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posted by martyb on Thursday July 26 2018, @08:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-it-walks-like-a-duck,-sinks-like-a-duck,-oh,-wait... dept.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The duck boat that sank in a Missouri lake last week, killing 17 people, was built based on a design by a self-taught entrepreneur who had no engineering training, according to court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

The designer, entrepreneur Robert McDowell, completed only two years of college and had no background, training or certification in mechanics when he came up with the design for "stretch" duck boats more than two decades ago, according to a lawsuit filed over a roadway disaster in Seattle involving a similar duck boat in 2015.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by RS3 on Thursday July 26 2018, @01:24PM (1 child)

    by RS3 (6367) on Thursday July 26 2018, @01:24PM (#713073)

    I'm not a boat designer, and I'd love it if someone here on SN is and would comment.

    One point: that the duck boats are fairly flat bottomed most definitely does not make them more stable. It may intuitively seem that way on fairly flat calm water, but wave energy is very vertical- up and down motion / energy, and unpredictably uneven. A more "V" shape deflects the wave energy / momentum, rather than pushing up on one side or the other, rocking the boat.

    Duck boats are fairly narrow too. A very square shape with the same surface area would be less prone to capsize.

    Most boat loads are above the waterline, and adding load pretty much always raises the center of gravity, increasing the likelihood of capsize. Add these things up and you have a disaster waiting to happen.

    I don't know who approves boat designs but I blame whoever / whatever does.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @10:07PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @10:07PM (#713387)

    Having seen said boats in person. The water goes up above the wheel well. They are meant to go slow and in shallow water.

    They have been operating for well over 30 years. Sounds like they exceeded the design. Probably overconfidence.

    However, in Branson there is a lot of homegrown sorts of things like that. It is a tourist trap. Avoid them. Frankly I am surprised there was not a larger accident earlier and the fact it made national news at all.

    That town is the only place I have seen a Ferrari parked in front of a single wide trailer.