windows are designed to push out rather easily as well as a USCG requirement.

The only problem with thst is you have to push the windows out before it goes under water .
And if the guy didn't tell them to get out.
They all probably sat there till it was to late.
You have been around boats
And I have been around boats .a lot but the people on this thing probably haven't.
So they probably didn't realize they were in trouble till it was to late .
Then the panic started and nobody knew what to do.

 

[DirectDrive]

Sometimes stubbornness can lead to disaster.
From the video, it looked to me like the driver was dead set on getting to his normal landing.
He drove right by a dock and who knows what else.

When you're up to your neck in 6 foot rollers, beach the sonofabi_tch !
And hell, it's DUKW....he might have been able to drive out somewhere closer.
Adapt, overcome, improvise !

 

[EPS]

Sometimes stubbornness can lead to disaster.
From the video, it looked to me like the driver was dead set on getting to his normal landing.
He drove right by a dock and who knows what else.

When you're up to your neck in 6 foot rollers, beach the sonofabi_tch !
And hell, it's DUKW....he might have been able to drive out somewhere closer.
Adapt, overcome, improvise !

Yep if he wanted to he could have drove it up on any beach .that is what they were design for.
ANY PORT IN A STORM.

 

[EPS]

They have them in Seattle but I have never been on them .they had one get in a crash on the bridge a few years ago and kill some people.
Head on crash with a bus .that duck boat opened up the bus like it was a can opener.

 

[nammac]

They have them in Seattle but I have never been on them .they had one get in a crash on the bridge a few years ago and kill some people.
Head on crash with a bus .that duck boat opened up the bus like it was a can opener.

I remember that incident... Good ole 1940's American steel, cut right through that aluminum they use today on public transit busses...

 

[EPS]

 

[Argonaut]

There were many mistakes here that add up to fatalities like in many other instances. The ignoring of the weather report was the first one, then the operator handling was the next one. These sit rather high on the water acting like a sail in the wind. It would be very difficult to control in a heavy wind, I have been in situations with my sometimes top heavy salvage boats where we had to go off course just to keep the bow into the swell and wind to maintain safety. We finally found an opening where we could get turned around but I had everyone on deck and in PFD's before the attempt. We eventually got around a point on the island we were working on and made a safe anchorage. The next morning you could have water skied the 30 od miles to Santa Barbara, one of the most beautiful days I have ever experienced on the ocean. We picked up several boats in the channel that had been swamped and abandoned (one of my tugs picked up those people) the day before before continuing to our work on the Channel Islands National Park.

 

[EPS]

Yep I was working on a dragger in the Bering sea.
Years ago fishing with are A$$ in the wind when we got our net hung up on the bottom.
If huge seas had waves coming over the stern.trawl deck was full of water 3 or 4 feet deep but because we were not a bunch of idiots.we had all hatch and doors closed.
Took us over a hour to turn a round.
And pull the net loose .
Lol accully there was not much net left.
Basically just cable and chain came up

 

[EPS]

That one was pretty bad and a little bit of greed was in play they being the guys up in the wheel house wanted to save the gear.
But us down on the deck where standing by with tools . torches ready to cut the main wire.
Lol

 

[EPS]

View attachment 480826 Here is a photo of a San Francisco duck boat, look at the amount of free board and compare it to the video of the one going down. It simply was swamped by the weather.........and had insufficient pumps to deal with it. They ignored the weather forecast and the equipment couldn't deal with it, possibly the captain allowed the boat to breech starting the flooding that put it down. These boats are a bit of a canoe, narrow for there length. Obviously the crew was at fault for not ordering lifejackets put on and abandoning the boat as she foundered. It requires skill and a cool head to exit a boat as it sinks and is already underwater.......we lost a tug in a storm off Santa Barbara in 1989 ( it was 1990, the day before the Painted Cave Fire) my crew was young and all commercial divers, all got out fine but eye opening never the less.

I was in Santa Barbara that year .

 

[EPS]

There were many mistakes here that add up to fatalities like in many other instances. The ignoring of the weather report was the first one, then the operator handling was the next one. These sit rather high on the water acting like a sail in the wind. It would be very difficult to control in a heavy wind, I have been in situations with my sometimes top heavy salvage boats where we had to go off course just to keep the bow into the swell and wind to maintain safety. We finally found an opening where we could get turned around but I had everyone on deck and in PFD's before the attempt. We eventually got around a point on the island we were working on and made a safe anchorage. The next morning you could have water skied the 30 od miles to Santa Barbara, one of the most beautiful days I have ever experienced on the ocean. We picked up several boats in the channel that had been swamped and abandoned (one of my tugs picked up those people) the day before before continuing to our work on the Channel Islands National Park.

My dad had a sail boat in Channel Island marina in Ventura.
We used to go out the the islands all the time .
Mainly ANACAPA but we went to Santa Cruz a few times.

 

[Argonaut]

We worked surveying the wreck of the Triple Crown off Summerland. It had gone down decades before but had 500,000 of new anchor chain that a company wanted to recover. It went down on the first job it did (was a brand new boat) she is an anchor handling Boat built to handle the anchor systems for large floating oil platforms. She had 8 (?) chain lockers that huge stud link chain was stored in as it was deployed and retrieved from the anchoring of the platform. I think she was something like 160 feet long. They were picking the last chain and anchor (so we're heavy) when the winch operator got rough pulling it up too fast. The starboard corner of the boat was pulled underwater, not a big deal except the deck hatches to the engine room were wide open because of the warm night they were working. It immediately flooded and went down on the stern. I think one guy died.....we didn't raise the chain because it came from before the time chain certifications were required and had only scrap value in today's world. I interviewed the captain that was on board that night and several crew members in the process of the study. The winch operator went down with the boat and was recovered the next day as I remember. Everyone else was quickly picked up by other boats in the operation or swam to the Rincon Nude beach. The boat sits upright in over 200 feet of water.......the project still interests me but there isn't enough money there to support the work required. I still have a link of the chain we recovered to evaluate the value of recovering it.