The pilot of the hovercraft would like to thank his fans for their support.

Been on a Hovercraft a couple of times. It lifts up and rides above the sea. If the sea is rough it does get bumpy but 99.9% of the time it's smooth.
Well worth travelling on one.

Been on the hovercraft but many years ago. Remember it being smooth but noisy. Great to see they are still running.😊

I'm just old enough that, when I was little, I went on the hovercraft once or twice across the channel. That one was quite bumpy 😂

My step father worked for British Hovercraft Corporation, in Cowes in the 1960s. Before they started building hovercraft they were called Saunders Roe and built flying boats/seaplanes. BHC built the huge cross channel hovercraft and other smaller hovercraft. Now the location has various businesses and a boat museum.

If you guys like garlic, you really have to visit the Garlic Farm next time you're on the Island (and you definitely need to try the Hover!).

Did a day trip to the Isle of Wight on the hovercraft a couple of years ago. Great experience. There was a combo ticket with bus travel (including open top buses I think). Great way to see the island.

I used to go to the Isle of Wight every year on holiday and I’ve used the hovercraft to get to and from Portsmouth from Ryde. You should definitely visit Shanklin when you go back to the Isle of Wight and the needles. Quite surprised you’d never been there before to be honest

I live in Ryde and use the hovercraft every other week to go to Portsmouth for football. Yes it can be bumpy, yes it is loud, but it’s the quickest way to cross the Solent. I also work at the company in East Cowes that used to build them.

Nice video! Places to visit on your next trip - Carisbrooke Castle and it’s donkey-powered well, Freshwater Bay, Tennyson Down and iconic view of The Needles, Godshill for model village and cake!

Definitely a cool one guys, I love you hear you giggle.  😊

I love that you started the video in front of HMS Warrior! She is such a beautiful ship, with a really interesting history. Wish I wasn't all the way in Canada so I could see her myself!

Went over to the Isle of Wight and back in the Hovercraft after coming back to England in 1969 for postgrad. Had left Portsmouth as a child with our family ten years earlier for Nova Scotia. So went back to old haunts and toured Victory and took the hovercraft. Noisy and a little scary getting back on the beach in Southsea at low tide. Took four attempts as it was pretty steep at low tide, and the "driver" finally took a great big run at it. You remember these things as it all semed rather sketchy! Translation, we began to wonder if we were going to make it at all!
Later took the big Hovercraft from both Dover and Ramsgate to France and or Belgium, can't remember, fast noisy and rough.

As a kid used to ride the ferry to Isle of Wight from Southsea Pier. The Shanklin was a prop ship, but I preferred the paddleships, so old-fashioned -- that would be in the 1950s. You'd get to Ryde, have an ice cream and go back, nothing much to do in those days unless you had money. Ryde was full of tour coaches and cafes and little else back then. The ferry trip was the day's highlight. I used to go down below and watch the steam engine driving the paddles, duuno if that's why I studied mechanical engineering but it didn't hurt. Fun days and then the penny slot games on Southsea Pier after you got back and then took the electric trolley bus to the North End of Portsmouth where we lived.

Good memories.

In was on the south side of the Isle of Wight for a couple of days many years ago. There were thatched cottages there which I find fascinating. We don't have anything like that in Canada

I remember that my sister had visited the Isle of Wight and bought home a small clear plastic light house with layers of the colored sands that she'd collected from the cliffs.

Although Ryde is an interesting place, there is a lot to see on the IOW. Carisbrooke Castle, Bembridge windmill, The Needles, various seaside towns and villages, steam railway and museum.

My partner had our honeymoon on the Isle of Wight and we really enjoyed Osborne House where Queen Victoria spent most of her life after Prince Albert died. It is fascinating as the original house designed by Albert (with assistance) has two wings added to it where in one wing the British government had offices to do work and the other has the Durbar Room – which has some wonderful Indian architecture. It was designed as a beach holiday home for the royal family so there are lots of space for the children to play and a beach.

Never been on the Isle of Wight, but I did cross the English Channel on a hovercraft. Fascinating, but it was like being inside a washing machine... Or the dryer rack for sneakers, that doesn't move.
I took the ferry back to England 😅

Love the 'Southsea Hovercraft', in the 1970's when i was a kid, the Southsea Hovercraft back then was so noisy, and if the wind was in the right direction, you could hear it from Gosport.

Appleby tower? It's APPLEY Tower!