The two cross channel Hoverlloyd ferries are to be destroyed.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-35445419
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Bit of a technology dead end really. I suppose there will be a campaign to save them for the nation.
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Yes, hopeless things, thirsty, noisy and unsteerable.
What were they invented for? I seem to remember something about carrying tanks and the like over boggy ground, but perhaps I'm imagining it.
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Oh no, no imagination needed.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Craft_Air_Cushion
I saw them on exercise a few years ago - dropping some light tanks on a beach at speed.
60 ton payload? Belter!
Once again, a brilliant British invention never quite used to its potential sold to the spams, etc etc etc etc...
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>> Bit of a technology dead end really.
It was really, but none the less it was concorde-ish, 60's white heat of technology stuff in its time, and stepping stones like that are always needed.
I suppose there will be a campaign to
>> save them for the nation.
It would be nice, I showed my lad film of them being used, told him we stuffed our car on there and went abroad, and he was amazed at the technology. And for a boy who first went abroad with the car in a high speed sea cat that says something about it.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 30 Jan 16 at 19:35
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Round about 1980 - 1992, I used to use them regularly. Bouncy things but quick. I spent this week in NI, traveling on the ferry from Cairnryan to Belfast and back. The ships Stena use now are comfortable enough but much slower than the old HSS catamaran they used to use. Came back over yesterday in "storm Gertrude", bumpy enough crossing mind.
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Came back from France as footie once. Quite interesting. Hovercrafts are still very much in military use.
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It would be a great shame if not even one of them could be saved. They are part of our maritime history. Isn't this an ideal candidate for the Lottery Heritage Fund?
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>> back. The ships Stena use now are comfortable enough but much slower than the old
>> HSS catamaran they used to use. Came back over yesterday in "storm Gertrude", bumpy enough
>> crossing mind.
For some reason, the HSS cats seem to be falling out of favour. I used the Harwich one a few times, going to holland that was a speedy alternative to the chunnel. I think the harwich service is now a regular slowboat.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 30 Jan 16 at 23:22
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The Holyhead HSS has finally gone. It's engines were time expired and was well past its sell by date. It would cost around a million to get it through its certification. Not cost effective to fix. Towed to Turkey where it's a floating office block.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSC_One_World_Karadeniz
It was affectionally known in the trade as the "Heap of Scandinavian s***e" or the Vomit Comet.
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>> For some reason, the HSS cats seem to be falling out of favour.
IIRC the Achilles heel was fuel consumption together with maintenance costs as suggested by RP. Presumably punters won't pay the premium to cover all of that.
Used one from Folkestone to Boulogne c2000. Rough and noisy going out, noisy and rough coming back. No serious attempt to re-introduce them on the Channel since Speedferries went bust.
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>> No serious attempt to re-introduce them on the Channel since Speedferries went bust.
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the chunnel did for them on that route, did away with its USP, speed. Ferries only survive through price and facilities, none of which a HS cat can offer.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 31 Jan 16 at 09:00
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They are not hovercraft, they are wave piercing catamarans, used extensively in Australia and the far East as ferries and as long range pleasure craft.
youtu.be/nP1K6nS_lLQ
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They are not hovercraft, they are wave piercing catamarans,
I didn't say they were ON. Just responding to Zero's post on the demise of Catamaran's on the Channel routes.
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>> I didn't say they were ON.
My apologies, I missed that bit. The big catamarans are more suited to longer routes, certainly longer than cross channel or inter channel islands.
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The Incat vessels have been tried on various links within the British Isles and to mainland Europe. Most no longer run.
Those that remain seem to be mainly summer only (IoM Steam Packet, Brittany Ferries etc). Will be interesting to see whether, with current low fuel costs, there is any attempt to use them more intensively in 2016.
Can ON point us to the longer routes they operate sucessfully - not a challenge I'm genuinely interested.
Condor Ferries new fast vessel 'Liberation' (not Incat but another Oz builder Austal) has been far from trouble free too.
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>> Condor Ferries new fast vessel 'Liberation' (not Incat but another Oz builder Austal) has been
>> far from trouble free too.
Which is not a High Speed cat, but a stabilised monohull, more commonly known as a trimaran.
Apparently stabilised it aint!
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>> Round about 1980 - 1992, I used to use them regularly.
ISTR my late father preferring hovercrafts to ferries. Looking at all the Belgium stamps in his passports it wouldn't surprise me if you were on the same "flight" as him a few times.
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>> >> Bit of a technology dead end really.
>> It was really, but none the less it was concorde-ish, 60's white heat of technology stuff in its time, and stepping stones like that are always needed.
The white heat of the technological revolution was a bit naff and provincial. Leading edge technology was already in American and Asian hands. We were filleted and sidelined.
Concorde never turned a profit either. It was magnificent but already obsolete when it went into production.
I thought I had posted this already but I can't find it.
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A guy I used to work with was in New York on business when he received a fax which read "Return UK soonest" from his boss.
Guessing ( correctly ) that his department was to be closed down and that he was to be made redundant, he immediately ( using his company credit card ) booked a flight back to head office on Concorde at huge expense.
Resultantly, he walked into his boss's office within a matter of hours of receiving the fax and accepted his fate but had the small pleasure of knowing what would appear on the next credit card statement his boss would have to sign off.
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>> A guy I used to work with was in New York on business when he
>> received a fax which read "Return UK soonest" from his boss.
class
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Trying to find the story of the newspaperman who was ordered back from Hong Kong to London.
He said "Ok, but I need you to pay to bring my furniture and junk back to Britain..."
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>> Bit of a technology dead end really. I suppose there will be a campaign to
>> save them for the nation.
>>
Not a dead end, they have their uses.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Craft_Air_Cushion
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I used one of the cross channel ones in 1980. Very much like an aircraft with allocated seating etc and very noisy.
I think they had to be certified in a similar way to an aircraft with pilots needing a pilots licence etc. which probably added to the cost of maintenance.
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Fuel was the ultimate killer probably.
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www.jameshovercraft.co.uk/hover/srn4/srn4.php
Interesting read. Nice old fashioned website.
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Horrible, vile, blasted, confounded beasts. I would happily volunteer some of my time and energy in helping to dismantle the hateful, wretched horrors, if I weren't convinced that one whiff of the malodorous behemoths would set me off feeding my semi-digested breakfast to the fishies, as always happened when sentenced to spend any amount of time in one of the things.
Good bye, good riddance.
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The things I dislike are the ageing Russian build hydrofoils they still use in parts of Greece for inter island travel. Flying Dolphins I think they are called. You are confined below with no fresh air and they reek of diesel fumes and sweaty passengers.
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>> You are confined below with no fresh air and they reek of diesel fumes and sweaty passengers.
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At least you know what diesel submarine is like, (minus the windows).
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Those Greek efforts sounds dreadful, presumably Soviet built. I remember seeing such things berthed on the Moscow River, but I never stepped on one and I've never been to the Greek Islands so have avoided that fate. The proper cruise ships they have in Russia to do lengthy river cruises are nice (rivers never being choppy, so all is well). The mosquitos in the summer though are appalling. I did the Zolotoye Koltso (Golden Ring) once, brilliant experience save for the mozzies. Party apparatchiks/military bigwigs used to spend much leisure time on board, so there was always booze available in the boat's bar at State prices, which was a thing of evanishing rarity in my time.
I did travel on a cigar-tube shaped hydrofoil to Capri once from Sorrento, in heavy seas. That was an experience similar to the old hovercrafts on the channel - one I'd rather never repeat again. The wife was pregnant at the time, very much in the morning sickness stage. Dreadful experience.
I thank the Great Pink Pixie in the Sky for the Channel Tunnel. Peace be upon it.
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>> I did travel on a cigar-tube shaped hydrofoil to Capri once from Sorrento,
Capri, what a weird place that is. Passed the cafe's and restaurants near the harbour offering lunch at 33 quid a head, made it about 3/4 mile up the hill and had antipasta, fresh bread, and half a litre of good unknown red at a tin table in someones back yard for 3 quid a head.,
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>> I did travel on a cigar-tube shaped hydrofoil to Capri once from Sorrento, in heavy
>> seas. That was an experience similar to the old hovercrafts on the channel - one
>> I'd rather never repeat again. Dreadful experience.
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Ah the Aliscafo.
When we were there many moons ago I decided I would try it out.
Weather was OK. I too did not enjoy it.
I sat on a quayside bollard, feeling very green and we got the next conventional ferry back.
That was all I saw of Capri.
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>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Sea_Monster
>>
>> Hovercraft? Pah!
>>
I was just about to link to that, what an awesome beast, straight out of Thunderbirds.:-)
I think the lack of ability to deal with any kind of wave (amongst other things) killed it.
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If Communism had one benefit, it was that stuff like this could get built without commercial viability even being a consideration.
Those crazy Ruskies even bolted two jet engines to a train:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T66Hkoj02A4
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Them crazy brumies strapped one into a Rover.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8ZIJFlU_pA
As did the crazier Americans. They even had a nuclear powered bomber...how potty was that ?
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Mrs ON used this hydrofoil on her commute to work if she missed her usual ferry, it would arrive at Circular Quay before the ferry she missed.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Manly_(1965)
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Manley to Circular Quay must be the best commute anywhere in the world bar none.
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>> Manley to Circular Quay must be the best commute anywhere in the world bar none.
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Good beaches on the north shore too, a good place to live.
Only if the weather was good, a deep ocean swell coming through the Sydney heads could be entertaining. If you search for manly ferry images there are some pictures of less than pleasant crossings.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 1 Feb 16 at 19:16
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>> Only if the weather was good, a deep ocean swell coming through the Sydney heads
>> could be entertaining. If you search for manly ferry images there are some pictures of
>> less than pleasant crossings.
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Found a clip.
youtu.be/skQeGxFnyCA
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My fantasy commute is to live in Sheerness in a big Georgian naval captain's house in the old Dockyard. And to commute James Bond style up the Thames to the City in a speed boat. Not quite sure where you'd park it though. And Sheerness is, otherwise, a dump. But anyway the commute would be great!
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...in a big Georgian naval captain's house...
How romantic! Does Captain Tamaz feel the same about you?
};---)
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The big hydrofoil ferries that run on the river Neva through St Petersburg are impressive, as are the big plumes of diesel smoke that some of them produce.
youtu.be/fhtA7sLa7Ow
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Change.org petition for anyone interested
tinyurl.com/z5s3xal
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Apparently you can still travel on a Hovercraft to the Isle of Wight.
www.hovertravel.co.uk/
Only commercial hovercraft service in Europe.
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Must have been about 1980ish, I remember doing that route in a hovercraft with our bicycles for a day trip. You had to remove the front wheel form the bicycle to get it in to the storage bin on the outside of the craft. I remember much swearing from my Dad when he twigged this and had to do 4 bikes in a handful of minutes.
Might take my nippers on it (despite my own personal hatred of the things) just for the experience, before they are removed from service.
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>> Might take my nippers on it (despite my own personal hatred of the things) just
>> for the experience, before they are removed from service.
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That's a bit harsh. I'm sure they're utterly adorable.
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>> That's a bit harsh. I'm sure they're utterly adorable.
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I'm trying hard not to say "one of them is".
(kidding)
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As the IoW connection is the most expensive per mile in the world, I'm not surprised at a £1 per minute fare the hovercraft has survived.
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SRN 4's to be destroyed - CGNorwich
