Gone But Not Forgotten - The Cross Channel Hovercraft

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
  • For those that don't mind watching footage from yesteryear, here is a film presented by Matt Hayes which features the Cross Channel Hovercraft.

ความคิดเห็น • 112

  • @danielhoffmann67
    @danielhoffmann67 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +43

    This is by far one of the best documentations about the famous SRN4 and the Hoverspeed Cross Channel Service I've seen so far. So sad that almost all SRN4 have been scrapped. There's only one left: The Princess Anne at the Hovercraft Museum in Lee-on-the-Solent.

  • @dfolt
    @dfolt ปีที่แล้ว +31

    6:47 just waiting for him to spill the tea over the cabin chief's uniform. 😮
    How I miss the S.R.N.4 - those hovercraft were from an era when the sky was the limit: the moon landing, Concorde, Boeing 747 and hovercraft cross-channel. It all happened around the time when I was ten. Had the opportunity to do several crossings from 1976 onwards, even in the N500 naviplane.
    Qualitywise, this film has been one of the best on YT. Thank you!

    • @CatatonicImperfect
      @CatatonicImperfect หลายเดือนก่อน

      haha, he looks like someone trying to pick up a reluctant girl with how close he's leaning in, all swaying back and forth, drink in his hand.

  • @richardharris7214
    @richardharris7214 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    Good video, very instructive.
    I was a cadet with Shell in the mid 70s, on the bridge of a supertanker navigating very slowly down The Channel, at night, in thick fog. We all became aware, and somewhat alarmed, at a sudden crescendo of noise emanating out the fog from astern. Before we could think of what on Earth it could be this SRN4 hovercraft charged out of the fog in a great cloud of lit up spray, crossed very close behind us, and was swallowed back into the gloom as quickly as it had appeared. The Captain was not best pleased that the radar operator had failed to spot the hovercraft and warn him, but I think the rate at which the radar 'blip' was moving across the screen, compared to every other vessel, was so fast that it had been dismissed as a false return echo.

  • @idickens1
    @idickens1 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

    Remember taking one when the channel was very choppy. It had to travel at half speed (so the crossing time was the same as the ferry) and quickly became a ‘vomit comet’! Stuck in your seat with folk chundering in to their brown paper bags was less than pleasant. But most of the time, it was quick, efficient and part of the holiday adventure.

  • @christophermaer8880
    @christophermaer8880 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    I wish this hovercraft in service again it’s such a amazing machine it should bring this back again

  • @carlphillips3399
    @carlphillips3399 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I've lived in Dover all my life. God i miss these hovercrafts so much! I can still remember the smell of the jet fuel and sea spray it takes me back to my childhood. Used to do a non lander with my mum for £1!

  • @bigdmac33
    @bigdmac33 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    I really miss these type of presentations, where fun and enthusiasm for the subject is so evident and where you learn piles of stuff. The presenter really brings you along with him in his exploration while making the whole presentation so enjoyable. Today's equivalent, by comparison, so "fact" driven, can appear so reserved and even staid.

    • @television1066
      @television1066  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Many thanks. Hope to post some more of these in the coming weeks. All of us on the crew always felt so very lucky to be there for these types of shoots. Loved every minute of it.

    • @mrbojangles8133
      @mrbojangles8133 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      unfortunately now the orders are present this like you're dead inside

  • @machosker
    @machosker 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    I remember my grandparents going on this there was a picture of them standing in front of it. It was sometime in the late 1980s. They brought me a model of it as a present.

  • @southcalder
    @southcalder 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Those car alarms on the deck remind me of a camping trip on Mull a few years ago. It was a foggy morning, and emerging from the mist was the serenade of car alarms as the morning ferry from Oban made its way into port. Every morning was like that.

  • @TonySMotorcyclePassion
    @TonySMotorcyclePassion 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    really enjoyed this. . Was on the hovercraft from Dover to Calais back in the early 70,s ( a young 20,s something traveling for the first time.) From NZ .I remember quite a rough trip but loved it.

  • @SimonZimmermann82
    @SimonZimmermann82 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Gone and indeed forgotten. Like the British it used to be. Heathrow is Pakistan. So it's Birmingham and Manchester. Gone and forgotten

  • @Yappari
    @Yappari 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    In the 80s, we once sailed on our small sailboat from Calais to Dover in pea-soup fog. These hovercrafts were The Best navigation aids as their tremendous noise !! helped us moving in the right direction.
    Always remember, always thankful.

    • @OmmerSyssel
      @OmmerSyssel 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      No sailor are capable of navigating by noise in foggy weather! Rather the exact opposite happens ...
      Often extremely scaring experience, while it's impossible to predict where other vessels are situated!

  • @richcarter2294
    @richcarter2294 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Just stumbled across this video. Amazed by the clarity of the film, as so many other records of the SRN4 are so amateur and grainy! I rode the Hoverspeed service back in the mid 90's and it was such an amazing experience. We actually had a really rough crossing, with the skirt of the craft coming up above the window level as we rode the waves. I recall the Captain giving several public service announcements of how the craft was well within its capacities, but for many it was a wild ride. It's an amazing piece of engineering and also at a scale that's hard to comprehend unless your stood next to or on board of it. These machines were really big. Thanks for putting this video up.

  • @kkiwi54
    @kkiwi54 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I've been on them a couple of times - strange that they've gone now 🤔

  • @markg660
    @markg660 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Wow …. I used this service from Dover to Calais in 1990 when there was no work in UK so we went ‘abroad’ to France / Belgium and Holland for business. One evening it was mill pond calm and we shot across as if on afterburners. I think under 25 minutes. Nothing like it since - how did we fail as a nation not to take this forward ?

  • @Faulty720
    @Faulty720 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Shame its gone now. Speedferries was hopefull as well but was squashed by the slow big boys of the drudgery of standard ferries

  • @RayGurd
    @RayGurd 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Great video, I travelled on a hoverlloyd when I was young, it was bad weather and returning to Ramsgate I remember going past the seaspeed that had got stuck on a sand bank, I think it was the year of the fastnet race disaster, due to bad weather. I have been to the hovercraft museum in Lee on solent several times I love it, the open day is amazing, last year I took family there and had a ride on the hovercraft that normally goes from Southsea to Ryde, but on the open day they do full speed 360° spins, and turn of the hover to show how it floats like a boat, high speed run up to the museum. So cool.

  • @Bulletguy07
    @Bulletguy07 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    By far the best cross channel trip I ever did was on the Hovercraft. Super quick crossing and no silly customs nonsense like you always got at Dover port coming off ferries. Just drive straight out from the Hovercraft terminal on to the main road. It was a sad day when we lost the option of Hovercraft crossing.

    • @drips1030
      @drips1030 ปีที่แล้ว

      Why did they stop do you know please??

    • @NeungView
      @NeungView 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@drips1030Too expensive. Used way too much fuel. Also, could not compete on speed after the channel tunnel was inaugurated.

  • @keithskelhorne3993
    @keithskelhorne3993 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I still get a hovercraft to Southsea once a week :) oh and back lol

  • @Lensman864
    @Lensman864 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I also went to France on one and I have Super-8 cine film of its arrival taken by me; my earliest film/video recording.
    Good luck seeing out of the windows once on the water though ... much spray!

  • @EleanorPeterson
    @EleanorPeterson 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Scary thought: Elon 'Ego' Muskrat will see this and suddenly realise that HE invented the hovercraft in a dream several years ago, and gave it to the world. He'll release an all-electric stainless-steel Teslovercraft with autopilot within 18 months, with prices starting at just $499,999.95.
    Probably. Perhaps. Definitely. Maybe. Allegedly.🙄

  • @Evilroco
    @Evilroco ปีที่แล้ว +7

    I remember going to France as a young boy on one of these , great experience

    • @television1066
      @television1066  ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Me too. Best part of the holiday by a country mile!

    • @jimdevlin2138
      @jimdevlin2138 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Me too😁

  • @fasthracing
    @fasthracing 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Used to drink fuel

  • @garyhadaway2253
    @garyhadaway2253 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I went on a SRN5 in 1966 from Ramsgate Harbour to Deal. I was 7 years old and thrilled to bits 👏🏻. 1969 me my Dad and Aunt went on an SRN4 from Pegwell bay to Calais. Swift and Sure the two hovercraft used by Hoverloyd. On the crossing the front skirting on the port side tore right where we were sitting and we were moved to the Starboard rear to take the weight off the damaged area. When you’re 10 it’s exciting, my Aunt was terrified 😬.

  • @jamesnewman4351
    @jamesnewman4351 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Wonderful video , thanks for this !
    In 1977 i was 7 and had the honour to fly on Princess Anne just before she was stretched❤❤

  • @iana6713
    @iana6713 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    What an incredible sight one of those things must've been under full power, blasting across the surface of the Channel. Fascinating video, and that cockpit tour is a study in contrasts - the almost 1940's-style controls for the pilots, and the (for the time) up to date computer-controlled radar system for the navigator. I would have loved to have seen one of these in service!

  • @jm252
    @jm252 28 วันที่ผ่านมา

    1975.. I went on "Sure" and "Swift"..... Loved them! I was only 10 years old!

  • @petertwinn786
    @petertwinn786 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Definitely the best way of crossing the channel.

  • @davidjefferis4467
    @davidjefferis4467 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I used the big hovercraft regularly back in the day. Sad to see it go., but the tunnel eventually made for a simpler and quicker trip.

    • @jeritilley
      @jeritilley ปีที่แล้ว

      Is a trip through the Channel Tunnel actually quicker than the hovercraft used to be? I seem to remember that the hovercraft was faster,
      Jerry

    • @davidjefferis4467
      @davidjefferis4467 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@jeritilley Probsbly about the same total time, though as it happens I only made hcraft trips in calm weather and low tide. Bit overall the tunnel has been a better crossing.

  • @WolfiePeters
    @WolfiePeters ปีที่แล้ว +2

    We used it regularly, Calais to Dover, a fantastic way to cross the Channel, fast and frequent.

  • @Wichelroede
    @Wichelroede ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Imagine this footage being 30 years old…

    • @television1066
      @television1066  ปีที่แล้ว +5

      About 20 years old. The scarey thing is it feels like yesterday.

    • @Wichelroede
      @Wichelroede ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@television1066 Max. 25 years old.
      There is a BMW E46 in it.

    • @nygelmiller5293
      @nygelmiller5293 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Imagine this footage being 30 years old? How do you mean?

  • @RichR-z6w
    @RichR-z6w 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I remember being on a ferry from France in 1990 and watching a hovercraft leave about 20 minutes after us, catch us and overtake in about 10 minutes, then disappear into the distance.

  • @davidb3172
    @davidb3172 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I saw these wonderful craft from the Methane Progress and other tankers in the Channel. SRN = Saunders Roe Nautical.

  • @WolfhandsYouTube
    @WolfhandsYouTube หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great documentary of a by-gone British beast. The presenter does get rather close to people's faces when he's talking to them though lol

  • @flybobbie1449
    @flybobbie1449 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I wonder if the 12 foot club existed.

  • @sydive130
    @sydive130 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Matt Hayes, used to love his fishing programs and as for SRN4 Mountbatten class hovercraft, dad would take us to Pegwell bay when we were kids, used to blow my mind 😂

    • @tylerama
      @tylerama 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      The old hoverport at Pegwell became a kart track in the early nineties. Had a lot of fun there.

  • @tedf1471
    @tedf1471 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Very noisy trip, like an out of control country bus! Exciting when sea is choppy, one crossing ripped its skirt but we limped on to France, miss it.

  • @mandoprince1
    @mandoprince1 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Never got to go on a SRN4, but did go on the much smaller SRN6 over the solent. LOud and a bit bumpy, but great fun!

  • @jonlord9050
    @jonlord9050 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    These craft should have been taken on for cross Solent travel, I’d put money on it any idea would have been stopped by the ferry companies. Such a sad loss.

    • @ANDREWLEONARDSMITH
      @ANDREWLEONARDSMITH 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      There is one still operating in the Solent.

    • @oldlordys
      @oldlordys 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Not for car transporting though, they are foot passenger only.

  • @59patrickw
    @59patrickw ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I remember them going out of pegwell by near ramsgate and trips to the goodwin sands

  • @selwynlambert1868
    @selwynlambert1868 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Fun Fact-SRN4 "The princess Anne" is STILL the fastest "vehicle" across the Channel in 22mins.

  • @mohdnasir5140
    @mohdnasir5140 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    The SRN4 is powered by four Bristol Siddeley 'Marine Proteus' gas turbine engines, each one driving a variable pitch propeller mounted on a pylon.

    • @ANDREWLEONARDSMITH
      @ANDREWLEONARDSMITH 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Do they have a seperate engine for the fan blowers or are these electrically driven?

  • @geoffreywallace9432
    @geoffreywallace9432 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I love travelling by ferry from Dover to Calais. Would have loved to travel on the hovercraft.

  • @purpleaurorahomeandgarden
    @purpleaurorahomeandgarden 17 วันที่ผ่านมา

    They still run from portsmouth

  • @jonnyvloggeruk
    @jonnyvloggeruk 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    A modern version of this should be built with fuel efficient engines to make it more economical to run. A great machine.

    • @television1066
      @television1066  2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Wouldn't that be wondeful. I wonder if there are any engineers out there who might have some thoughts

  • @finnmeister
    @finnmeister 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    As a kid, I was fortunate to go on holidays abroad which required getting across the channel via Hoverspeed and there was nothing, absolutely NOTHING, like sitting in the car on that tarmac runway waiting for one of these things to come off the horizon. When it arrived, just feet away, it was all sound and fury and scared the crap out of me. Just epic.

  • @bigal3940
    @bigal3940 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Great video, thanks for sharing x

  • @yazoo13127
    @yazoo13127 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    is WONDERFULL VIDEO KISS FROM FRANCE

  • @andreas1963ap
    @andreas1963ap 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    In the late 80´s I had the pleasure to fly with " Princess Anne " from Calais to Dover and back again. I´m still impressed by this beauty to this day. Today I finally managed to buy the airfix modell at ebay auction. With this model I will always reminded of this spectacular experience. Thanks for this video and regards from germany.

    • @nygelmiller5293
      @nygelmiller5293 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Somewhere I have a picture from a magazine, of one of these in the harbour on dry land - with "city gents" in their "uniform" of jackets, bowler hats, and pinstriped trousers walking beside it!

  • @Hammertime054
    @Hammertime054 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    7 tons?🤔🤔 @2.36

  • @briantheminer
    @briantheminer หลายเดือนก่อน

    I went on it a couple of times whilst working on the Channel Tunnel, finish night shift, Do a “non lander” to get booze, and back to bed by 10.30.
    Once the wind was so bad we came through the Dover harbour entrance sideways, the captain announcing there would be no more hover service that morning

  • @patricksmith4424
    @patricksmith4424 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    They made a big mistake in not configureing them as passenger only. Total waste lifting tons of cars, ships do that much better. They could have linked them in with the trains to make quick times to Europe.

  • @tonymatthews7342
    @tonymatthews7342 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great memories remember Pegwell Bay Ramsgate to Calais had to return once to Calais due to skirt deflating.

  • @grahamunderwood9353
    @grahamunderwood9353 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    sadly gone

  • @L_U-K_E
    @L_U-K_E 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Very interesting.

  • @nicholasbell9017
    @nicholasbell9017 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I think there are one or more of these at Lee-on-Solent, the hovercraft museum.
    Cockpit instruments from a Sunderland!! Wow, that's 1940's stuff. I was told that the propellers were from the Bristol Britannia airliner.
    Anyone know what the engines were, and when was the last one retired?

    • @Wichelroede
      @Wichelroede ปีที่แล้ว

      en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoverspeed

    • @tomroland5467
      @tomroland5467 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Powered by four Bristol Siddeley Proteus Gas Turbines. Bristol Siddeley were eventually purchased by Rolls Royce. From experience I can tell you they would have consumed a lot of fuel.

    • @television1066
      @television1066  ปีที่แล้ว

      Thanks Tom, and yes I think they did.

  • @barnojackson4921
    @barnojackson4921 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    love them!

  • @Spookieham
    @Spookieham 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I travelled on them a few times. Very quick but noisy and a bit bumpy. Gone now

  • @damienhill6383
    @damienhill6383 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I've driven a full size tour coach in there, back in the 1980's, I think it could take two coaches one behind the other in the centre of the deck for balance ..

  • @delhog6161
    @delhog6161 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    But what did you catch? I didn’t see any fishing tackle 🤭

  • @luiscarlosencina2697
    @luiscarlosencina2697 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    You studied foul it’s not you that I wand see but but what are tou looking that’s intrusting not you

  • @johngreen6191
    @johngreen6191 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Are you the angler? If so well done to you for doing something different. A bit like me. Great stuff.

    • @television1066
      @television1066  หลายเดือนก่อน

      Thanks John, I am sadly not the angler, but the producer. Glad you enjoyed it. It was a real treat working on this with Matt and there are definitely a lot more strings to his bow than being something of a legend in the angling world.

    • @johngreen6191
      @johngreen6191 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@television1066 Matt Hayes is definately a freshwater angler. He has wriiten many books, magazines and articles. Google him.

  • @daciamcv1026
    @daciamcv1026 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I went on one of the first hovercraft which you could experience the frill of the hovercraft in the channel for 12 and six pence those were the days

  • @christopherhunter2892
    @christopherhunter2892 ปีที่แล้ว

    I remember as a 9 year old travelling to Boulogne in 1969 on the hovercraft. As an 18 year old , 3 friends and I travelled in my Citroën DS to France on Hoverlloyd from Ramsgate. You had to time your drinking with the waves otherwise you would be soaked. The catamaran effectively replaced them.

  • @johnzmuzic
    @johnzmuzic ปีที่แล้ว

    Went over to France with the citroen bx a couple of weeks before it stopped , amazing .

  • @richardbriansmith8562
    @richardbriansmith8562 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Awesome Video

    • @television1066
      @television1066  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Many thanks Richard. Will post a few more with Matt in the coming weeks

  • @realdjoffski
    @realdjoffski 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    "My hovercraft is full of eels!" 😂❤

  • @acptelford1307
    @acptelford1307 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Went to France on one in the seventies. The issues were that you had to sit down for the whole trip, you couldn’t see out of the windows due to the spray. And the service was unreliable because they wouldn’t run if there was more than a light swell. They were quick, but the ferry was so much better.

  • @digitalduch1111
    @digitalduch1111 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great video 🎉 thanks for uploading!

  • @johno9507
    @johno9507 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I had no idea they were that bumpy. 🇦🇺

  • @LJSW-rp6xm
    @LJSW-rp6xm 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Concorde of the Seas.

  • @antoneelly9133
    @antoneelly9133 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    If they can be able to bring this specific giant hovercraft back to service even if its four times a year where tourists and enthusiasts book early in advance just to get the experience I'm sure it would be very successful, I wish the considered

    • @DavidWood2
      @DavidWood2 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Realistically this will not happen. There is only one craft remaining, and it is far from being in seaworthy condition (indeed, I believe it has no engines). The hoverports have been demolished and the engineering support infrastructure no longer exists. There have not been any crew certified to operate these craft for decades. The cost of operating the ageing craft could not be justified when they had become the wrong solution for the cross-Channel route, as their vehicle capacity was limited, the number of foot passengers fell away after the ending of duty-free within the EU, and the Channel Tunnel was open.
      The craft were put up for sale when Hoverspeed ceased cross-Channel operations, but nobody wanted them.

  • @santiagoduranr
    @santiagoduranr ปีที่แล้ว

    Siempre quise ir de pequeño en los 80...😢

  • @colinashby3775
    @colinashby3775 หลายเดือนก่อน

    What year as this filmed? Thanks for the memories

    • @television1066
      @television1066  หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Hi Colin, it was from a series we filmed early 2000. It was an absolute joy to make. So glad you enjoyed it. I will try and dig out some more clips soon.

    • @colinashby3775
      @colinashby3775 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@television1066 thanks. I am glad to say I went to France and back when I was at high school. I love hovercraft. My dad was the first and only person to own a hovercraft in kenya. 🇰🇪. Fell in love with them then

    • @colinashby3775
      @colinashby3775 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@television1066 th-cam.com/video/N2P4pIHy7AU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=N0_fyRDCKEDhq3Lt
      This what my dad bought to kenya. I am on the left of the screen as it comes off the water and then again a few seconds later walking around the back. Amazing I found the video

    • @television1066
      @television1066  หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Wow, that must have been a lot of fun. @@colinashby3775

  • @mutantthegreat7963
    @mutantthegreat7963 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Really nice...

  • @simracer1256
    @simracer1256 ปีที่แล้ว

    The presenter is an incredible actor.

  • @sydive130
    @sydive130 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Imagine the look on the faces of “dingy occupants “ if they had one of these beasts bearing down on them at 50mph😂

  • @markgriffiths6638
    @markgriffiths6638 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The worst form of transport I’ve been on, never again will I get on a hover craft. Crossing the channel in bad weather in one of these has mentally scared me never have I thrown up so much then on one of these bloody things. Passengers were queuing you at the toilets the vomit was running out of the toilet and down the aisle.