Seaspeed hovercraft

[Cletus]

Lived in Dover all of my life, but never made it to France on a hovercraft.

Did do a few trips with the Goodwin Sands Potholing Club though.

 

[Helvellyn]

In the 1971 Jams Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, Bond uses a Seaspeed SRN4 The Princess Margaret to cross the channel from Dover on his way to Amsterdam.

Hovercraft to Holland

When Bond travels to Holland in Diamonds are Forever , posing as diamond smuggler Peter Franks, he takes the hovercraft across the Eng...

jamesbondlocations.blogspot.com

 

[WesternLancer]

Hovercraft to Holland

When Bond travels to Holland in Diamonds are Forever , posing as diamond smuggler Peter Franks, he takes the hovercraft across the Eng...

jamesbondlocations.blogspot.com

good link!

 

[AY1975]

The Jetfoil also went from London for a year. Tower Pier to Zeebrugge was the route, ridiculous as it sounds today. I think there was also a later route from St Katherine's Dock to Oostende, and the Jetfoils (unlike the hovercraft) were much more comparable to aircraft, especially in terms of stability. I believe that P&O explicitly marketed the Jetfoils as being like a passenger plane, with meals served onboard and an experience that was designed to mimic being in the air.

In practice though, the Jetfoils weren't really suitable for the Channel at all. I'd even say that the failure of the Jetfoils helped push through the Channel Tunnel in the end, because there was a clear and strong demand for a fast link between London and Paris/Brussels.

It also went from Ramsgate for a time in the mid 1990s, both the Jetfoil and the conventional ferry to Ostend. I know this is getting off topic, though: maybe it warrants a separate thread on the Jetfoil.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It also went from Ramsgate for a time in the mid 1990s, both the Jetfoil and the conventional ferry to Ostend. I know this is getting off topic, though: maybe it warrants a separate thread on the Jetfoil.

It probably does... and don't forget that when introduced, the original departure point for the Jetfoil was St Katharine's Dock in London.

I'm not sure if that was only ever intended to be temporary until the Ramsgate facilities were ready, or if it was simply very quickly* found to be uneconomic to operate from that far up the Thames.


*Pun intended...

 

[izvor]

It also went from Ramsgate for a time in the mid 1990s, both the Jetfoil and the conventional ferry to Ostend. I know this is getting off topic, though: maybe it warrants a separate thread on the Jetfoil.

I remember this too: a real pain having to go all the way to Ramsgate, then on a bus to the harbour. Probably a slightly shorter crossing but the inconvenience outweighed this. Is this what killed the service? Did it move from Dover due to the closure of Western Docks station, or vice-versa?

Regarding hovercraft services, a bizarre one in Kent was across the Swale to the Ferry Inn on the Isle of Harty in 1970, which unsurprisingly failed after a few days. Presumably it wasn't an SRN4!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harty,_Kent

 

[Grumpy]

a dedicated Boulogne-Aéroglisseurs station and a fast turbo train to Paris Nord.

Nice to see the word Aeroglisseur again. Most of my GCE "A" level French has long gone but this word which was on the side of the old model kit box strangely stuck (sorry but it is a nostalgia thread).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 8 Aug 2026 ==

Also the other issue: the capacity of the hovercraft was just too low. They could only carry 50 cars and 300 passengers, which meant higher fares. Combined with the reputation for making people sick, you can see why people would prefer a 75 minute crossing from Dover instead, or the 35 minute Channel Tunnel.

One other issue: the hovercraft terminals were built like airport terminals. The idea was that they were a destination in themselves, designed to accommodate large amounts of foot passengers. But this contributed to higher operating costs, especially when compared to the very basic terminals in the Eastern Docks at Dover and Calais.

A further issue was probably fuel costs. The aircraft-derived gas turbine engines used prodigious amounts of relatively expensive fuel

 

[Cheshire Scot]

I remeber using it once just for a change, I recall it being a bit of a bumpy ride even though the seas were pretty calm.

 

[eisenach]

From autumn 1979 to late summer 1980, I lived in Boulogne-sur-Mer and used the hovercraft and ferries quite a bit. When the wind was in the right direction, you could hear them all across town, coming and going. The French vessel was quite impressive, but very unreliable and spent what seemed like most of its time undergoing repairs. In the summer of 1980, I manned the AA desk at the hoverport.

One dark day in February, I had taken my motorbike to the hoverport and went as a foot passenger to Dover, to go to the bank. The weather deteriorated and the last return flight was cancelled and we were put on the Sealink ferry to Calais. I protested about not being able to pick the bike, as the hoverport was quite out of town. The Paris linking train was extended to Calais, and a special stop was made at Boulogne for the hovercraft crew and me to get off and be ferried by bus out to the hoverport to pick up our vehicles. Quite fun when you're a youngster.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The French vessel was quite impressive, but very unreliable and spent what seemed like most of its time undergoing repairs.

That would be the Sedan N500?

 

[eisenach]

That would be the Sedan N500?

Yes. Went on it once, and luckily got a front seat.

 

[Taunton]

The French vessels (two) had most unfortunate times. The first had its maiden flight at the Bordeaux factory, but was then completely destroyed by fire just two weeks later . The second, now only, craft was thoroughly unreliable, it also apparently sometimes could not climb the Dover ramp against a headwind, even at full thunderous power, and had to return everyone to Boulogne, which must have been double aggravating in such windy conditions, plus the passengers would have to endure a third crossing in the British craft. This seemed some major design defect, it was finally scrapped on the Boulogne ramp right in front of the departing passengers' lounge.

 

[Prime586]

The Jetfoil also went from London for a year. Tower Pier to Zeebrugge was the route, ridiculous as it sounds today. I think there was also a later route from St Katherine's Dock to Oostende, and the Jetfoils (unlike the hovercraft) were much more comparable to aircraft, especially in terms of stability. I believe that P&O explicitly marketed the Jetfoils as being like a passenger plane, with meals served onboard and an experience that was designed to mimic being in the air.

In practice though, the Jetfoils weren't really suitable for the Channel at all. I'd even say that the failure of the Jetfoils helped push through the Channel Tunnel in the end, because there was a clear and strong demand for a fast link between London and Paris/Brussels.

There was another short-lived Boeing Jetfoil service operated between Liverpool and Dublin by B&I with the Cu na Mara (Hound Of The Sea) between April and November 1980. During the winter of 1980, she underwent a refit to improve fuel economy and bad weather performance, and was chartered by RTM Belgium to provide crew training for the Ostend-London route.

The Liverpool-Dublin service resumed in May 1981, but it was withdrawn twice with mechanical issues during the season and was often cancelled due to bad weather (like the Channel, the rough waters of the Irish Sea were not ideally suited to the Jetfoil). As B&I were in financial trouble they decided to cut their losses and withdraw the service permanently at the end of the season in November.

The vessel was laid up in Arklow and put up for sale. In January 1985 she was sold to Sado Kisen KK in Japan (which operates ferry services between the mainland and Sado Island in Niigata prefecture) and renamed Ginga. A year later she was transported by ship to Hong Kong and onwards to Niigata, and entered service on the Ryōtsu-Niigata route. She is still in service there, alongside two newer Kawasaki-built Jetfoils Tsubasa (1989 - the first Jetfoil built under licence by Kawasaki) and Suisei (built 1991), though they have all had the forward windows on the lower deck plated over due to repeated damage in rough seas. In 2019 the Ginga was involved with a collision with a large marine mammal that damaged her rear foil and hull, but was repaired and returned to service.

The Jetfoil is still very popular in Japan, with 4 Boeing-built and 16 Kawasaki-built examples still active (with another under construction, after a gap of 8 years). A number were operated by JR Kyushu Jet Ferries on the Beetle service between Fukuoka and Busan, South Korea between 1990 and 2022. During a visit to Nagasaki last year I was lucky enough to see the arrival and departure of Kyushu Shosen's Kawasaki Jetfoil Pegasus, which reminded me of standing on the observation deck at the Pier Head with my dad to see the inaugral trip of the Cu na Mara.

The special low gangways on the centre section of the Princes Landing Stage in Liverpool that were installed to access the Jetfoil were still in situ when that section sank in 2004 and was scrapped.

The world's first passenger hovercraft service was also on the Mersey estuary - between Moreton and Rhyl, starting in July 1962. A combination of unreliability of the Vickers V.A-3 hovercraft and it's inability to handle poor weather (it was skirtless, so could not handle anything more than small waves) led to services only being run on 19 of the 59 days that were scheduled, and it's fate was sealed when the craft broke free from it's moorings at Rhyl in a storm in September, was swept out to to sea and then dashed against the groynes on the beach.

 

[WesternLancer]

There was another short-lived Boeing Jetfoil service operated between Liverpool and Dublin by B&I with the Cu na Mara (Hound Of The Sea) between April and November 1980. During the winter of 1980, she underwent a refit to improve fuel economy and bad weather performance, and was chartered by RTM Belgium to provide crew training for the Ostend-London route.

The Liverpool-Dublin service resumed in May 1981, but it was withdrawn twice with mechanical issues during the season and was often cancelled due to bad weather (like the Channel, the rough waters of the Irish Sea were not ideally suited to the Jetfoil). As B&I were in financial trouble they decided to cut their losses and withdraw the service permanently at the end of the season in November.

The vessel was laid up in Arklow and put up for sale. In January 1985 she was sold to Sado Kisen KK in Japan (which operates ferry services between the mainland and Sado Island in Niigata prefecture) and renamed Ginga. A year later she was transported by ship to Hong Kong and onwards to Niigata, and entered service on the Ryōtsu-Niigata route. She is still in service there, alongside two newer Kawasaki-built Jetfoils Tsubasa (1989 - the first Jetfoil built under licence by Kawasaki) and Suisei (built 1991), though they have all had the forward windows on the lower deck plated over due to repeated damage in rough seas. In 2019 the Ginga was involved with a collision with a large marine mammal that damaged her rear foil and hull, but was repaired and returned to service.

The Jetfoil is still very popular in Japan, with 4 Boeing-built and 16 Kawasaki-built examples still active (with another under construction, after a gap of 8 years). A number were operated by JR Kyushu Jet Ferries on the Beetle service between Fukuoka and Busan, South Korea between 1990 and 2022. During a visit to Nagasaki last year I was lucky enough to see the arrival and departure of Kyushu Shosen's Kawasaki Jetfoil Pegasus, which reminded me of standing on the observation deck at the Pier Head with my dad to see the inaugral trip of the Cu na Mara.

The special low gangways on the centre section of the Princes Landing Stage in Liverpool that were installed to access the Jetfoil were still in situ when that section sank in 2004 and was scrapped.

The world's first passenger hovercraft service was also on the Mersey estuary - between Moreton and Rhyl, starting in July 1962. A combination of unreliability of the Vickers V.A-3 hovercraft and it's inability to handle poor weather (it was skirtless, so could not handle anything more than small waves) led to services only being run on 19 of the 59 days that were scheduled, and it's fate was sealed when the craft broke free from it's moorings at Rhyl in a storm in September, was swept out to to sea and then dashed against the groynes on the beach.

great post - interesting stuff

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Hoverlloyd operated the competing service from Pegwell Bay Ramsgate to Calais

 

[Egg Centric]

Why are the Isle of Wight ones so smooth when by all accounts the SR4s were anything but? Something to do with size? Or have I just got lucky (have only been on a couple of times)?

 

[D6130]

Why are the Isle of Wight ones so smooth when by all accounts the SR4s were anything but? Something to do with size? Or have I just got lucky?

May have been something do with the fact that IoW craft are making a ten minute journey across the relatively sheltered waters of the Solent, whereas the SRN-4s were making longer crossings of the often choppier waters of the English Channel, carrying heavier loads....including cars.

 

[D7666]

I did more crossings on these things in the flight observer's seat than I did on the cushions...

I also managed to get all six SRN4s for "haulage" ( "hoverage"? "flightage"? ), yes - including the short lived GH2005 "Sure"

More than once, when they were doing the £1 non-landing returns, I did three return trips in a single day from Dover, which confused the hell out of teh customs people when they found I wasn't carrying a single fag or bottle...

...and I was a passenger on the very last return flight on the final day of operation, both ways.

I'm at 13 x GHxxxx hovercraft for "haulage" + one or two unidentified craft.

Ten return cross channel trips = 20 flights; some of those were day trips to Calais - if you timed it right, early 1990s summer weekends before tunnel, you could have 8 different SNCF BB67400s (in 4 pairs) in less than 2 h between Calais Marine (or whatever it was called) and Calais Ville. The total loony move was to do boat trains from Victoria - to get MLVs in for haulage, walk round from Western Dock to the hoverport, and at the other end walk from hoverport to Calais Marine. Did that twice, 16 differnet BB67400s and four different MLVs.

I had 5 x SRN4 including GH2005 - the one I missed was GH2054. (Never had the SNCF device; never saw it actually working.)

1960-blip year unknown I had what I now know to have been an SRN6 on a trip round the bay off the beach at Mudeford Spit; never been able to identify that working - it is /not/ listed in the known hover gen sites and I been in touch with site owner(s) on this. Apart from that unknown, I had 4 SRN6s, including Southampton Cowes. It was probably this first working that catalysed an interest in the things.

The other /possibly/ unidentified craft was Copenhagen to Malmo that I did on a day trip to CPH in Ye Olde Dayes when you could turn up and go on the day "fun flights" day trips at LHR. Two MD80s and an AP188. The AP188 bore no reg marks that I could see - it was /probably/ GH registered ; it was named Viking Freja but so far unable to identify if this one is different to or ended up on IOWs.


And then IOW two AP188s and two GH12000s.


I have seen it somewhere that if the hovercraft had not been invented in 20C, but only more recently invented in 21C, it would never have been permitted to carry passengers, with current GB operations to IOW only existing as a legacy thing. No idea if it is true.



Lastly, methinks the allegation of hovercraft being nausea inducing is grossly exaggerated and more urban legend promoted by media than anything else. When the sea is rough, it is equally rough whether you float or hover. It is no less a myth than APT-E tilting made you sick.

 

[Taunton]

In multiple Dover trips I never experienced any pitching or rolling at all. Plenty of vibration, of course. That includes one return where the Hoverport at Boulogne was announced on approach as "weather too bad", the Turbotrain diverted to Calais Ville without even slackening speed, the transfer buses were already alongside there, and hardly any time was lost. Notably impressive. Hovercraft segment a non-event.

One family member from a prior generation said the experience was reminiscent of flying across the Atlantic in a 1950s piston-engined airliner. Except it didn't take 18 hours to get there! Now that must have been fatiguing.

Was once in an inside, windowless compartment that seated about 10. My companion of the era, during the crossing, said "it's like being in a time machine".

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The AP188 bore no reg marks that I could see - it was /probably/ GH registered ; it was named Viking Freja but so far unable to identify if this one is different to or ended up on IOWs.

That craft became "Island Express" so you've probably had it in both guises?

I've driven a Griffon 2000 Mk 1 and a Griffon 8000... actually the first 8000, which became H-181 with the Indian Coastguard.

 

[D7666]

The other /possibly/ unidentified craft was Copenhagen to Malmo that I did on a day trip to CPH in Ye Olde Dayes when you could turn up and go on the day "fun flights" day trips at LHR. Two MD80s and an AP188. The AP188 bore no reg marks that I could see - it was /probably/ GH registered ; it was named Viking Freja but so far unable to identify if this one is different to or ended up on IOWs.

That craft became "Island Express" so you've probably had it in both guises?

ooooooohh new gen TYVM !!!

Yes I have had Island Express (GH2132)

I'd not been able to match it with the SAS name before - although I've long not looked into it had forgotten about it actually.

So that makes me 13 + the unknown SRN6 from Mudeford.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

So that makes me 13 + the unknown SRN6 from Mudeford.

The occasional Mudeford flights tended to be operated by craft from the Hovertravel fleet, have you tried asking the Hovercraft Museum if they have any records of which craft worked on which dates...?

Southampton - Cowes was Seaspeed, but I think some of their craft ended up with Hovertravel, so...

 

[D7666]

The occasional Mudeford flights tended to be operated by craft from the Hovertravel fleet, have you tried asking the Hovercraft Museum if they have any records of which craft worked on which dates...?

yes those are exactly the people I had been in past contact with with no joy

I can't be sure of the date, except it must have been summer 1968 or earlier. As I was 9 then, I would not have been looking for GH registration numbers.

It has to be summer 1968, or before, since I am pretty we used trolleybuses the same day, those ended April 1969, but the hovercraft trip was in a summer, so was not 1969.

I ought to get around to visiting the hovercraft museum one day.

 

[WesternLancer]

I was always inspired by the box art work on the Airfix SRN4 hovercraft kit (various examples can be seen for sale on e-bay) - but never actually had that kit -it was probably in the more expensive part of the Airfix range.

examples of the Airfix artwork (Hoverlloyd livery not sure if the kit included transfers for other operators to choose from) can be found on e-bay sales I see.

Pretty sure we did go on a family holiday and used the Hovercraft once - with the family car - probably in the early 1980s.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I was always inspired by the box art work on the Airfix SRN4 hovercraft kit (various examples can be seen for sale on e-bay) - but never actually had that kit -it was probably in the more expensive part of the Airfix range.

examples of the Airfix artwork (Hoverlloyd livery not sure if the kit included transfers for other operators to choose from) can be found on e-bay sales I see.

Yes, the kit did have Seaspeed decals as well.

I thought I saw something a few months ago somewhere saying the kit was being re-released, so I'd certainly keep your eyes open. The kit, incidentally, features the craft in Mk 1 form.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Lastly, methinks the allegation of hovercraft being nausea inducing is grossly exaggerated and more urban legend promoted by media than anything else. When the sea is rough, it is equally rough whether you float or hover. It is no less a myth than APT-E tilting made you sick.

Personal experience: I’m prone to seasickness if it’s even mildly rough, on ships and boats of all sizes including my worst ever on a hydrofoil thing in the Bay of Naples, but I was 100% fine on an SRN4. My partner on the very same SRN4 crossing was distinctly green around the gills and she’s never seasick on a ship. Maybe it’s a different motion, bouncy and “hard” but not rolling and “soft” like a ship? Perhaps combined with the heavy vibration? Don’t know.

 

[Prime586]

ooooooohh new gen TYVM !!!

Yes I have had Island Express (GH2132)

I'd not been able to match it with the SAS name before - although I've long not looked into it had forgotten about it actually.

So that makes me 13 + the unknown SRN6 from Mudeford.

Here's a potted history of the hovercraft that operated the Copenhagen-Malmo route.

Vosper Thornycroft VT-1 002 GH-2002 Alpha and 003 GH-2003 Beta ran a trial service on the Malmo-Copenhagen route from March to September 1972. The VT-1 was an oddball hybrid air cushion vehicle that used conventional underwater propellers for drive. These two production VT-1s were subsequently scrapped in Portsmouth in 1973.

The prototype VT-1 001 was later modified to change to ducted fan drive as the VT-2. It was purchased by the MoD/PE for the Interservices Hovercraft Trials Unit, but no further orders were placed. After the Unit closed in 1981, the VT-2 and it's remaining spares were sold to Hoverspeed as it used the same Marine Proteus engnes as the SRN-4s. It was moved to Pegwell Bay, stripped of usable spares and scrapped.

DSØ/SAS operations:
Second production AP1-88/100-004 GH-9030 Lommen, delivered 1984
Renamed Liv Viking (registration A394) after trials, it carried the unofficial SAS registration OY-LIV. Withdrawn from service in 1994 with it's sisters after being replaced on the route by a pair of catamarans and laid up in Copenhagen. Sold to Hovertravel in 1997, it was intended for use on the IoW crossing but was never recommissioned, and was laid up in the IoW. It was eventually rebuilt by Hoverwork for sale to the Canadian Coastguard. Renamed Penac (registration CH-CCH), it was flown to Antwerp for transport by ship and delivered in 2004. The CCGS withdrew it from service in 2017 and it was laid up and put up for sale. it was sold in 2023 to Northeast Diving, a marine repair company based in New Brunswick (which required an epic voyage down the US west coast, through the Panama Canal on a ship, and then up the US east coast) for diving support work.

Third production AP1-88/100-005 GH-9031 Svalan, delivered 1984.
Renamed Freya Viking (registration A395) before entering service (unofficial SAS registration OY-FRE)
Entered service alongside Liv Viking in 1984. Like it's sisters it was withdrawn in 1994 and eventually sold to Hovertravel in 1997. After some time laid up it underwent a refit and was renamed Island Express (GH2132) and entered service on the IoW route in 2001. Withdrawn from service in 2018, she and the other withdrawn AP1-88/100 Freedom 90 (GH-2114) and AP1-88/80 Courier (GH-2108, which had been laid up since 2009 after being bought back from the Bahamas) were sold in 2021 to Aurora Cargo for inland river logistics work in Papua New Guinea and transported from Merlin Quay by barge.

First production AP1-88/100-003 GH-9029. Used for manufacturer trials and demo work including short leases for ferry operations in Canada (1986, as Expo Spirit, under registration CH-ASE) and Norway (1987). In 1988 it was acquired for the DSØ/SAS Malmo-Copenhagen route to run alongside it's two sisters. Refurbished to SAS specs it was renamed Idun Viking (registration A433, unofficial SAS registration OY-IDU) and entered service in early 1989. Like it's sisters it was withdrawn in 1994 and eventually sold to Hovertravel in 1997. After a refit it was reregisteed GH-2124 and entered service on the IoW route under it's existing name. It was then sold in 2003 to F. H. Bertling to support oil and gas exploration in the Caspian Sea alongside Australian-built AP1-88/300 Manta. It was flown to Ostend, where it was loaded onto a ship for transport to Kazakhstan.

 

[Razorblades]

Yes, the kit did have Seaspeed decals as well.

I thought I saw something a few months ago somewhere saying the kit was being re-released, so I'd certainly keep your eyes open. The kit, incidentally, features the craft in Mk 1 form.

It's been available for a few months now, I picked up a couple back in May, my interest being piqued by having assembled one as a child, following a cross-channel trip (with car, an Austin 1100 as featured in the kit) in the early seventies. The return was by conventional ferry and I recall making a model of such a vessel too (green and orange on white - did this reflect any ferry companies' colours circa 1973, I wonder?).

I've always been fascinated by the SRN4 since the experience - it was the loudest thing I had ever experienced and remained so until I saw Killing Joke a decade later. Back in the day it ranked up there with Concorde in iconic, 'Shape of the Future' terms, and really grabbed a transport-obsessed lad's attention.

 

[D6130]

It's been available for a few months now, I picked up a couple back in May, my interest being piqued by having assembled one as a child, following a cross-channel trip (with car, an Austin 1100 as featured in the kit) in the early seventies. The return was by conventional ferry and I recall making a model of such a vessel too (green and orange on white - did this reflect any ferry companies' colours circa 1973, I wonder?).

I've always been fascinated by the SRN4 since the experience - it was the loudest thing I had ever experienced and remained so until I saw Killing Joke a decade later. Back in the day it ranked up there with Concorde in iconic, 'Shape of the Future' terms, and really grabbed a transport-obsessed lad's attention.

O/T....but the green, orange and white ferry livery sounds like Townsend-Thoresen.

 

[Gloster]

Useless piece of information: the Copenhagen-Malmö service was frequently described in English, both on board or in publicity, as a ’flying boat’ as the Danish word for a hydrofoil is ’flyvebåd’, which translates literally as flying boat. They never seemed to correct this.

Somebody I knew had the SRN-4 model and built it with the option of leaving part of the roof unpainted so that you could look into it. He made it beautifully, but then just threw it out. I rescued the four cars for N-gauge railways and still have them fifty years later. Two are VW Beetles and the other two are, I think, MG 1300s, not BMC 1000s.