The Huckins PT boat prioritized strength and crew endurance

The Huckins boat was a comfortable and well-regarded design with a quadraconic hull, useful freeboard, and good headroom below decks. Huckins licensed its patented laminated keel to Elco, Higgins, and the Philadelphia Navy Yard, spreading a structural improvement beyond its own boats. Accelerometers installed in competing pilot houses measured pounding during trials, giving the seakeeping comparison more substance than a simple speed contest. Crews called the Huckins boats yachts because their accommodation and ride compared so favourably with rival PT designs. Only eighteen were built despite their 40-knot speed and adaptable mix of torpedoes, 40 mm or 37 mm cannon, 20 mm weapons, machine guns, rockets, and captured anti-tank guns.