In article , rlong003
@maine.rr.com says...

"Dennis Pogson" wrote

Are there still any DUKW's available in the US Roger?

They are incredibly popular here. I even designed one for the company that
operates two here in Portland.

If you go to Boston on a summer day, you'll see one go by about every five
minutes. Due to their success in the tour business, all the WWII ones have
probably been snatched up and refurbished by now.

I recently read a fascinating book about ocean waves. The author spent a
several years surveying and studying beaches in the Pacific Northwest using
DUWK's in high surf and stated something that I would never have expected.
They are one of the best surf boats ever designed. The drag of the forward
wheels pulls them forward without actually surfing in such a way that they
don't pick up too much speed and risk broaching. Despite the fact that they
will sink if swamped, the author and his crew survived many years of
extensive operation in waves up to twenty feet.

The book is at my office and I'm home but I'll post the title if anyone is
interested. Well worth reading for anyone whose interests in life bring
them into contact with waves. (Would that cover anyone in this group?) Old
and probably unobtainable though.


"Waves and Beaches" by Willard Bascom is still available at Amazon. I
got my copy as a text for a summer class in coastal oceanography
at the Bodega Marine Lab in 1967. We didn't have any DUKWs, so
we had to send volunteers out into the surf with measuring rods
to get data for that part of the beach profile.


Mark Borgerson