We used to go on the Seacat to France in the 90s... was so smooth. Our family emigrated to New Zealand in 60s, the boat trip took 5 weeks stopping at many countries to refuel and get supplies. Exciting !!
First and only time I ever went on a Hovercraft, I was super excited and then on the journey felt sick and then threw up on my dad. So, uh, we never took one again...
I'm not sure about 'smooth', that depended upon the state of the sea ! I used to catch them as a passenger or 'footie' from Pegwell Bay nr Ramsgate to Calais for a staff discounted rate of 50p [return] as my Mum worked in the Duty Free shop in the summer ! One return crossing in the early Autumn as it was a bit rough so the 'flight' back was passengers only, no vehicles but I went for it anyway and boy was it rough ! It was just like being on a big dipper until we got inside the protection of the Goodwin Sands on the English side where it was a little calmer ! It was the only time in my life that I have ever been seasick. Back at Pegwell I went and got a full fry-up & that settled my stomach and I then felt fine ! A few years earlier, on my birthday, I had been up to the fight deck during the crossing. That was incredible experience ! I think I remember climbing up a ladder & walking along a gantry in the open air to reach the back door to the flight deck 'gondola', as we were going along full pelt over to France. It felt like I was a100ft off the ground up in the air. Inside the flight-deck it all seemed quite rudimentary and it looked to me as if the Pilot & Copilot were both working hard to steer & control things. it certainly wasn't 'flying by wire' or by fingertips ! The noise & sea spray was amazing, I'm not sure how much they saw of France until they bumped up the beach ! As I understand it the flight crew were qualified both as Aircraft & Maritime Pilots which must be unique. I can't remember how old I was on that occasion but old enough to remember that the Stewardesses were young and very pretty !
@@dickyt1318 Travelled by hovercraft to France and back a few times. Great! SRN4, in calm and rough seas. My Grandpa was at sea from the age of 14, and gained his Master's ticket at length. I did sail on his ships, and much preferred being at sea in ships!
I live on the isle of Wight and sometimes use the hovercraft service to travel to Portsmouth and back. It doesn't run in very bad weather conditions, and can be a little bumpy in windy conditions. The trip only takes around 12 minutes each way and it's well worth doing it just for the experience. It only takes foot passengers, but there is a train and bus service on the island, so having a car is not necessary as long as you don't need to rush everywhere. If you do come then I'd advise spending a few days here so you can at least visit a few places and perhaps take a ride on one of the open top round the island bus trips when the weather is sunny of course.
We're definitely going to make it down there at some point and make sure to schedule enough time to explore. From what I've seen looks like a beautiful area.
@@reactingtomyroots When you are in Portsmouth Steve, you are basically in the huge naval base where Admiral Nelson's flagship. HMS Victory, is. It is the oldest ship in the Royal Navy and took part in the Battle of Trafalgar 1805. You can take a tour if you like that kind of thing!
I rode the SR-N4s (Mountbatten Class) back in the 1970s & 1980s and in calm seas they were very smooth and fast. In rougher water they struggled to maintain speed and were not so pleasant to ride. They were always exceptionally loud because of the size of the propellers. Some good memories.
My Dad rode on these giants for his family holidays to France in the 70s. I talked with him about it after I rode the Isle of Wight hovercraft this summer. He agreed they were incredible machines and got you across the channel so fast, but they were also loud and noisy as hell, and had a lot of vibration. He also remembered the smell of all that jet fuel at the hoverports. The Isle of Wight one though, uses Diesel engines, so it's much more fuel efficient. It was also no more noisy than being on a passenger plane, and there wasn't much turbulence either (still, it was calm seas when I rode it). There were vibrations, but it was extremely soft. Like being in a relaxing hover chair, speeding across the water. And yes, HoverSpeed went defunct soon after the SR.N4s were retired in 2000. They also used giant high speed catamarans in their final years, called SeaCats. I rode on those a couple of times for school trips to France. They were quite an experience too - a lot of motion during a crossing!
I live in Dover, where these hovercraft operated, with the wind in the right direction you could hear them powering up at the other end of the town. They only operated during the late spring and summer months so as a kid the noise of them always meant that summer was coming.
Sorry you are incorrect. The Craft ran all year with a reduced service through the winter as only 1 craft was in operation whilst the other had a refit.
I took the hovercraft to France when I was a kid. Admittedly were talking over 30 years ago so I can’t remember details, but I do remember it being pretty smooth
As a kid my parents got me an RC HOVERCRAFT, it would hover over land, rocks, water. it was a huge bright green thing, it was awesome and i loved it so much!
I remember those, that's all I ever wanted as a kid, but never got one. One of the neighbour kids had the red and black one, he wouldn't let anyone play with it, ibwas so jealous lol
Yes, I travelled on both SRN-4 hovercraft, named Princess Anne and Princess Margaret in 1974 - return school trip to France. I remember it being loud sat in the lower deck for 35mins. Also you can't see much out of the window due to spray. I wouldn't say it was a smooth crossing (like a train), but it didn't pitch or undulate like a ferry, it was pretty steady.
For those that remember the Micheal Fish hurricane controversy over the Great Storm of 1987... That was the day my family and I crossed the English Channel by ferry to France. Prior to leaving port there is a photo of me standing outside on deck leaning into the gale force wind. As a child it was initially exciting but little did I know what was to come. There is a moment etched into my mind from that day of holding on to anything fixed whilst watching the panic and sickness unfold around me. All to the sound of smashing as anything unfixed flew around or was broken leaving the ship looking like a disaster zone by the time it made port. It was a treacherous undoubtedly traumatic journey for many and a trip we returned from by hovercraft. A bittersweet memory of the only time I experienced one. Cast back and spare a thought for the 193 souls lost earlier that same year in the MS Herald of Free Enterprise disaster
As a kid, (and being smaller) the one time i went on the SR-N4, i remember the most spectacular thing was watching it start up and the cushion gradually rising. Also just remembered i had a little dinky toy of it along with the rest of my cars :)
I regularly use Hovertravel between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight; unlike ships, the hovercraft doesn’t “plow” through waves but rises up to “fly” over each one, resulting in a fast but particularly bumpy ride.
_Tim Traveller_ -- who you may already know as the British guy who visits eccentric stuff all over Europe -- did a video visiting one of the last surviving SRN4 hovercraft in drydock(?) last month. Good stuff.
I used the Isle of Wight hovercraft twice a week. Normally it's quite smooth but on a rough sea when the wave falls so does the hovercraft, like a stone
If you go to Southern England, particularly around the Solent area, where the Portsmouth -Cowes hovercraft still operate, take time out to visit HMS Victory in Portsmouth Naval dockyard. You can get a fairly complete tour around, looking at how it was built & put together. it represents the epitome of a fighting ship of the 18th century. She was already 50-60 yrs old when she was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar in 1805. Right next door is HMS Warrior, from about 50 yrs later. With steam screw propulsion, iron armour, & faster loading breech loaded guns, she made all previous warships redundant. ( Within another 50 yrs, she had herself been outdated by 'modern' warships.) The change in fighting ship design between Trafalgar in 1805, and WW I in 1914 was truly revolutionary. In London, you can visit, & tour, the 'Cutty Sark' at Greenwich, a commercial tea & wool clipper of the 19th century. She was of 'composite' construction, with an iron frame, covered with timber planking. Only a short distance upstream, just beyond Tower Bridge is H.M.S Belfast, a 'typical' warship of WW II vintage. Very few, if any, commercial vessels from even the 19th Century have survived. So, within just 4 vessels, & relatively little walking, you can tour over ships from the 18th -20th century
My Great, Great Grandfather was the First Mate on The Cutty Sark, for a good while. My family had generations of seafarers on both sides of the family, and I have always lived by the sea.
Every time i ever watched one of those American 911 rescue shows... They always had footage of someone who had fallen through the ice on a frozen lake... It then showed rescuers struggling to crawl out slowly and carefully across the ice... They were always tethered so that they could be hauled back if anything went wrong... But it was absolute agony watching their slow progress crawling across the ice... And i remember thinking to myself... Why don't US Fire Departments keep a couple of small Hovercraft like those racing versions... So that they can quickly and safely get out to the person or animal that needs to be rescued... And bring them back to the safety of dry land... And into the warmth and care of the Paramedics that are waiting onshore... These small Hovercraft are relatively cheap and easy to run and maintain... And it blew my mind that none of them had ever considered buying them... But at the end of the video... They indicated that Hovercraft were now being used by those rescue services... Who are currently out there saving lives... Cheers guys. 🍺
One of them is named after my mates daughter who lost her life on holiday after getting stuck in quick mud on the beach. This was back in the 90's if i remember @davidcronan4072
I've traveled many times on the smaller SR.N6 Isle of Wight hovercraft, and the giant SR.N4 UK to France hovercraft in the 70s and 80s, and I loved them. Such a unique experience compared to the ferries that ran the same routes. Steve and Lindsey, if you manage to come to Britain, a hovercraft ride is a "must do" experience for you. 👍
I've been on the Dover to Calais Hovercraft (SR.N4) with our car quite a few times in the 1980's. Much faster than the Sea Ferry & far more exciting - especially in rough seas! The Hovercraft was by far the best & fastest way to get to France from the UK. In fact I would use it today over the Tunnel or a Ferry if it were still running.
I went once as a kid, I remember it was very noisy and you couldn't see anything out of the windows due to the spray, we knew we reached France when there was sand spraying up against the windows! The main reason we didn't take it again as when you catch the ferry that's the start of your holiday, you get to go out on deck and wave off the white cliffs of Dover, then have a drink and breakfast inside before checking on the duty free and heading back to your car!
Traveled in one one of those to the Isle of Wight in 1986. It was noisy, and the sharp chop of the Soylent Sea could be felt. None of up-down movement, but the small decelerations of waves hitting the front of the skirt. Taking off form an inclined concrete ramp and arriving on one, back then I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
Hi to you both. As a child, I am now in my 60's, I used to travel over the River Thames on the Woolwich ferry, which used to take cars and pedestrians and was the only free ferry in the country.
I'm copying and pasting a comment here, that I made on another channel about the cross channel hovercraft: I worked for Hoverspeed for the summer season in 1982 when I was 18, the last year it flew from Ramsgate. I loved the job there, marshalling the cars on to the hovercraft. The last thing to go on to the 'craft before it set off, was a large suitcase-like box containing passenger manifests and vehicle numbers, etc., and one of us would be asked to hand it to the Car Deck crew before the door was raised. Occasionally, the Car Deck crew liked to have a laugh, and would "kidnap" the person handing over the box, and I was their victim on a couple of occasions. Instead of just taking the box from me, they'd ask me to pop in to the passenger area and hand it to one of the stewardesses, and then I'd get back to the car deck just in time to see the door seal shut! I was then whisked off for a round trip to Calais! The upside of this was that I'd then be able to get the daily Crew allowance of Duty Free (200 ciggies, plus a half bottle of spirits costing £2.50 each). On a couple of occasions, when travelling for Duty Free on the staff discount, I had the opportunity to make the trip on the Flight Deck, which was a fantastic experience, one I'll never forget; I was seated on the "Jump Seat" between the pilot and co-pilot, and given my own headset so that I could ask questions during the flight - fascinating and practically the only place where you can get a clear view of where we were going.
I got my start with Argyll & Antrim Steam Packet(owned by SeaCat/Hoverspeed) on MV Claymore and then when that was pulled retrained for fast craft and ended up in Liverpool on SuperSeacat 2 for 3 months and then off to Belfast on Hoverspeed Great Britain and Seacat Scotland(best ship Incat has ever built and I will die on that hill😂). Worked Seacat Isle of Man during TT season, did a couple of weeks in Dover on Seacat Diamant then back to Belfast just in time to join Seacat Rapide on Bel - Heysham when she decided being a ship was boring and turned her port engine room into a blast furnace. Our Co2 failed to fire and some of the shutters didn't come down so we had to boundary fight it for over 2 hours until it burned itself out. Just over 400 pax aboard and we got within 5mins of abandon ship. That was a fun shift. After Rapide was patched back up she was put on Bel - Troon and covered TT Season a couple of years in a row until SeaCat/Hoverspeed shut down and pulled out in '05. Rising fuel costs ended the run for the fast cats and I never got a shift on Seacat France so not quite the full set 😂 Btw, cars was my favourite position in cabin. In Bel, Troon and Heysham security would send them to their lanes but it was cabin that'd send someone ashore to load. Douglas Harbour IOM though, they were hyper territorial shoreside. I'd wander up the linkspan radio in hand just to have them glare at me. Way to easy to wind them up 😂 Down side though footies and cars got bin and toilet duty BUT it did also get us out of a chunk of turn around and guaranteed to not be in the galley or cafe/brasserie. I did a lot of time as kind of a floater so I worked deck, cabin or bridge depending on what needed covering. Last few seasons were as CSS and CSO. Still had me a hell of a lot of fun but way to much time stuck in the ships office. Still best job I ever had though. Long hours, hard work but you get a good crew and it's amazing 😊
I remember taking the hovercraft to France every year as a kid and we used to giggle the whole way trying to drink our juice out of little plastic cups without spilling it - it was like a 30 minute fairground ride - very very bumpy!!
Was back in the late 90's a year or so before the craft were put out of service, but I remember travelling on a SR.N4 when my Granddad took me on a extended weekend drive across France when I was about 14. From what I can remember the trip on the hovercraft was incredibly smooth and didn't really feel like I was on a boat at all, but it was incredibly loud. Having all the cars and other vehicles all queued and seeing the hovercraft approach from the Ocean and then float up the beach was a heck of a impressive sight.
I used to live in Dover and regularly caught the hovercraft across to Calais. That was in the very end days, probably 2004. As a passenget the hovercraft bounced over every wave and It made me very nauseous but was incredibly inexpensive. You could get deals to cross for around £6 return. However back in 1994 (when the tunnel opened) the ferries would offer ridiculously low prices - £1 for foot passengers and £6 for a car with passengers included. My mum would take us on a day trip to France and we'd have a picnic in France. ❤
Remember taking one of these to France on a school trip; the pilot announced that we were cruising at a hight of 12inches - or something like that. A few years ago I took my American friend on the Isle of Wight just so she could ‘fly’ on a hovercraft - she loved it!
We used these to get to France when we drove to Italy most years. They were tight - seats not for tall people... anyhow, they worked well when they worked. The skirts were flexible which meant there was a slight bounce; even on small waves it would rock fore and aft. Comfortable enough as it was all over quickly. They were super impressive when they came up the ramp!
I travelled with a group of friends on HoverLloyd from Ramsgate to Callais.We were travelling by mini bus to a youth festival in central France. The outward journey was beautiful. 35 minutes and the sea was calm. Not so the homeward crossing. There was a 12 foot swell, it was very bouncy. My sister and I were the only people who were not seasick. That journey took about 90 minutes. I loved every minute of it. Marvellous experience.
I grew up and still live in Dover. When they fired up the turbines and props on the hoverpad you could here them friom over 2 miles away . As a kid I used to love stading on the local pier watching them arrive and depart. The smell of the burnt jet fuel and the spray from the skirt were the best bits. My uncle used to drive one of the tractors that took the ramps, stairs and baggage carts on and off. Because of that is was lucky enough to ride in the cockpit and have a little go on the controls. Even with ear defenders it was deafening. It was a sad day when the last craft came up the pad and sat down for the last time.
We used to regularly take a non landing trip on the Hoverspeed hovercraft. The tickets were only One pound each and the bonus was that you qualified for full duty free allowance. It was a great way to spend an afternoon and bring home a load of booze. Those were the days!
My dad travelled by hovercraft quite a lot when he was working for a Formula 1 team. They'd load the van and the trailer up onto the hovercraft, and "jetset" across to the continent for a race, then head back on a hovercraft for the return journey. They were still running hovercrafts regularly to and from Europe when I was a baby, but I've never been on one. My first journey outside of the UK wasn't until fuel costs reached the point of being unsustainable for hovercraft, and I went by ferry. My dad described his trips on hovercraft as fast, but very choppy unless the conditions were perfect. However, he still thought it was more comfortable than ferries, which suffer quite badly from side-to-side rocking on channel crossings, and the longer journey time means you're exposed to that discomfort for longer. From my own experiences with ferries, I can absolutely understand why he'd see it that way. That said, my grandfather was a Royal Navy radio operator on the Ark Royal, and was actually selected for a bit of propaganda production surrounding the introduction of seasickness tablets. He was never seasick in his life, so he was a perfect candidate for such propaganda. My dad likewise doesn't really experience seasickness, and the only time I got seasick I had both alcohol poisoning and food poisoning affecting me. We're probably ideal customers for things like hovercraft and ferries precisely because we don't suffer from seasickness, in the absence of other contributing factors. Given a choice though, I think if hovercraft still ran between the UK and mainland Europe, I'd opt for the hovercraft - that way, I don't have to deal with everyone else's seasickness for very long - the sound and smell of someone being sick is what sets me off, rather than suffering seasickness myself, so faster travel in calmer conditions is the optimum solution for me.
As a child in the 80s, the hovercraft was a tremendously exciting way to cross the channel.you couldn't see much from the windows because of the spray, and they used to bounce over the waves leaving some adults looking green! Such happy memories, though. They were replaced for a time by the "Seacat" catamarans, and I'd highly recommend looking those up next!
Hi both, a point on your comment about large boat building. When you visit Southsea in Portsmouth to go on the Isle of Wight Hovercraft crossing, you can walk half a mile from the Southsea beach where it lands and go into the historic dockyard and visit the worlds first steel hulled wooden battleship and the world famous HMS Victory, the flagship of Nelson’s Navy. Also, in Gosport, which is on the opposite side of Portsmouth Harbour, there is a submarine museum. 5 miles west along the coast from Portsmouth is the hovercraft museum. Some cross channel hovercrafts are there and although I’ve never been there, it looked very interesting. I lived in Southsea for about 8 years and it is a truly historic city. I live in Wales now but watch your channel weekly because you are so enthusiastic about life and I enjoy watching how happily amazed you are about things we take for granted over here in the UK! Neil.
We used to use the hovercraft to take weekend trips from our steam railway to visit some french railways as we are in Kent just 45 minutes from Dover, I remember them being a bit noisy, and sometimes the ride got a bit bumpy but on the whole a great way to cross the channel when time mattered and now as a lot of people have said they take the tunnel to france or the high speed Eurostar train if you don't need to take a car.
My Father's company patented and manufactured a tough fastener for use on boats and Saunders Roe of the Isle of Wight choose it to connect their side skirts to the hovercraft they were manufacturing. It made for easy removal when skirts needed repairs. Unfortunately the opening of the Tunnel to France killed the cross-Channel hovercraft service but we still have the year round service to the Isle of Wight.
I used the Portsmouth hovercraft to IOW for work a few times. Now I drive past the hovercraft museum in Lee-on-the-Solent on my way to work. I wander down to the seafront and watch the hovercrafts and ferries at lunchtime. Take it for granted now as I see them all the time and don't think anything of it.
everyone remembers the trip to southsea as a child watching the hovercraft arrive and depart. the breeze as it rotates and slides down the ramp into the sea ... the brave stand by the screen while it departs to witness the small pebbles being thrown up
I actually crossed the Channel in the very early 90's on one of the large Hovercraft seen here 😃 It was a Summer crossing from Calais to Dover. The large family 4x4 vehicle I was a passenger in was not the largest vehicle to be driven onboard... I recall the trip as being quite fun, maybe a tiny bit of turbulence was evident, but not enough to worry me. Over the years I have been onboard a variety of boats and ships, from ocean liners in the 1960s from Southampton to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania via the Mediterranean Ocean, through the (now little used and dangerous) Suez Canal into the Indian Ocean, to cruisers and yachts on the Norfolk Broads in the east of England, and Lake Victoria and the River Nile in Uganda in the early 1970's. The Hovercraft was a lot of fun though. It went out of service not long after, so I am glad I experienced it 😄
When I was crossing to Ryde 2 decades ago I noticed that the hovercraft I was on was no faster than the hydrofoil that were sailing beside us.......... but then the other ship had to slow down to dock at the end of the pier, but the hovercraft just kept going over the mud banks at full speed and didn't slow till it hit the beach slope. A seriously good machine. ... and the noise of 4 huge diesels..... a great experience.
I loved it, drive the car in to the middle of hovercraft and passengers sit around the sides. Not the quietest or smoothest way to cross the channel to France but never got bored and was dissapointed when they stopped that service. We still have the Isle of Wight hovercraft but never been on that one so far.
I travelled on one with my parents in the late 70's I think. I remember it as noisy and I think one of my parents felt a bit sick afterwards, but I loved it. It was amazing seeing the other hovercraft preparing to set off on the slipway.
👍 went to France many times on the hovercraft. If the sea was extremely calm the hovercraft journey was really smooth - if the sea was slightly choppy you really felt it - if the sea was any rougher than that, they cancelled the trip!
I took the giant hovercraft from Calais France to Dover England back in the day. We had our car on it too! Such fun. It was really weird when it started to lift off the ground then move forward over the English Channel. Actually a pretty smooth flight just over the water. No, you can’t take a hovercraft to Paris from England! What a great experience.
I never travelled on the hovercraft, though we did take the Sealink high-speed catamaran from Southampton to France once. It was much faster than the traditional ferries, but the downside was that it was smaller and, therefore, much harder to get away from seasick people throwing up! I was a kid, so I don't know what the difference in cost was, but I assume they were more expensive than the standard ferry. The tunnel is a great option if you live somewhere that you don't have to travel a long way to reach it, and you're travelling to the northeast of France, or Belgium. My family most often travel to western France (anywhere from Brittany to Bordeaux). It's a lot easier to drive down to Portsmouth or Plymouth and get a cabin for an overnight sailing.
I was lucky enough to 'fly' on these from Dover to Calais quite a few times. When they were reaching their limit with the height of waves, they could be bumpy and they were always noisy. You couldn't see much out of the windows due to all of the spray, but they were great fun. You should get the ferry to France when you visit, so that you can experience a big ship.
I've been on a hovercraft a few times. It's a pretty smooth ride but it was loud in the passenger cabin, this was the '80s mind you. It's still a fond memory as nobody I knew had ever been on one
On a smooth sea day, the hovercraft is smooth too. And when the sea is rough, a hovercraft ride is very rough! They used to try and serve drinks. It was pointless on a rough day because you could never get the glass anywhere near one’s face.
I went on one as a kid, we would travel from Germany back to the UK when we could as military family. The ferry caused me terrible sickness when we first used them, when we used the hovercraft, for the first time I was happy and well on the crossing. However, everyone else in the family hated it, and preferred the freedom of walking around the ferry and going on decks etc. It was extremely quick, slightly noisy but comfortable as I recall.
I remember traveling on one of these on a family holiday once. They were really loud if you were outside next to them, but they were pretty quiet inside. I don't remember much about the ride, but that is probably a testament to how well it handled the waves
Took my mother to Belgium for a weekend a few years ago. There was NO feeling for being in the water...only the keel and propellers are touching it I think...She hadn't even realised we were already halfway across the Channel and wondered 'when we were going to get going'!!! SO comfortable and quiet. Wish they were still around.
I've been on this hovercraft back in the early 80's. The journey over to France was pretty smooth, but the journey back had choppy water and my whole family had sea/travel sickness. Another cool form of boat is a Hydrofoil (like the boat in Incredibles 2). I went on one of those in the mid 80's, on a lake in Italy.
While your thinking of taking the Isle of Wight hovercraft, you could also visit other naval museums close by. HMS Victory in Portsmouth was Nelsons flagship, and the Submarine museum in Gosport
I worked on Dr Who in 1971/2, and filmed Jon Pertwee (DW) driving/riding a singleseat hovercraft on the River Severn in one episode. (BBC). A few years later, taking our BBC camera car to a location in France on the big hovercraft, it was the last trip of the day, due to what seemed enormous waves. Horrendous time, like rising up and being thumped down on to concrete at slightly irregular intervals. Memorable in both cases!
There was also later on High Speed Catamaran fast ferries on the Channel routes and also between Ireland and Great Britain. The largest one was the Stena HSS, look it up on the web!. I thought it was great, nearly as fast as the hovercraft but much larger and more comfortable. I was on it between Belfast and Scotland quite a few times, even getting a full engine room and bridge tour. A very sophisticated machine. Powered by four gas turbines driving water jets. Full of computers, nearly 50 mph top speed. Alas, they are gone, replaced by very nice conventional diesel ferries. The first thing against them was that the wash from them was nearly drowning pedestrians on a seaside path going out of Belfast! So they had to slow down in Belfast Lough and Lough Ryan in Scotland. But the main thing was the fuel consumption. They eventually turned out to be too expensive to run. They ended up scrapped well before their time.
My childhood for a few years was influenced by hovercraft because my stepfather got a job as production manager at Saunders Roe (British Hovercraft Corporation) on the Isle of Wight. I was given a private tour of the factory and taken around an SRN4 being repaired. Went up into the cockpit which is reached by a step ladder. I always got the latest insider news about hovercraft at the time and he used to bring me home model kits to make of hovercraft and aircraft (he designed components for Spitfires in WWII). I live near Southsea/Portsmouth, there is a hovercraft Museum at Lee on Solent near Portsmouth, it has an SRN4 that you can walk around as well as many other small hovercraft, models etc There are also the Royal Navy museums in Portsmouth (ships) and Gosport (submarines) and a few forts plus the D Day museum.
In 1973 Dad decided we would take the Hovercraft from Ramsgate to Calais. He wanted the grandchildren to experience travelling on a Hovercraft. After our holiday we would come back by car ferry Calais to Dover. As soon as the car was on board the Hostess rushed us through to the cabin. We skimmed over the English Channel with the Captain telling us we were going past the Goodwin Sands. We couldn't see anything as the spray covered the windows. All too soon we arrived in Calais. 30-35 minutes compared to 1.1/2 hours on the boat. Didn't have refreshments & the Duty Free didn't come round. Staff spoke aircraft speech. Cabin, Hostess etc. Fun experience. Pleased we did it as they stopped being used. Disappointed that we couldn't look out of the window because of the spray. Portsmouth to Ryde, Isle of Wight is passengers only. Just after Covid lockdown used to watch live coverage on TH-cam of the Hovercraft departing & arriving at Ryde. Used by commuters working on the mainland. Thanks for your videos. Really enjoy them.
Went on that big one in July 1981 on my honeymoon to Paris . Very bumpy and extremely noisy. Imagine standing behind a C130 transport plane and multiply by 10 . Love your channel.
I used to use the Dover to Calais hovercraft service for holidays and day trips. I can only describe it as driving down a cobbled street at 70MPH. It was not a relaxing crossing but so fast.
I remember as a child being on a cross channel ferry and seeing the hovercraft go flying past each way, they were fast, but expensive, so it was luxury travel back in the 80s. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I remember that their greatest flaw was bad weather on the channel, so the ferry was the safest bet. Dover-Calais was claimed to be 18 -24 minutes, I think.
Always did our yearly holiday to France via Hovercraft until the Chunnel got established. As part of a family where most were very seasick, that 30 minute travel was smoother than the ferries and even when rough we weren't on there long enough to really get sick
Looks like the video they were watching was about to go into those, But they stopped it as soon as the part about the passenger Hovercraft finished, Can see the progression bar of the video at ¾ of the way through..
Just found the original video, There wasn't any more on the military hovercraft, But it did mention the future plans for "Tracked hovercraft" which would have operated like maglev trains which are being developed in this day & age ( in the originals wrapping up final 2 - 3 minutes ) 👍
What has just come to mind, and that is a variant on the hovercraft principle, the sidewall hovercraft. These rode on a cushion of air like normal hovercraft except they had sidewalls that went down into the water. This gave them more stability when turning due to the sidewalls stopping them sliding sideways. I think they also had underwater propellers, probably making them more fuel efficient. Of course these differences meant they were water only craft unable to transition to land.
Yeah, back in 1970's when it was Mum's birthday, we all went to France and back so she could eat snails for lunch. The hovercraft was my Dad's idea (men and their toys!). I don't remember it being so big, but it must have been. I do remember that it was incredibly noisy. On the plus side it was smooth and I didn't get travel sick.
@@stewedfishproductions9554 sorry I didn’t mean as in the over all did operate the most hover services I was just exaggerating with a modern derogative term for which to carry my point across that at one point in time a government organisation once intended for rail traffic ended up transporting people around along are precious waterways but in some cases along the way it had once involved the usage of crafts which do hover. Thanks for your point though.😉
@@djs98blue Hate to tell you both, the closest beach to Hinckley? It turns out the closest beach to our town is... Clevedon near Bristol at 2 hours 11 minutes - 125 miles away
Hoverspeed versus Hovertravel (The Later of which is the Portsmouth to Isle of Wight service). I grew up in Portsmouth, and my grandparents used to take me to the Isle of wight, sometimes on the Hovercraft. Th Hovercraft is suited to the Portsmouth to Isle of wight, because the stretch of water it operates is all sand under water. Most of the Solent is deep enough for regular ferry services, such as the catamaran to Ryde, or the Car Ferry to Fishbourne, the waters around Ryde are exceptionally shallow, and during exceptionally low tides, the water recedes nearly to the end of the Ryde Pier, which is Half a mile long so much you can actually walk nearly as far as the pier length. Just keep your eye on the tide because once it turns, it comes back in ....FAST. Occasionally they have to send out a hovercraft to rescue people trapped on sand banks because the tide trapped them, its the only available vehicle that really does not care about the tide. There are videos that show Hovercrafts leaving rude at low tide, showing how shallow it gets. th-cam.com/video/O04vxAF31vc/w-d-xo.html
I have travelled on the SRN4 across the channel, it was quick and fast to load and unload because unlike ferries it only took cars, no trucks. BUT... it was noisy, there was quite a lot of vibration from those huge propellers and you saw very little out of the windows once it lifted off because of the spray. Hoverspeed replaced them with the SeaCat catermeran which was very smooth but took about 55 mins rather than the 35mins of the Hovercraft, then the SeaCat was overtaken by the tunnel as the quick convenient way to cross to France (with your car).
The conventional ferries have bars, restaurants, shops, toilets. You can stroll around, go out on deck when the weather is good. It’s a more leisurely and cheaper way to cross the channel. If you want to get across fast, the tunnel is the simple, comfortable, obvious choice.
I remember watching the giant hovercrafts coming into Ramsgate when I was a kid. They were really huge and extremely noisy. It was cool to see the cars just driving off them.
My parents had a fear of flying (after an engine went on fire over the Pyrenees on their honeymoon) but also a love of European travel, so our family holidays would involve driving from Scotland to either Spain or the South of France. Most of these trips would include a trip on the big Hoverlloyd hovercrafts. We absolutely loved them as kids. Fans kick in, huge roar from the engines, rising metres into the air and gliding towards the sea. They could be bumpy, depending on the conditions, but that added to the fun. The only time we took the ferry, it was a nightmare. Overnight crossing, which was delayed, got on the ferry to find people already in our berth, toilets were overflowing, strong smell of diesel everywhere, my mum got seasick etc etc. Never took the ferry again (as a kid). As an adult I go on my own European roadtrips. In fact, I'm off on a camping roadtrip to Bosnia next week and the only thing I've booked so far is the ferry. I don't use the Eurotunnel as there is something special about seeing the White Cliffs of Dover recede into the distance, watching all the ships on the Channel and Calais slowly becoming clearer. It marks the official start of the holiday.
I remember going over to France in 1971 on the hovercraft on a day trip, returning in the evening. It was very noisy but the sea was calm. Very exciting.
The biggest ship/ferry I've been on, was the cross channel ferry. I'd have loved to go by HoverSpeed, but it was taken out of service a few years before my first trip to France. I have raced hovercrafts on 'team building days', with a company I used to work for. That's great fun!
When i was a kid in the late 1970's i went on a Hovercraft ride a couple of times. I got souvenirs of it, including a Die Cast Toy hovercraft. I wish i still had it.
We went from Ramsgate to Calais on the SRN4 hovercraft in the late 70's I believe. Our crossings were fairly smooth, but it did depend on the sea state at the time. No they couldn't cope with high winds or rough seas, but they were quite an experience at the time. I remember it was quite noisy, and there was a lot of vibration depending on engine rpm. The airline style seating was ok for a 30 minute ride, but was not all that comfortable if I remember correctly. Not sure how fast we went, but all the shipping in the middle of the channel seemed to be standing still by comparison! 👍
My Grandad worked on making the Princess Anne hovercraft at Saunders Roe Cowes Isle of Wight. I remember going to see it when it was finished, it was huge.
I loved it used a few times to go across channel, didn't feel anything once the engins had started up. Good your bringing this to our attention I must have just taken it for granted. Great video Guys love Andrea liverpool xx
My Brother and his wife used to travel to Calais from Dover and the service was run this side by British Rail and from France by SNCF the french service was a much better service clean well stocked bar with a good of refreshments, so at Dover they drove the car on to lower level of the Hovercraft then went up to the next where you could sit in seats provided and had refreshments they were always lucky to have calmish day but some people said when it was really rough it could be a bit bounce so the engines lift up the craft then you just glided from solid concrete apron into the English Channel then up the other side at Calais then go back to the car and drive off, he all ways used to when they went on holiday to France the car has a holiday as well as it was going back to where it was made being an Renault.😄
The good old days of hovercrafts and concorde.
Wish we could have experienced that.
@@reactingtomyroots the hovercrafts were a really bumpy ride! Went on with my mam and she said "NEVER AGAIN!" she didn't enjoy it at all!
I went on a hovercraft to the isle of Wight and it was so bumpy I ended up with backache. It was certainly less smooth than the normal ferries.
That was before smart phones and dumb people.
@@reactingtomyroots there was also a boat called the seakat to france, i went on that many times as a kid during the 1990s being from the kent coast.
I remember getting the hovercraft from UK to France with grandparents in 1980, was quite exciting as kids
I also took a hovercraft from UK to France in 1980, but I was 23 and heading to Paris with a friend. It felt like being on a bus. Loved it.
We used to go on the Seacat to France in the 90s... was so smooth. Our family emigrated to New Zealand in 60s, the boat trip took 5 weeks stopping at many countries to refuel and get supplies. Exciting !!
I was on Hoverlloyd I think it was called, Ramsgate to Calais in 1976. In those days you didn't need a passport to take a day trip to France.
First and only time I ever went on a Hovercraft, I was super excited and then on the journey felt sick and then threw up on my dad. So, uh, we never took one again...
Went on one in about 1979 with my family to Calais
Noisy, smelly, smooth ish(depending on weather) , bloody brilliant
I love the smell, gas turbines and oil, i grew up with it 😂
I'm not sure about 'smooth', that depended upon the state of the sea ! I used to catch them as a passenger or 'footie' from Pegwell Bay nr Ramsgate to Calais for a staff discounted rate of 50p [return] as my Mum worked in the Duty Free shop in the summer !
One return crossing in the early Autumn as it was a bit rough so the 'flight' back was passengers only, no vehicles but I went for it anyway and boy was it rough ! It was just like being on a big dipper until we got inside the protection of the Goodwin Sands on the English side where it was a little calmer ! It was the only time in my life that I have ever been seasick.
Back at Pegwell I went and got a full fry-up & that settled my stomach and I then felt fine ! A few years earlier, on my birthday, I had been up to the fight deck during the crossing. That was incredible experience ! I think I remember climbing up a ladder & walking along a gantry in the open air to reach the back door to the flight deck 'gondola', as we were going along full pelt over to France. It felt like I was a100ft off the ground up in the air.
Inside the flight-deck it all seemed quite rudimentary and it looked to me as if the Pilot & Copilot were both working hard to steer & control things. it certainly wasn't 'flying by wire' or by fingertips ! The noise & sea spray was amazing, I'm not sure how much they saw of France until they bumped up the beach ! As I understand it the flight crew were qualified both as Aircraft & Maritime Pilots which must be unique.
I can't remember how old I was on that occasion but old enough to remember that the Stewardesses were young and very pretty !
@@dickyt1318 Travelled by hovercraft to France and back a few times. Great! SRN4, in calm and rough seas. My Grandpa was at sea from the age of 14, and gained his Master's ticket at length. I did sail on his ships, and much preferred being at sea in ships!
I live on the isle of Wight and sometimes use the hovercraft service to travel to Portsmouth and back. It doesn't run in very bad weather conditions, and can be a little bumpy in windy conditions. The trip only takes around 12 minutes each way and it's well worth doing it just for the experience. It only takes foot passengers, but there is a train and bus service on the island, so having a car is not necessary as long as you don't need to rush everywhere. If you do come then I'd advise spending a few days here so you can at least visit a few places and perhaps take a ride on one of the open top round the island bus trips when the weather is sunny of course.
We're definitely going to make it down there at some point and make sure to schedule enough time to explore. From what I've seen looks like a beautiful area.
@@reactingtomyroots When you are in Portsmouth Steve, you are basically in the huge naval base where Admiral Nelson's flagship. HMS Victory, is. It is the oldest ship in the Royal Navy and took part in the Battle of Trafalgar 1805. You can take a tour if you like that kind of thing!
I love the Isle of Wight. Used to visit quite a bit. If you don't have a car, be prepared to adjust to island time
It is Hovertravel that still operates the Isle of Wight hovercraft.
Yes it is. It’s amazing to watch even after seeing it many times. I watch them from the hill over Portsmouth going to and from the island
I remember the first time I was on this and the excitement of hearing them refer to the journey as a "flight"!
I rode the SR-N4s (Mountbatten Class) back in the 1970s & 1980s and in calm seas they were very smooth and fast. In rougher water they struggled to maintain speed and were not so pleasant to ride. They were always exceptionally loud because of the size of the propellers. Some good memories.
My Dad rode on these giants for his family holidays to France in the 70s. I talked with him about it after I rode the Isle of Wight hovercraft this summer.
He agreed they were incredible machines and got you across the channel so fast, but they were also loud and noisy as hell, and had a lot of vibration. He also remembered the smell of all that jet fuel at the hoverports.
The Isle of Wight one though, uses Diesel engines, so it's much more fuel efficient. It was also no more noisy than being on a passenger plane, and there wasn't much turbulence either (still, it was calm seas when I rode it). There were vibrations, but it was extremely soft. Like being in a relaxing hover chair, speeding across the water.
And yes, HoverSpeed went defunct soon after the SR.N4s were retired in 2000. They also used giant high speed catamarans in their final years, called SeaCats. I rode on those a couple of times for school trips to France. They were quite an experience too - a lot of motion during a crossing!
I live in Dover, where these hovercraft operated, with the wind in the right direction you could hear them powering up at the other end of the town. They only operated during the late spring and summer months so as a kid the noise of them always meant that summer was coming.
Sorry you are incorrect. The Craft ran all year with a reduced service through the winter as only 1 craft was in operation whilst the other had a refit.
I took the hovercraft to France when I was a kid. Admittedly were talking over 30 years ago so I can’t remember details, but I do remember it being pretty smooth
As a kid my parents got me an RC HOVERCRAFT, it would hover over land, rocks, water. it was a huge bright green thing, it was awesome and i loved it so much!
I remember those, that's all I ever wanted as a kid, but never got one. One of the neighbour kids had the red and black one, he wouldn't let anyone play with it, ibwas so jealous lol
You might be interested in the Keith Moon hovercraft stories.
Yes, I travelled on both SRN-4 hovercraft, named Princess Anne and Princess Margaret in 1974 - return school trip to France. I remember it being loud sat in the lower deck for 35mins. Also you can't see much out of the window due to spray. I wouldn't say it was a smooth crossing (like a train), but it didn't pitch or undulate like a ferry, it was pretty steady.
For those that remember the Micheal Fish hurricane controversy over the Great Storm of 1987...
That was the day my family and I crossed the English Channel by ferry to France. Prior to leaving port there is a photo of me standing outside on deck leaning into the gale force wind. As a child it was initially exciting but little did I know what was to come. There is a moment etched into my mind from that day of holding on to anything fixed whilst watching the panic and sickness unfold around me. All to the sound of smashing as anything unfixed flew around or was broken leaving the ship looking like a disaster zone by the time it made port.
It was a treacherous undoubtedly traumatic journey for many and a trip we returned from by hovercraft. A bittersweet memory of the only time I experienced one.
Cast back and spare a thought for the 193 souls lost earlier that same year in the MS Herald of Free Enterprise disaster
Went on one when I was a kid to France, what a joy, I can even remember the name of the hovercraft 'Sure' was its name. I'm 58 now.
Memories :)
As a kid, (and being smaller) the one time i went on the SR-N4, i remember the most spectacular thing was watching it start up and the cushion gradually rising.
Also just remembered i had a little dinky toy of it along with the rest of my cars :)
I regularly use Hovertravel between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight; unlike ships, the hovercraft doesn’t “plow” through waves but rises up to “fly” over each one, resulting in a fast but particularly bumpy ride.
As a kid of the 70s I remember these they honestly reminded me of something out of Thunderbirds.
_Tim Traveller_ -- who you may already know as the British guy who visits eccentric stuff all over Europe -- did a video visiting one of the last surviving SRN4 hovercraft in drydock(?) last month. Good stuff.
I used the Isle of Wight hovercraft twice a week. Normally it's quite smooth but on a rough sea when the wave falls so does the hovercraft, like a stone
It was very bouncy on my trip! Defo a rough sea day 😂 the waves were coming up to the windows as it bounced on the water 😂
If you go to Southern England, particularly around the Solent area, where the Portsmouth -Cowes hovercraft still operate, take time out to visit HMS Victory in Portsmouth Naval dockyard. You can get a fairly complete tour around, looking at how it was built & put together. it represents the epitome of a fighting ship of the 18th century. She was already 50-60 yrs old when she was Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar in 1805. Right next door is HMS Warrior, from about 50 yrs later. With steam screw propulsion, iron armour, & faster loading breech loaded guns, she made all previous warships redundant. ( Within another 50 yrs, she had herself been outdated by 'modern' warships.) The change in fighting ship design between Trafalgar in 1805, and WW I in 1914 was truly revolutionary.
In London, you can visit, & tour, the 'Cutty Sark' at Greenwich, a commercial tea & wool clipper of the 19th century. She was of 'composite' construction, with an iron frame, covered with timber planking. Only a short distance upstream, just beyond Tower Bridge is H.M.S Belfast, a 'typical' warship of WW II vintage. Very few, if any, commercial vessels from even the 19th Century have survived.
So, within just 4 vessels, & relatively little walking, you can tour over ships from the 18th -20th century
You mean Portsmouth to Ryde.
@@roystonvasey5471 yes, silly blunder.
HMS Warrior was obsolete within 10 years of it being launched. La Gloire and it started an arms race that saw rapid development of ironclad warships..
My Great, Great Grandfather was the First Mate on The Cutty Sark, for a good while. My family had generations of seafarers on both sides of the family, and I have always lived by the sea.
There's a couple of live webcams in Ryde, Isle of Wight where you can see the hovercraft service to Portsmouth still operating.
Every time i ever watched one of those American 911 rescue shows... They always had footage of someone who had fallen through the ice on a frozen lake... It then showed rescuers struggling to crawl out slowly and carefully across the ice... They were always tethered so that they could be hauled back if anything went wrong... But it was absolute agony watching their slow progress crawling across the ice... And i remember thinking to myself... Why don't US Fire Departments keep a couple of small Hovercraft like those racing versions... So that they can quickly and safely get out to the person or animal that needs to be rescued... And bring them back to the safety of dry land... And into the warmth and care of the Paramedics that are waiting onshore... These small Hovercraft are relatively cheap and easy to run and maintain... And it blew my mind that none of them had ever considered buying them... But at the end of the video... They indicated that Hovercraft were now being used by those rescue services... Who are currently out there saving lives... Cheers guys. 🍺
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution uses a few small hovercraft to rescue people stuck in deep mud.
@@davidcronan4072 👍
One of them is named after my mates daughter who lost her life on holiday after getting stuck in quick mud on the beach. This was back in the 90's if i remember @davidcronan4072
@davidcronan4072 one of them is named after my mates daughter who lost her life on holiday in the late 90's I think
@@matthewbishop9342 😢
I've traveled many times on the smaller SR.N6 Isle of Wight hovercraft, and the giant SR.N4 UK to France hovercraft in the 70s and 80s, and I loved them. Such a unique experience compared to the ferries that ran the same routes. Steve and Lindsey, if you manage to come to Britain, a hovercraft ride is a "must do" experience for you. 👍
I've been on the Dover to Calais Hovercraft (SR.N4) with our car quite a few times in the 1980's. Much faster than the Sea Ferry & far more exciting - especially in rough seas! The Hovercraft was by far the best & fastest way to get to France from the UK. In fact I would use it today over the Tunnel or a Ferry if it were still running.
When i lived on Isle of Wight, i used to love going on the hovercraft, Sea cat and Hydrofoil
I went once as a kid, I remember it was very noisy and you couldn't see anything out of the windows due to the spray, we knew we reached France when there was sand spraying up against the windows!
The main reason we didn't take it again as when you catch the ferry that's the start of your holiday, you get to go out on deck and wave off the white cliffs of Dover, then have a drink and breakfast inside before checking on the duty free and heading back to your car!
Traveled in one one of those to the Isle of Wight in 1986. It was noisy, and the sharp chop of the Soylent Sea could be felt. None of up-down movement, but the small decelerations of waves hitting the front of the skirt. Taking off form an inclined concrete ramp and arriving on one, back then I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
Hi to you both. As a child, I am now in my 60's, I used to travel over the River Thames on the Woolwich ferry, which used to take cars and pedestrians and was the only free ferry in the country.
I'm copying and pasting a comment here, that I made on another channel about the cross channel hovercraft:
I worked for Hoverspeed for the summer season in 1982 when I was 18, the last year it flew from Ramsgate. I loved the job there, marshalling the cars on to the hovercraft.
The last thing to go on to the 'craft before it set off, was a large suitcase-like box containing passenger manifests and vehicle numbers, etc., and one of us would be asked to hand it to the Car Deck crew before the door was raised. Occasionally, the Car Deck crew liked to have a laugh, and would "kidnap" the person handing over the box, and I was their victim on a couple of occasions. Instead of just taking the box from me, they'd ask me to pop in to the passenger area and hand it to one of the stewardesses, and then I'd get back to the car deck just in time to see the door seal shut! I was then whisked off for a round trip to Calais! The upside of this was that I'd then be able to get the daily Crew allowance of Duty Free (200 ciggies, plus a half bottle of spirits costing £2.50 each).
On a couple of occasions, when travelling for Duty Free on the staff discount, I had the opportunity to make the trip on the Flight Deck, which was a fantastic experience, one I'll never forget; I was seated on the "Jump Seat" between the pilot and co-pilot, and given my own headset so that I could ask questions during the flight - fascinating and practically the only place where you can get a clear view of where we were going.
I got my start with Argyll & Antrim Steam Packet(owned by SeaCat/Hoverspeed) on MV Claymore and then when that was pulled retrained for fast craft and ended up in Liverpool on SuperSeacat 2 for 3 months and then off to Belfast on Hoverspeed Great Britain and Seacat Scotland(best ship Incat has ever built and I will die on that hill😂). Worked Seacat Isle of Man during TT season, did a couple of weeks in Dover on Seacat Diamant then back to Belfast just in time to join Seacat Rapide on Bel - Heysham when she decided being a ship was boring and turned her port engine room into a blast furnace. Our Co2 failed to fire and some of the shutters didn't come down so we had to boundary fight it for over 2 hours until it burned itself out. Just over 400 pax aboard and we got within 5mins of abandon ship. That was a fun shift.
After Rapide was patched back up she was put on Bel - Troon and covered TT Season a couple of years in a row until SeaCat/Hoverspeed shut down and pulled out in '05. Rising fuel costs ended the run for the fast cats and I never got a shift on Seacat France so not quite the full set 😂
Btw, cars was my favourite position in cabin. In Bel, Troon and Heysham security would send them to their lanes but it was cabin that'd send someone ashore to load. Douglas Harbour IOM though, they were hyper territorial shoreside. I'd wander up the linkspan radio in hand just to have them glare at me. Way to easy to wind them up 😂 Down side though footies and cars got bin and toilet duty BUT it did also get us out of a chunk of turn around and guaranteed to not be in the galley or cafe/brasserie. I did a lot of time as kind of a floater so I worked deck, cabin or bridge depending on what needed covering. Last few seasons were as CSS and CSO. Still had me a hell of a lot of fun but way to much time stuck in the ships office. Still best job I ever had though. Long hours, hard work but you get a good crew and it's amazing 😊
I remember taking the hovercraft to France every year as a kid and we used to giggle the whole way trying to drink our juice out of little plastic cups without spilling it - it was like a 30 minute fairground ride - very very bumpy!!
I was lucky enough to go on one of these on a school trip to France. As kids we loved it! I will never forget it. 🇬🇧🇺🇸
Was back in the late 90's a year or so before the craft were put out of service, but I remember travelling on a SR.N4 when my Granddad took me on a extended weekend drive across France when I was about 14. From what I can remember the trip on the hovercraft was incredibly smooth and didn't really feel like I was on a boat at all, but it was incredibly loud.
Having all the cars and other vehicles all queued and seeing the hovercraft approach from the Ocean and then float up the beach was a heck of a impressive sight.
Ocean Liner Designs is the TH-cam channel you want for everything in ship designs.
I travelled from England to France by hovercraft in 1974. It was quite an experience.
I used to live in Dover and regularly caught the hovercraft across to Calais. That was in the very end days, probably 2004. As a passenget the hovercraft bounced over every wave and It made me very nauseous but was incredibly inexpensive. You could get deals to cross for around £6 return. However back in 1994 (when the tunnel opened) the ferries would offer ridiculously low prices - £1 for foot passengers and £6 for a car with passengers included. My mum would take us on a day trip to France and we'd have a picnic in France. ❤
Remember taking one of these to France on a school trip; the pilot announced that we were cruising at a hight of 12inches - or something like that. A few years ago I took my American friend on the Isle of Wight just so she could ‘fly’ on a hovercraft - she loved it!
When I lived in Portsmouth I used the hovercraft loads. It’s very loud but brilliant!
Must have very clean carpets then!
@@rickcrutchlow8073 lol oops!
We used these to get to France when we drove to Italy most years. They were tight - seats not for tall people... anyhow, they worked well when they worked. The skirts were flexible which meant there was a slight bounce; even on small waves it would rock fore and aft. Comfortable enough as it was all over quickly. They were super impressive when they came up the ramp!
Really enjoy these sorts of infrastructure and technology videos. Thanks !
I travelled with a group of friends on HoverLloyd from Ramsgate to Callais.We were travelling by mini bus to a youth festival in central France. The outward journey was beautiful. 35 minutes and the sea was calm. Not so the homeward crossing. There was a 12 foot swell, it was very bouncy. My sister and I were the only people who were not seasick. That journey took about 90 minutes.
I loved every minute of it. Marvellous experience.
I grew up and still live in Dover. When they fired up the turbines and props on the hoverpad you could here them friom over 2 miles away . As a kid I used to love stading on the local pier watching them arrive and depart. The smell of the burnt jet fuel and the spray from the skirt were the best bits. My uncle used to drive one of the tractors that took the ramps, stairs and baggage carts on and off. Because of that is was lucky enough to ride in the cockpit and have a little go on the controls. Even with ear defenders it was deafening. It was a sad day when the last craft came up the pad and sat down for the last time.
We used to regularly take a non landing trip on the Hoverspeed hovercraft. The tickets were only One pound each and the bonus was that you qualified for full duty free allowance.
It was a great way to spend an afternoon and bring home a load of booze. Those were the days!
My dad travelled by hovercraft quite a lot when he was working for a Formula 1 team. They'd load the van and the trailer up onto the hovercraft, and "jetset" across to the continent for a race, then head back on a hovercraft for the return journey. They were still running hovercrafts regularly to and from Europe when I was a baby, but I've never been on one. My first journey outside of the UK wasn't until fuel costs reached the point of being unsustainable for hovercraft, and I went by ferry.
My dad described his trips on hovercraft as fast, but very choppy unless the conditions were perfect. However, he still thought it was more comfortable than ferries, which suffer quite badly from side-to-side rocking on channel crossings, and the longer journey time means you're exposed to that discomfort for longer. From my own experiences with ferries, I can absolutely understand why he'd see it that way.
That said, my grandfather was a Royal Navy radio operator on the Ark Royal, and was actually selected for a bit of propaganda production surrounding the introduction of seasickness tablets. He was never seasick in his life, so he was a perfect candidate for such propaganda. My dad likewise doesn't really experience seasickness, and the only time I got seasick I had both alcohol poisoning and food poisoning affecting me. We're probably ideal customers for things like hovercraft and ferries precisely because we don't suffer from seasickness, in the absence of other contributing factors. Given a choice though, I think if hovercraft still ran between the UK and mainland Europe, I'd opt for the hovercraft - that way, I don't have to deal with everyone else's seasickness for very long - the sound and smell of someone being sick is what sets me off, rather than suffering seasickness myself, so faster travel in calmer conditions is the optimum solution for me.
As a child in the 80s, the hovercraft was a tremendously exciting way to cross the channel.you couldn't see much from the windows because of the spray, and they used to bounce over the waves leaving some adults looking green! Such happy memories, though. They were replaced for a time by the "Seacat" catamarans, and I'd highly recommend looking those up next!
Hi both, a point on your comment about large boat building. When you visit Southsea in Portsmouth to go on the Isle of Wight Hovercraft crossing, you can walk half a mile from the Southsea beach where it lands and go into the historic dockyard and visit the worlds first steel hulled wooden battleship and the world famous HMS Victory, the flagship of Nelson’s Navy. Also, in Gosport, which is on the opposite side of Portsmouth Harbour, there is a submarine museum. 5 miles west along the coast from Portsmouth is the hovercraft museum. Some cross channel hovercrafts are there and although I’ve never been there, it looked very interesting. I lived in Southsea for about 8 years and it is a truly historic city. I live in Wales now but watch your channel weekly because you are so enthusiastic about life and I enjoy watching how happily amazed you are about things we take for granted over here in the UK!
Neil.
I went to France on one in the 70's. It was like being on a huge bus on a rough road as I remember. An experience and privilege though.
From what I remember, when I was little, there was a lot of vibration and fairly noisy, but that is me remembering as a kid. It was great fun though 😊
We used to use the hovercraft to take weekend trips from our steam railway to visit some french railways as we are in Kent just 45 minutes from Dover, I remember them being a bit noisy, and sometimes the ride got a bit bumpy but on the whole a great way to cross the channel when time mattered and now as a lot of people have said they take the tunnel to france or the high speed Eurostar train if you don't need to take a car.
I travelled on a passenger hovercraft with my family in the late 70's from Kent to Oostende in Belgium. We took the car. It was great fun.
My Father's company patented and manufactured a tough fastener for use on boats and Saunders Roe of the Isle of Wight choose it to connect their side skirts to the hovercraft they were manufacturing. It made for easy removal when skirts needed repairs. Unfortunately the opening of the Tunnel to France killed the cross-Channel hovercraft service but we still have the year round service to the Isle of Wight.
I used the Portsmouth hovercraft to IOW for work a few times. Now I drive past the hovercraft museum in Lee-on-the-Solent on my way to work. I wander down to the seafront and watch the hovercrafts and ferries at lunchtime. Take it for granted now as I see them all the time and don't think anything of it.
I went on this when I was very, very young. It's a vague memory at this stage, but what I do remember was the engines being incredibly loud and noisy.
The BIG ones, sounded great, and our British Army had a few huge ones, in the '60s/'70s.
Portsmouth/South Sea to Ryde on the Isle of Wight is Hovertravel.
everyone remembers the trip to southsea as a child watching the hovercraft arrive and depart. the breeze as it rotates and slides down the ramp into the sea ... the brave stand by the screen while it departs to witness the small pebbles being thrown up
I remember in the 80's travelling on these to France, don't remember it being comfortable but was great fun when we were kids..
I actually crossed the Channel in the very early 90's on one of the large Hovercraft seen here 😃 It was a Summer crossing from Calais to Dover. The large family 4x4 vehicle I was a passenger in was not the largest vehicle to be driven onboard... I recall the trip as being quite fun, maybe a tiny bit of turbulence was evident, but not enough to worry me. Over the years I have been onboard a variety of boats and ships, from ocean liners in the 1960s from Southampton to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania via the Mediterranean Ocean, through the (now little used and dangerous) Suez Canal into the Indian Ocean, to cruisers and yachts on the Norfolk Broads in the east of England, and Lake Victoria and the River Nile in Uganda in the early 1970's. The Hovercraft was a lot of fun though. It went out of service not long after, so I am glad I experienced it 😄
When I was crossing to Ryde 2 decades ago I noticed that the hovercraft I was on was no faster than the hydrofoil that were sailing beside us.......... but then the other ship had to slow down to dock at the end of the pier, but the hovercraft just kept going over the mud banks at full speed and didn't slow till it hit the beach slope. A seriously good machine. ... and the noise of 4 huge diesels..... a great experience.
I loved it, drive the car in to the middle of hovercraft and passengers sit around the sides. Not the quietest or smoothest way to cross the channel to France but never got bored and was dissapointed when they stopped that service. We still have the Isle of Wight hovercraft but never been on that one so far.
I travelled on one with my parents in the late 70's I think. I remember it as noisy and I think one of my parents felt a bit sick afterwards, but I loved it. It was amazing seeing the other hovercraft preparing to set off on the slipway.
👍 went to France many times on the hovercraft.
If the sea was extremely calm the hovercraft journey was really smooth - if the sea was slightly choppy you really felt it - if the sea was any rougher than that, they cancelled the trip!
I took the giant hovercraft from Calais France to Dover England back in the day. We had our car on it too! Such fun. It was really weird when it started to lift off the ground then move forward over the English Channel. Actually a pretty smooth flight just over the water. No, you can’t take a hovercraft to Paris from England! What a great experience.
I never travelled on the hovercraft, though we did take the Sealink high-speed catamaran from Southampton to France once. It was much faster than the traditional ferries, but the downside was that it was smaller and, therefore, much harder to get away from seasick people throwing up! I was a kid, so I don't know what the difference in cost was, but I assume they were more expensive than the standard ferry.
The tunnel is a great option if you live somewhere that you don't have to travel a long way to reach it, and you're travelling to the northeast of France, or Belgium. My family most often travel to western France (anywhere from Brittany to Bordeaux). It's a lot easier to drive down to Portsmouth or Plymouth and get a cabin for an overnight sailing.
I was lucky enough to 'fly' on these from Dover to Calais quite a few times. When they were reaching their limit with the height of waves, they could be bumpy and they were always noisy. You couldn't see much out of the windows due to all of the spray, but they were great fun. You should get the ferry to France when you visit, so that you can experience a big ship.
I've been on a hovercraft a few times. It's a pretty smooth ride but it was loud in the passenger cabin, this was the '80s mind you. It's still a fond memory as nobody I knew had ever been on one
On a smooth sea day, the hovercraft is smooth too. And when the sea is rough, a hovercraft ride is very rough!
They used to try and serve drinks. It was pointless on a rough day because you could never get the glass anywhere near one’s face.
I went on one as a kid, we would travel from Germany back to the UK when we could as military family. The ferry caused me terrible sickness when we first used them, when we used the hovercraft, for the first time I was happy and well on the crossing. However, everyone else in the family hated it, and preferred the freedom of walking around the ferry and going on decks etc. It was extremely quick, slightly noisy but comfortable as I recall.
I remember traveling on one of these on a family holiday once. They were really loud if you were outside next to them, but they were pretty quiet inside. I don't remember much about the ride, but that is probably a testament to how well it handled the waves
I went on one as a kid (about 2002), amazing experience. It was bumpy and slammed against the waves but smooth and so fast where the water was calm.
Took my mother to Belgium for a weekend a few years ago. There was NO feeling for being in the water...only the keel and propellers are touching it I think...She hadn't even realised we were already halfway across the Channel and wondered 'when we were going to get going'!!! SO comfortable and quiet. Wish they were still around.
I've been on this hovercraft back in the early 80's.
The journey over to France was pretty smooth, but the journey back had choppy water and my whole family had sea/travel sickness.
Another cool form of boat is a Hydrofoil (like the boat in Incredibles 2).
I went on one of those in the mid 80's, on a lake in Italy.
While your thinking of taking the Isle of Wight hovercraft, you could also visit other naval museums close by. HMS Victory in Portsmouth was Nelsons flagship, and the Submarine museum in Gosport
I worked on Dr Who in 1971/2, and filmed Jon Pertwee (DW) driving/riding a singleseat hovercraft on the River Severn in one episode. (BBC). A few years later, taking our BBC camera car to a location in France on the big hovercraft, it was the last trip of the day, due to what seemed enormous waves. Horrendous time, like rising up and being thumped down on to concrete at slightly irregular intervals. Memorable in both cases!
We also have a Hovercraft museum just along the coast at Lee on the Solent.
So glad I got to go on one of these!
Ran over tarmac, then sand, then sea - no bumps!
There was also later on High Speed Catamaran fast ferries on the Channel routes and also between Ireland and Great Britain. The largest one was the Stena HSS, look it up on the web!. I thought it was great, nearly as fast as the hovercraft but much larger and more comfortable. I was on it between Belfast and Scotland quite a few times, even getting a full engine room and bridge tour. A very sophisticated machine. Powered by four gas turbines driving water jets. Full of computers, nearly 50 mph top speed. Alas, they are gone, replaced by very nice conventional diesel ferries. The first thing against them was that the wash from them was nearly drowning pedestrians on a seaside path going out of Belfast! So they had to slow down in Belfast Lough and Lough Ryan in Scotland. But the main thing was the fuel consumption. They eventually turned out to be too expensive to run. They ended up scrapped well before their time.
My childhood for a few years was influenced by hovercraft because my stepfather got a job as production manager at Saunders Roe (British Hovercraft Corporation) on the Isle of Wight. I was given a private tour of the factory and taken around an SRN4 being repaired. Went up into the cockpit which is reached by a step ladder.
I always got the latest insider news about hovercraft at the time and he used to bring me home model kits to make of hovercraft and aircraft (he designed components for Spitfires in WWII).
I live near Southsea/Portsmouth, there is a hovercraft Museum at Lee on Solent near Portsmouth, it has an SRN4 that you can walk around as well as many other small hovercraft, models etc
There are also the Royal Navy museums in Portsmouth (ships) and Gosport (submarines) and a few forts plus the D Day museum.
In 1973 Dad decided we would take the Hovercraft from Ramsgate to Calais. He wanted the grandchildren to experience travelling on a Hovercraft. After our holiday we would come back by car ferry Calais to Dover. As soon as the car was on board the Hostess rushed us through to the cabin. We skimmed over the English Channel with the Captain telling us we were going past the Goodwin Sands. We couldn't see anything as the spray covered the windows. All too soon we arrived in Calais. 30-35 minutes compared to 1.1/2 hours on the boat. Didn't have refreshments & the Duty Free didn't come round. Staff spoke aircraft speech. Cabin, Hostess etc. Fun experience. Pleased we did it as they stopped being used. Disappointed that we couldn't look out of the window because of the spray.
Portsmouth to Ryde, Isle of Wight is passengers only. Just after Covid lockdown used to watch live coverage on TH-cam of the Hovercraft departing & arriving at Ryde. Used by commuters working on the mainland.
Thanks for your videos. Really enjoy them.
Went on that big one in July 1981 on my honeymoon to Paris . Very bumpy and extremely noisy. Imagine standing behind a C130 transport plane and multiply by 10 . Love your channel.
I used to use the Dover to Calais hovercraft service for holidays and day trips. I can only describe it as driving down a cobbled street at 70MPH. It was not a relaxing crossing but so fast.
I remember as a child being on a cross channel ferry and seeing the hovercraft go flying past each way, they were fast, but expensive, so it was luxury travel back in the 80s. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I remember that their greatest flaw was bad weather on the channel, so the ferry was the safest bet. Dover-Calais was claimed to be 18 -24 minutes, I think.
I remember going on one in the 1970's from Dover to France on a school trip !!
Always did our yearly holiday to France via Hovercraft until the Chunnel got established. As part of a family where most were very seasick, that 30 minute travel was smoother than the ferries and even when rough we weren't on there long enough to really get sick
I went on the Isle of White one around 1980, I loved every minute of it, as a small child going fast on the water felt fantastic.
The US military still use large hovercraft as landingcrsft
Looks like the video they were watching was about to go into those, But they stopped it as soon as the part about the passenger Hovercraft finished, Can see the progression bar of the video at ¾ of the way through..
Just found the original video, There wasn't any more on the military hovercraft, But it did mention the future plans for "Tracked hovercraft" which would have operated like maglev trains which are being developed in this day & age ( in the originals wrapping up final 2 - 3 minutes ) 👍
😊
Yeah and the Russians and China have a few big military hovercraft.
What has just come to mind, and that is a variant on the hovercraft principle, the sidewall hovercraft. These rode on a cushion of air like normal hovercraft except they had sidewalls that went down into the water. This gave them more stability when turning due to the sidewalls stopping them sliding sideways. I think they also had underwater propellers, probably making them more fuel efficient. Of course these differences meant they were water only craft unable to transition to land.
Yeah, back in 1970's when it was Mum's birthday, we all went to France and back so she could eat snails for lunch. The hovercraft was my Dad's idea (men and their toys!). I don't remember it being so big, but it must have been. I do remember that it was incredibly noisy. On the plus side it was smooth and I didn't get travel sick.
Interestingly hover craft services were operated by British Rail before privatisation.
Hardly 'most' - BR only did the Southampton to Cowes (I of W) route from 1966 to 1981. They had NO other hovercraft routes. Just saying ! 😊
'Interestingly'?? 😆
@@stewedfishproductions9554 sorry I didn’t mean as in the over all did operate the most hover services I was just exaggerating with a modern derogative term for which to carry my point across that at one point in time a government organisation once intended for rail traffic ended up transporting people around along are precious waterways but in some cases along the way it had once involved the usage of crafts which do hover. Thanks for your point though.😉
You are correct Steve. The furthest place in the UK from the sea is around 70 miles.
Cotton in the elms Derbyshire I think
@@djs98blue Hate to tell you both, the closest beach to Hinckley?
It turns out the closest beach to our town is... Clevedon near Bristol at 2 hours 11 minutes - 125 miles away
Hoverspeed versus Hovertravel (The Later of which is the Portsmouth to Isle of Wight service).
I grew up in Portsmouth, and my grandparents used to take me to the Isle of wight, sometimes on the Hovercraft.
Th Hovercraft is suited to the Portsmouth to Isle of wight, because the stretch of water it operates is all sand under water. Most of the Solent is deep enough for regular ferry services, such as the catamaran to Ryde, or the Car Ferry to Fishbourne, the waters around Ryde are exceptionally shallow, and during exceptionally low tides, the water recedes nearly to the end of the Ryde Pier, which is Half a mile long so much you can actually walk nearly as far as the pier length. Just keep your eye on the tide because once it turns, it comes back in ....FAST. Occasionally they have to send out a hovercraft to rescue people trapped on sand banks because the tide trapped them, its the only available vehicle that really does not care about the tide.
There are videos that show Hovercrafts leaving rude at low tide, showing how shallow it gets. th-cam.com/video/O04vxAF31vc/w-d-xo.html
I have travelled on the SRN4 across the channel, it was quick and fast to load and unload because unlike ferries it only took cars, no trucks. BUT... it was noisy, there was quite a lot of vibration from those huge propellers and you saw very little out of the windows once it lifted off because of the spray. Hoverspeed replaced them with the SeaCat catermeran which was very smooth but took about 55 mins rather than the 35mins of the Hovercraft, then the SeaCat was overtaken by the tunnel as the quick convenient way to cross to France (with your car).
The conventional ferries have bars, restaurants, shops, toilets. You can stroll around, go out on deck when the weather is good. It’s a more leisurely and cheaper way to cross the channel. If you want to get across fast, the tunnel is the simple, comfortable, obvious choice.
I remember watching the giant hovercrafts coming into Ramsgate when I was a kid. They were really huge and extremely noisy. It was cool to see the cars just driving off them.
My parents had a fear of flying (after an engine went on fire over the Pyrenees on their honeymoon) but also a love of European travel, so our family holidays would involve driving from Scotland to either Spain or the South of France. Most of these trips would include a trip on the big Hoverlloyd hovercrafts. We absolutely loved them as kids. Fans kick in, huge roar from the engines, rising metres into the air and gliding towards the sea. They could be bumpy, depending on the conditions, but that added to the fun.
The only time we took the ferry, it was a nightmare. Overnight crossing, which was delayed, got on the ferry to find people already in our berth, toilets were overflowing, strong smell of diesel everywhere, my mum got seasick etc etc. Never took the ferry again (as a kid).
As an adult I go on my own European roadtrips. In fact, I'm off on a camping roadtrip to Bosnia next week and the only thing I've booked so far is the ferry. I don't use the Eurotunnel as there is something special about seeing the White Cliffs of Dover recede into the distance, watching all the ships on the Channel and Calais slowly becoming clearer. It marks the official start of the holiday.
I remember going over to France in 1971 on the hovercraft on a day trip, returning in the evening. It was very noisy but the sea was calm. Very exciting.
The biggest ship/ferry I've been on, was the cross channel ferry. I'd have loved to go by HoverSpeed, but it was taken out of service a few years before my first trip to France. I have raced hovercrafts on 'team building days', with a company I used to work for. That's great fun!
When i was a kid in the late 1970's i went on a Hovercraft ride a couple of times. I got souvenirs of it, including a Die Cast Toy hovercraft. I wish i still had it.
We went from Ramsgate to Calais on the SRN4 hovercraft in the late 70's I believe. Our crossings were fairly smooth, but it did depend on the sea state at the time. No they couldn't cope with high winds or rough seas, but they were quite an experience at the time. I remember it was quite noisy, and there was a lot of vibration depending on engine rpm. The airline style seating was ok for a 30 minute ride, but was not all that comfortable if I remember correctly. Not sure how fast we went, but all the shipping in the middle of the channel seemed to be standing still by comparison! 👍
My Grandad worked on making the Princess Anne hovercraft at Saunders Roe Cowes Isle of Wight. I remember going to see it when it was finished, it was huge.
I loved it used a few times to go across channel, didn't feel anything once the engins had started up. Good your bringing this to our attention I must have just taken it for granted. Great video Guys love Andrea liverpool xx
I went on one of those from Dover to Calais and back. It was fast and a lot of 'fun' in a significant swell.
My Brother and his wife used to travel to Calais from Dover and the service was run this side by British Rail and from France by SNCF the french service was a much better service clean well stocked bar with a good of refreshments, so at Dover they drove the car on to lower level of the Hovercraft then went up to the next where you could sit in seats provided and had refreshments they were always lucky to have calmish day but some people said when it was really rough it could be a bit bounce so the engines lift up the craft then you just glided from solid concrete apron into the English Channel then up the other side at Calais then go back to the car and drive off, he all ways used to when they went on holiday to France the car has a holiday as well as it was going back to where it was made being an Renault.😄