THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160288
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
DUCKs and tourists will take to resort waters Saturday for a joy ride inspired by World War II amphibious operations.
The DUCK, or DUKW as it was dubbed by the U.S. government in the mid-1940s, has been spruced up, refitted and is ready to haul up to 30 paying passengers along Oceanfront streets and Linkhorn Bay.
More than 50 years after rolling off General Motors assembly lines, the ungainly machines will transport rubbernecking civilian passengers instead of armed troops and war materiel.
This latest wave of resort entertainment is spearheaded by Thomas M. Mountjoy, president of Spirit Marine Co. and Recreational Concepts Inc., Norfolk-based companies that operate cruise ships and recreational boats from ports across the nation.
Mountjoy also is a main player in an ongoing campaign to get riverboat gaming legislation passed in Virginia.
Selling amphibious tours to summer visitors won't be DUCK soup, Mountjoy realizes. Other thrill and amusement rides introduced to the resort strip in recent years - the Wild Thing and Beach Bungee, for example - have since departed, victims of financial difficulties.
Wild Thing was a high-speed passenger boat that zipped up and down the city's ocean shoreline. Beach Bungee offered customers a fall from a high platform at Rudee Loop while tethered only to an elastic line.
Mountjoy's DUCK service should start Saturday from a pickup point at 19th Street and Pacific Avenue, the old Dome site. The tab will be $12.95 for adults and $8.95 for children. Discount rates will be available for groups and senior citizens. (For more information, call 623-1100).
One of Mountjoy's DUCKs made a big splash Monday in Linkhorn Bay for media members and city officials. On board at the time were City Councilman William W. Harrison Jr.; James B. Ricketts, director of the city's Convention and Tourism Development Bureau; and Assistant City Attorney Randy Blow.
``When we were kids I used to see these things running up and down Atlantic Avenue with troops in 'em,'' said an enthusiastic Harrison. ``I never thought I'd be riding in one.''
Mountjoy said he borrowed the idea of using DUCKs to ferry tourists from ``Ride the Ducks,'' a Branson, Mo., company headed by Robert McDowell, who has been operating a fleet of 20 for recreational boating on lakes and waterways around Branson for two decades.
Mountjoy is leasing four of McDowell's motorized amphibians for his Virginia Beach operation this summer.
``I was standing by the lake talking, when I saw this big vehicle loom up beside me, '' he said. ``It rolled into the water and it really sparked my imagination.''
The vehicles, once used to haul GIs and supplies to the bullet-raked Normandy beaches, will quietly ply Atlantic and Pacific avenues. They'll then head for Linkhorn Bay. From a Seashore State Park boat ramp at the end of 64th Street, the vehicles will take to the water for leisurely 15- to 20-minute tours of the surrounding shoreline, just like their feathery namesakes. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Staff
The vehicles, which hold 30, will ply Atlantic and Pacific avenues
and Linkhorn Bay.
DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Staff
James B. Ricketts, right, director of Virginia Beach's Convention
and Tourism Development Bureau, takes a test ride Monday. Behind him
is Thomas M. Mountjoy, who is leading the amphibious-tours venture.
by CNB