|
Been watching a programme on moving a big Hovercraft to Canada. Anyone remember the SRN4s on the channel crossings. I crossed over once as a "footie" - these were monsters - 200 tons and could travel at 40 to 60 knots....
|
|
Yes, went on one in those early days. Quick but horrid to travel on.
|
My sisters son had a small hovercraft back in the 80's and he brought it down to me to sort out when I was in the car tuning game.
We lived by Father Thames at the time, right next to the Tate Modern and launched the craft just below The Founders Arms (Youngs)
Blimming thing made more noise than anything, but we could never get the critter to hover, he flogged it soon afterwards.
|
|
Used to use them a fair bit. Bouncy and noisy but quick enough.
|
|
I also remember a few trips on the SRN4. Might well have been ski trips when we took the car, I don't think they took coaches aboard.
|
Pegwell bay?
Used it once and was most impressed.
They opened both ends and a mass of staff arrived. Arrivals departed four abreast at the front while departures loaded four abreast from the rear. Parked us real tight and fitted clamps that pulled the car down an inch or so before we'd opened doors. SWMBO got out and departed with one sprog while I sorted out other, nappy bag and other such stuff, found I didn't have enough arms, only to see member of staff take child and follow missus while I followed on.
Really fast turn round!
Couldn't see a damn thing out of the windows for spray on route!
|
|
They were seen the vehicle of the future at the time and Chris Cockerell was a sort James Dyson of his day promoting their use . Didn't in end prove particularly useful other than in a few niche areas. Bit like Mr Dyson's vacuum cleaners.
|
|
Do they have any advantages other than being all-terrain, more or less, and amphibious? They were a British thing and promoted commercially for a while... but I would expect them to be high-maintenance cost and fuel-hungry, apart from being far from compact in terms of passenger or goods space/machinery space ratio... Small ones may have military uses but they seem essentially naff.
|
>> Do they have any advantages other than being all-terrain
Apart from some military operations, how were these useful for the channel crossing?
Big waves would either stop them or be terrible for passengers. Not that big either so another negative. Probably why they are no more for the Channel crossing.
|
As a matter of fact, I can remember one or two fairly simple rotary lawnmowers that worked rather well on the hover principle.
Crap mode of commercial transport though.
|
>> Really fast turn round!
>>
>> Couldn't see a damn thing out of the windows for spray on route!
>>
Horrendously expensive to run too, they had a huge appetite for fuel !
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 7 Jan 14 at 10:19
|
Rode the SRN4 once in its relatively early days with Hoverlloyd from Calais to Pegwell Bay. Like riding a big dipper for 40 minutes.
A few years later did a day trip using the French Sedam N500 'aeroglisseur'. Somewhat more comfortable and as the cabin was higher up there was some visibility.
AFAIK the Hovertravel service from Portsmouth to Ryde is one of the few remaining commercial hovercraft operations.
|
Ive been on the Portsmouth to Ryde hovercraft.
I loved it but other posters have previously said, a huge appetite for fuel and you can't see too well for all of the spray on the windows.
I guess it's a technological dead end and died out for a few reasons (fuel economy, rough seas and can't carry a huge amount of cargo)
|
|
Supposed to be excellent as ice breakers-they blow the water away from under the ice which then collapses.
|
>> I guess it's a technological dead end and died out for a few reasons (fuel
>> economy, rough seas and can't carry a huge amount of cargo)
On the Dover Straight it worked as a premium product for those willing to pay for a faster crossing. In doing so it killed off the aircraft ferry using Bristol 170 and later Carvair.
The market was subsequently cornered by the tunnel which saw off any chance of a modern hovercraft being developed.
|
>> The market was subsequently cornered by the tunnel which saw off any chance of a
>> modern hovercraft being developed.
>>
Thank the sweet Lord (or Spaghetti Monster). I used the hover a few times pre-tunnel and hated every second. The stench of the thing combined with the roughness of the ride had me near suicidal a few times. But then I hate all forms of water borne transport, I have no legs for it. Barf. The last time I used a ferry was in 2008 to go Dover-Boulogne. Torture. Never again.
Tunnel every time. Hang the expense.
|
IIRC the tickets were interchangeable between the Sealink ferry and the Sealink hovercraft-I only used the ferry if I wanted lunch or dinner on board.Trying to drink a pint of beer on the hovercraft was almost impossible-unless you used a straw.
I guess it's a technological dead end and died out for a few reasons
>> On the Dover Straight it worked as a premium product for those willing to pay
>> for a faster crossing. In doing so it killed off the aircraft ferry using Bristol
>> 170 and later Carvair.
>>
|
Used it a couple of times to link up with the Autotrain at Calais. Three 'flights' out of four it was very, very good. Best of all was the time to load and (especially) unload - with only about 30 vehicles on board, there was none of the waiting in the car that's part of the Brittany Ferries experience. Getting everyone off took about two minutes.
But when it was bad... The last time was in 2000. In July, but it was 8°C when we arrived (off the train from sunny Narbonne) and blowing. It must have been borderline whether to go at all, but the 35-minute crossing took over an hour, in what the waves turned into a boat, and not a particularly seaworthy one. I've had one worse Channel crossing, but I can understand why the hovercraft didn't last long after that one.
|
I always thought these were amazing bits of engineering. Commercially hopeless or not, the sight and sound of them charging up the slipway and out of the water, with those four Proteus turbines howling away was something else. The idea that something so massive was capable of nearly 100 mph was also incredibly impressive.
Hovercraft are probably my favourite mode of transport. Again, I know they don't make sense in so many ways, but there is just something about them that appeals to me. Could only have been invented here in Britain.
|
yep, the old cross channel hovercrafts offered the experience of noise and overcrowding of a flight in a short haul aircraft, but with the added discomfort of seasickness
I remember seeing this when I was young - North Wales was as far as we ever got on summer holiday
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-25194960
If it gets of the ground (*) again, I won't rush to experience it
(*) Shall I get my coat ?
|
Hovercraft were used in the 1970s to patrol the sea between Bahrain & Saudi Arabia to deter smuggling.
In 1970 the going price in SA for Black Market whisky was £10.00 a bottle =say £100 today.
Both Hovercraft needed repairs over a period of 3 days - whisky dropped to £5.00.
It's an ill wind that does not blow good for someone.
|
>> (*) Shall I get my coat ?
Lift your skirt.
|
We have an RNLI hovercraft stationed at Southend, very effective on the sand flats when there is insufficient water for the inshore boats.
Quite a few stranded bathers are still alive today thanks to the hovercraft.
rnli.org/aboutus/lifeboatsandstations/lifeboats/Pages/Hovercraft.aspx
|
|
Yeah one can well believe that. Swampy terrain too. There's quite a lot of it here and there in the world.
|
I loved it. Lived in Surrey at the time and used to catch the 7.30 to Calais which gave us time for a good day out in Abbeville or around the Somme estuary and back for the last return flight of the day. That was the quick one, everyone wanted to get home - I think the quickest we did it was 23 minutes.
You can still see them in the Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-the-Solent.
|
|
And I'd forgotten how fast some of them could go in reasonably calm conditions. No wonder BA wanted to muscle in on them... but look, not quite all-terrain, iffy in mounting seas, OK they floated even when they lost power but the fuel consumption made them redundant almost from the start. And those skirts must have worn out getting muddy and ragged at the bottom even faster than the skirts of anarchist feminist militants in 19th century European capitals.
|
>> And I'd forgotten how fast some of them could go in reasonably calm conditions.
I bet one of these would out run it:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_vehicle
Thinking about it, that's probably my number 1 nightmare form of transport.
Last edited by: Alanović on Thu 9 Jan 14 at 09:41
|
SRN 4 - Zero
