Doomed duck boat's designer had no engineering training, court documents reveal

BRANSON, Mo. – The duck boat that sank in a Missouri lake last week, killing 17 people and injuring several others, was built by a self-taught entrepreneur who had little to no engineering training, according to new court documents.

Designer Robert McDowell, the former owner of Ride The Ducks, is a self-taught entrepreneur who grew up in the tourist town of Branson.

He made money by altering and manufacturing dozens of amphibious vehicles, though he lacked the proper engineering skills to do so, according to his own testimony.

In a deposition last year on a separate matter, McDowell said he taught himself how to rebuild and maintain a fleet of duck boats despite lacking any training or certification in mechanics.

McDowell managed to turn his Ride The Ducks boat business into a lucrative one before selling it in 2004.

Since then, Ride The Ducks, through its various corporate iterations, has been linked to several high-profile accidents, including last week’s horrific one that devastated an entire community. Nine of the 17 people killed last Thursday were members of the same Indiana family.

On Monday, salvage crews recovered the Ride The Ducks boat from 80 feet of murky water in Table Rock Lake, less than 10 miles from Branson.

As the vessel broke the surface mid-morning, two small American flags remained visible on the front. Unused orange life jackets dangled from the frame of the boat as a haunting reminder of the chain of events that occurred less than a week ago.

After pulling the duck boat out of the water, investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board took custody of it.

It was not clear how long the investigation will take, but similar ones have taken up to a year.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, mechanical inspector Steven Paul said he warned Ripley Entertainment, the company that operates Ride The Ducks in Missouri, about massive design flaws and dangerous safety issues almost a year before Thursday's tragic accident.

Paul, who served in the U.S. Army for six years as a diesel mechanic before opening Test Drive Technologies in 2009, told Fox he was hired by Ripley last year to inspect 24 duck boats. The Florida-based company had been interested in buying the business and wanted an assessment.

"My inspection was so they had the opportunity to know what they were buying before the sale was final," Paul said.

Paul said he sent the company a "two- to- three-page fleet inspection report" as well as 24 checklist reports and "as many as 20 photos for each duck" he inspected in August 2017. In the report, he cautioned that the boats' engines -- and pumps that remove water from their hulls -- might fail in bad weather. In rough conditions, water could get into the exhaust system, and then into the motor, cutting it off. With the motor off, its pump for removing water from the hull would not operate.

The duck boat that capsized had 31 people on board when it sank in 40-foot waters. The amphibious vessel overturned during a fast-moving summer storm that produced near-hurricane gusts that turned ripples into massive waves.

Cellphone video from a witness showed the duck boat taking on water and struggling to move before sinking, making it one of the deadliest duck boat accidents in U.S. history.

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:

Designer Robert McDowell, the former owner of Ride The Ducks, is a self-taught entrepreneur who grew up in the tourist town of Branson.

He made money by altering and manufacturing dozens of amphibious vehicles, though he lacked the proper engineering skills to do so, according to his own testimony.

In a deposition last year on a separate matter, McDowell said he taught himself how to rebuild and maintain a fleet of duck boats despite lacking any training or certification in mechanics.

Don't need that stupid schoolin', math, science 'n shit. This is just a smear job by them high falutin', uppity college boys that think they know everything. [/sarcasm]

Sold the business in 2004.

I don't see the boat as the problem in this situation. I really don't.

You put your life in someone else's hands every day.

Best evaluate every one of those choices as best you can.

And no, I am not blaming the victim's either.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:

I don't see the boat as the problem in this situation. I really don't.

But it's *not* a "boat." It's a truck that can swim under very limited conditions. They exceeded those conditions in this case. Granted, that may have only been evident in hindsight, but the vehicle was poorly designed. It had a roof and solid sides, meaning that when it took on too much water, it sank like a rock trapping many people inside.

So, the vehicle WAS the problem in this situation, IMO. . .

yeah, like the gun on the crime. I get ya.

How many thousands of trips have these vehicles been out in. Blaming the vehicle is indeed much like blaming the gun on the crime.

Weather conditions and taking a trip out without a clear plan for a worse case senario are at fault here. If you have to blame someone.

Sure as hell reads like you’re blaming the victims.

explain that to me smudge. By saying the boat is not to blame?

I just said the weather and not havinge a viable emergency and resue plan in place for a worse case senario were the cause.

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Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Sure as hell reads like you’re blaming the victims.

I would say, blaming the operator.

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Originally posted by stoic-one:

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Sure as hell reads like you’re blaming the victims.

I would say, blaming the operator.

The captain is to blame. He held a USCG license and was the one who made the decision to put the duck boat in the water.

Every vessel has operating limits and the duck boat's limits were tragically exceeded.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:

How many thousands of trips have these vehicles been out in. Blaming the vehicle is indeed much like blaming the gun on the crime.

So, how about a SIG P320 that is 100% fine, *until* it's dropped on its end triggering an ND?

Not all DUKWs are the same. Most of them are modified. IIRC from reading this thread, this particular DUKW was stretched, by somebody who had no real business doing so (he stated himself he was unqualified) (along with adding a roof and windows, increasing passenger comfort but increasing the likelihood of people drowning when it sank). I would LOVE to own an original DUKW, in milspec condition. I would paint it green and re-enact D-Day every chance I got. HOWEVER, this DUKW was NOT stock.

Just because this particular vehicle made that trip many times does NOT validate it's design. That particular DUKW was poorly modified, as this event clearly showed. A bad design doesn't always end in catastrophic failure. It could be fine the first 1, 2, or 100 times it's used, and STILL be a bad design.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
explain that to me smudge. By saying the boat is not to blame?

If you're blaming the captain, just come out and blame the captain. I was speaking more to these comments:

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
I don't see the boat as the problem in this situation. I really don't.

You put your life in someone else's hands every day.

Best evaluate every one of those choices as best you can.

And no, I am not blaming the victim's either.

Reads a bit like "you buys your ticket and you takes your choice," despite your final sentence there.

Hound Dog has it right, imo. You can't put it all on the captain, you can't put it all on the weather.

Since you want to go with the "blame the gun" analogy, let's run with it a bit, here. Say some guy buys a Glock, right? Just some random Joe Schmoe. He's not a gunsmith, he's not educated beyond what he's read on the internet. Joe Dremels out slide cuts and chops the frame down, changes out every factory part and adds aftermarket everything. Joe takes it to the range and shoots it a bunch with no problems. Joe hands the gun over to his friend on one range trip, and it blows up in their hands. Who's to blame? Joe, the gun, or his friend? Well, inanimate objects are blameless, but in my example, the gun blew up and in this story, the DUKW sank. Both, heavily modified beyond what they were designed for, to the point where safe operational limits can't really ascertained with any degree of accuracy.

Let's go even further and say that Joe only ever ran powder puff loads through his custom gun, but on this occasion, his buddy had a mag of Underwood he wanted to try in it. "Sure, should be fine" says Joe. How the fuck would he know?

Wow smudge that is hilarious. I think you mean chance, not choice. What's for lunch, round 4 or five. Oh, forget it, never mind. Yeah your right.

This was a terrible tragedy. I do not subscribe that everything bad has to be blamed on somebody. But today with the $ to be made that is a reality unfortunately.

The weather caused this accident. How and why the vehicle went out with an advisory for Thunderstorms will be where the liability is laid. Whether that is the captain or more likely the outfit collecting the fares would be my guess.
Again the boat had little if anything to do with this tragedy. imho.

I looked up the original quote, thinking it also to be “chances,” but it’s actually “choice.” Either way, it works. Cute ad hominem.

So if it was just the weather, why did the other one make it safely to shore? Just dumb luck?

Yes, they both could have made it, or both sank. It was by chance one made it or that the other did not. Had that storm not materialized it would of been another nice boat ride on the lake for all on board.

The original guy so.d out in 2004.
In the last 15 years have there been inspections of these vehicles? I expect so.
I read the conditions changed greaty after the tour started. Myself, I’d be putting on the life jacket.
I’d blame the captain for not taking safety actions, understanding the weather, and not simply running aground when it got bad.

quote:

I’d be putting on the life jacket.

Only if I was somewhere that didn't have a roof above me and/or if the flotation device was manually inflated like the old "Float coats" we used on the flight deck. Being stuck to the overhead as the boat goes down does not sound like fun to me.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Yes, they both could have made it, or both sank. It was by chance one made it or that the other did not. Had that storm not materialized it would of been another nice boat ride on the lake for all on board.

Well, for me, it all comes back to this:

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
But it's *not* a "boat." It's a truck that can swim under very limited conditions. They exceeded those conditions in this case. Granted, that may have only been evident in hindsight, but the vehicle was poorly designed. It had a roof and solid sides, meaning that when it took on too much water, it sank like a rock trapping many people inside.

So, the vehicle WAS the problem in this situation, IMO. . .

OK, everyone has their opinion.
For me it comes back to these boats or whatever you choose to refer to them as have been on thousands of water excursions with out this type of outcome. So it was the weather that caused this.

quote:

But it's *not* a "boat." It's a truck that can swim under very limited conditions.

Well not really. It was a military amphibious vehicle that is capable in pretty severe conditions. There are "copies", and there are clearly modifications that have been made to some of these.

If they were good enough for our soldiers in a war zone, on the open ocean, they are good enough for scenic lake cruises.

quote:

The duck boat that sank in a Missouri lake last week, killing 17 people and injuring several others, was built by a self-taught entrepreneur who had little to no engineering training, according to new court documents.

There are duck boats, and truck boats. The duck boat that sank was designed by professionals who designed and built yachts in conjunction with General Motors.

It may have been modified by a guy who wasn't an engineer, but it was certainly built by companies who employed many engineers.

Most importantly, it was certified by the Coast Guard for commercial passenger use on water.

quote:

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, mechanical inspector Steven Paul said he warned Ripley Entertainment, the company that operates Ride The Ducks in Missouri, about massive design flaws and dangerous safety issues almost a year before Thursday's tragic accident.

Paul, who served in the U.S. Army for six years as a diesel mechanic before opening Test Drive Technologies in 2009, told Fox he was hired by Ripley last year to inspect 24 duck boats. The Florida-based company had been interested in buying the business and wanted an assessment.

A diesel mechanic? Not somebody, say for example, that is familiar with boats? I say this because I saw an interview with this guy. He claims the exhaust, which was ported beneath the water level, was dangerous. I have owned a few boats, all of which ported exhaust under water, and none of which sank.

Unless this guy has any experience with military amphibians, they shouldn't have wasted their money paying him to inspect something he was clueless about.

The boat clearly took on water that it could not pump out. The investigation will find that there was something out of whack which allowed the DUKW to flood, and I strongly suspect that the Higgins pump was not functioning as it should have been.

For those who insist that these professionally designed, professionally built war machines are not capable of swimming capably, I give you the following video. The Coast Guard demonstrating how they could use these in very adverse conditions for sea rescue work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tLganatyDU

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Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by stoic-one:

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Sure as hell reads like you’re blaming the victims.

I would say, blaming the operator.

The captain is to blame. He held a USCG license and was the one who made the decision to put the duck boat in the water.

Every vessel has operating limits and the duck boat's limits were tragically exceeded.

I would have to agree.

Situations like this is why I wont ride any of these tourist traps

Years back they had a sight seeing helicopter go down in the same area.

Ive watched these sight seeing helicopters before. They are so busy they didnt shut down the engine between rides. I bet they ran that thing non stop all day.