Cross Channel Hovercraft

[Alan_I_W]

Not sure whether this belongs in GG but does anyone have any memories of the Monster hovercrafts? Such a shame they scrapped them. I remember just after I got my first Impreza I drove with my friend with his 405 MI16 to the south of France. August 1996 I think.

[Sixpackpert]

The plural of hovercraft is hovercraft.

[Deerfoot]

Yup, I used to use them regularly on my way to and from Detmold in Germany in the early 1990s.

[Alan_I_W]

Sixpackpert said:

The plural of hovercraft is hovercraft.

What a valuable use of time it was to type that out, slow day?

[weeboot]

Have fond memories of a holiday to Tuscany with a school friend and his parents.
Jag XJ, Hovercraft, Sleeper Autorail Bologne -> Bologna.
Fantastic memories, apart from the stifling heat and stench of vomit on the hovercraft!

[Drummond Baize]

My hovercraft is full of eels.

[motco]

I once chose to use a hovercraft to cross in the misplaced hope that it would be better for my mal de mer affliction than a ferry. Oh boy, was I wrong! It was March and very windy - almost too windy to cross. At one point I floated weightless above the seat as the craft dropped into a wave trough. That was just before I threw up my breakfast... God awful contraptions!

[dcb]

motco said:

God awful contraptions!

+1

My impression was of a high speed tin tray being bashed along the surface by the waves.
BANG BANG BANG BANG every second for an hour or so.

High speed certainly, but plenty of vibration and noise. Glad I did it, but I wouldn't
bother about any other hovercraft ever again.

Best bit was straight up onto the beach in France and drive off.

[datum77]

I believe at least 1 of the huge 4 engine ones are in a hovercraft museum near one of the places that they docked at on this side of the channel. (Gosport??)
The one they have is so huge that the inside is filled with loads of other hovercraft from the last 40 years or so.

[anothernameitist]

Princess Anne, Princess Margaret and Swift. and another small craft I forget the name of

Did most routes

Dover calais / boulogne
Ramsgate boulogne

Was fast, rough and noisy.Although once you had landed it would take me an hour to recover from the crossing, in effect nulling the speed advantage.

The catamarans that replaced them were a world apart.

[mrfunex]

The hovercraft museum is about a mile down the road from me. They have 2 of the massive cross-Channel beasts as well as several other smaller ones. You can spot them on Google Earth.

You can still get a passenger hovercraft from Southsea to Ryde if you want to experience one. It's fun, but noisy and as comfortable as a 1970s bus!

[Dave Hedgehog]

awful things

its the seacats i miss, so fast and smooth

[essIII]

Alan_I_W said:

What a valuable use of time it was to type that out, slow day?

Oh the irony, it hurts so bad .

[GetCarter]

I went to the Isle of Wight in a hovercraft as a kid. It was fking loud.

[dbdb]

I remember my parents using them when we went on holiday to France in the 'Seventies and early 'Eighties. They were certainly noisy and bumpy, but as a child I found them quite exciting.

I remember staff used to ask people if they wanted their car to be washed during the journey. My dad never took them up on this since he reckoned they'd use salt water!

[scubadude]

Unofficially the fastest hovercraft ever built. Rumoured to have been taken for a test run empty post servicing and seen off the dial speeds in excess of 100kts.

True or not these are Concorde's, faster and noisier than anything before or since... FFS Britain was Great! (once)

[Eric Mc]

I still see this at model shows sometimes -



They also did this -

[motco]

The SRN-4 is the bd! My car was strapped down tight but still managed to move so close to the car next to it that I had to wait for the owner to move before I could open my door!

[Ozzie Osmond]

motco said:

I once chose to use a hovercraft to cross in the misplaced hope that it would be better for my mal de mer affliction than a ferry. Oh boy, was I wrong! God awful contraptions!

Yes indeed. I ordered a gin & tonic on board and couldn't understand why it arrived about half an inch deep at the bottom of a plastic pint glass, with a straw. All became clear quite soon after we left the beach....

Mind you, the so-called Jetfoil wasn't much better. A Boeing creation which was supposed to offer a smooth ride. Ho-ho!

I believe they're both now to be found only in Jurassic Park.

[DJFish]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Yes indeed. I ordered a gin & tonic on board and couldn't understand why it arrived about half an inch deep at the bottom of a plastic pint glass, with a straw. All became clear quite soon after we left the beach....

Mind you, the so-called Jetfoil wasn't much better. A Boeing creation which was supposed to offer a smooth ride. Ho-ho!

I believe they're both now to be found only in Jurassic Park.

I seem to remember coming back from Ostende on a jetfoil once & feeling like a proper international man of mystery.

I also caught some of the older ferries from there as well, they were deal classy with lounge seats in wipe clean-able brown leatherette.