History
Cape Cod DuckmobilesTM started in 1994 when Jon and Doreen were operating a sightseeing bus on Cape Cod with Tim as the driver. At the same time the duck tours had just started in Boston. The bus tours were not doing well but the duck boats were full all the time. So Tim offered
to put up the cash to purchase the first boat for a 50% ownership in the corporation. So off to Ohio we went in the fall of 1994 to purchase the Larc (lighter Amphibious Resupply Cargo) the Viet Nam version of the dukw. The larc needed much work, so Jon Tim and Doreen went at it. Things did not go well. After convincing Seed, (an ontraponore financing agency) to lend us some money to renovate the larc, we worked tirelessly to bring the larc up to U.S. Coast Guard requirements. In August of 1995 after we maxed out every credit card we had and begged every penny we could we were finally ready to splashdown. The Coast Guard, after many hours of observation and discussion were the first ones to ride the larc in the water. With state and federal inspections done Cape Cod tours was ready for the first passengers. At the end of August 1995 we were in business.
Things went very well in the beginning despite many minor setbacks. After 13 trips there was something wrong with the transmission. Not knowing much about the transmission we were forced to quit for the season. Not making anywhere near enough money to carry us through
the off season we all had to get many jobs to pay the bills.
After a long winter and many people telling us they could help, we found a company in R.I. After many more dollars we were once again
ready to go. Our second season went much better and before we knew it we needed a second vehicle.Two years later and with bank money
we purchased two W.W.II dukws. We made one dukw out of two and this renovation was much easier and faster. After twelve years of running
a larc and 10 years of running a dukw we now average 15 trips a day.
