Hover travel to the IoW: the only passenger hovercraft company currently operating in Britain

[editor]

I honestly thought all the hovercrafts had stopped operating. But now I want to go on this one.
Ten minutes from Southsea to Ryde but at £24.60 return.



Looks tiny compared to the channel ones I've been on, but a small hovercraft is better than no hovercraft IMO.

Fastest Isle of Wight Ferry | Portsmouth to Isle of Wight

Hovertravel offers the fastest Isle of Wight ferry crossing from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight. Book your 10-minute crossing with Hovertravel today.

www.hovertravel.co.uk

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Always wanted to go on a hovercraft since seeing them on telly as a kid. Portsmouth is a bit far though.

 

[platinumsage]

My dad took me on one once when I was a kid, because whenever we visited Portsmouth we used to stand and watch them come in. He was on the dole at the time so it must have been a big outlay.

I remember the view from the window consisted of mud spatter and a bit of the cushion. I also remember them being bigger than the one pictured, which looks quite new?

 

[xenon]

I went on a Hoverspeed to Calais on a day trip once. They're great. Much quieter on the inside...

 

[Limejuice]

I once did a return across the Channel by hovercraft way back when.

I thought it was going to be a wonderful, smooth experience. After all, hovercraft just seemed to glide serenely across the water. Of course it was going to be better than those diesel-reeking vomit-bucket ferries I usually took...

Well, you know how they say the worst place to sit on the bus if you get travel sick is just above the axle, in the seats that get the maximum amount of vibration? Well, I discovered similarly that the worst place to sit on a hovercraft is anywhere on the hovercraft.

The whole bloody thing vibrates, shakes, rattles, jerks, yaws, groans and slaps across the waves from the second it leaves the slipway. Gliding serenely, my arse. It turns the contents of your stomach into a milkshake of sick. I'm sure the Isle of Wight route can't get as choppy as the Channel, but I for one will have to avoid it.

It's just a bugger being someone who gets seasick in a deep bath.

 

[8ball]

I always wanted a go on one of the little racing ones.

 

[Duncan2]

Yep that was my recollection of crossing the channel on a hovercraft (Sealink i think) it was like driving twenty miles on a cattle-grid.It was fast though.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

For a period last year when the Wightlink Fast Cat from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde was having some sort of maintenance the combined train and ferry ticket to Ryde Esplanade included the hovercraft (and bus from the station to the hoverport). Went on it as a kid and the guy who used to do my accounts also lived in Southsea and every time I'd go to see him I'd take time to walk along the front and look at the hovercraft, they're quite large IRL (not as big as the car carrying ones that used to go from Dover, obvs.) And they make a right racket when they get going

 

[tim]

The Princess Margaret was the most appropriately named vessel ever as a voyage on her felt like an erratic, drunken lurch across the channel

 

[xenon]

I don't remember this rattling, sicky thing. Was fine if I recall. I only had a couple of ferry trips to the IoW to compare too but still.

 

[kalidarkone]

I once did a return across the Channel by hovercraft way back when.

I thought it was going to be a wonderful, smooth experience. After all, hovercraft just seemed to glide serenely across the water. Of course it was going to be better than those diesel-reeking vomit-bucket ferries I usually took...

Well, you know how they say the worst place to sit on the bus if you get travel sick is just above the axle, in the seats that get the maximum amount of vibration? Well, I discovered similarly that the worst place to sit on a hovercraft is anywhere on the hovercraft.

The whole bloody thing vibrates, shakes, rattles, jerks, yaws, groans and slaps across the waves from the second it leaves the slipway. Gliding serenely, my arse. It turns the contents of your stomach into a milkshake of sick. I'm sure the Isle of Wight route can't get as choppy as the Channel, but I for one will have to avoid it.

It's just a bugger being someone who gets seasick in a deep bath.

Yes that is my memory from the 70's.....didn't like it.